Great Coffee and Old Friends in London

Like most Kiwi’s I appreciate a good coffee which leads to one of my pet hates regarding travelling! There are very few places that make a coffee as well as my local cafe Bar Italia, Takapuna.

Having been in London for the last few days I made it my mission to hunt out Flat White a kiwi-run coffee shop in Soho – winner Independent Coffee Bar of the Year in the UK 2007 – Project Cafe07.

So there I was standing in line waiting to order a long awaited Latte and low and behold, in Soho, London I am standing behind William Tozer, an old friend from my days studying Architecture at Auckland University.

What a coincidence! William was recently featured in Architecture NZ as after having completed his studies he has been practicing Architecture in London for the last 12 years. Having read the article, I had thought I should look him up if I got the chance!

During the short wait for my coffee William and I caught up on 12 years!

The coffee and the catch up were both superb and I strongly recommend all Kiwi Coffee Lovers in London to make a visit to Flat White – you never know who you may bump into!

Business Planning – Make the Time!

Over the last three months the directors of The Cadimage Group have invested significant time into reviewing and renewing our business strategy.

While the cost of doing this, both in $ and time, is significant I can’t recommend it more highly.

As a small business owner there is the constant trap of getting caught in the busy’ness of business. As I have heard many times you have to “work on you business not in your business.”

To help us with this process we used Helen and Greg Cross of Cross Ventures. They bring an immense amount of knowledge and experience to the table and effectively we “chewed the fat” for a couple of days talking about our business and where it could go. Helen then put together a comprehensive overview of where we are and where we want to go along with a great financial model.

Having undertaken this process I found a huge amount of clarity in what we are doing and when attending the Morgo conference I found it easy to talk about what we do and where we are going.

I was pleasantly surprised to also be congratulated by a number of people for actually taking the plunge and investing in our strategic plan. To me, having completed the exercise it seems so logical to have done it, but again it is easy to get caught in the day to day running of your business and failing to come up for air and see where you are going.

Helen and Greg provide an awesome service and are there to check up on us as we move along our path so it is now time to start implementing and constantly reviewing.

On reflection my only regret is not doing this sooner!

Google Chrome – Create application shortcuts…

Google’s new browser Chrome was released today and while I haven’t had a great deal of time to put it through it’s paces I have certainly found it fast and like some of it’s features.

While traditional applications still exist there are an ever increasing number of web applications available.

Google Chrome provides a nice feature to allow you to Create application shortcuts…

This allows you to browse to a web application – take Xero for example – and have a short cut produced for your Desktop, Quick Launch Bar or Start menu.

Once the short-cut has been created you now simply click it to launch the application in a browser window without all the browser interface (address bar, bookmarks etc)

All good!

Morgo 08 – Segways and Jetpacks

I was fortunate to be invited to Morgo 08 an extremely rewarding experience where I was able to rub shoulders (network) with some of NZ’s best entreprenuers along with invisted guests from around the globe.

Jenny Morel, the founder of No8 Ventures and the Morgo concept, in a pre-event article in Unlimited magazine explained that she is always a little nervous in the lead up to Morgo and that she uses the noise level at the first networking dinner to determine if the event will be successful. Well the noise at ALL meals was almost deafening and I certainly sum up the overall event as a wonderful success.

Glenn Martin’s presentation regarding his recently released Jetpack was an amazing example of someone who has put his life into an idea. It was just a pity his jet pac was still stuck in the USA somewhere.

As always, the Segways proved popular and there was more than a little NZ/Aussie competitiveness when Scott Farquhar from Atlassian got up and going.

Photo courtesy of Morgo 08
Photo courtesy of Morgo 08

One of the main ‘rules’ at Morgo is “that everything that is discussed at Morgo stays at Morgo” This allows everyone to get a huge amount of value by being confident they can share commercially sensitive information in a forum where ideas can be explored freely and everyone has valuable input to offer.

That said, there have been a number of items published recently that follow on from the Morgo Conference:

Tech investor plans $100m fund to give start-ups a lift

Kiwi enterprise must graduate from bronze to gold

The National Business Review, Friday 5 September. By Mark Peart
Page 8.

Putting a rocket under the economy


The National Business Review, Friday 5 September. By Mark Peart
Page 8.

Jetpack looks to military for takeoff

The National Business Review, Friday 5 September. By Mark Peart
Page 7.

NZTE – Export Grant

Today I received confirmation that Cadimage Solutions have received  the NZTE Enterprise Development Grant – Market Develpoment for a second year.

This grant matches our Marketing Spending $ for $ (up to a limit) and is helps us develop our Cadimage Tools export business.

Running an online business and attraching customers is a challenging exercise. Having the support NZTE allows us to travel and meet customers and partners worldwide.

In the 8 months of this year we have already doubled last years sales and this can be directly attributed to the support with have received from NZTE.

Applying for a Grant of this nature is a challenge in itself which is why we used Helen Cross of Cross Ventures. For a small success fee Helen takes care of the entire application process and makes the process a breeze.

If you are New Zealand Export business make sure you maximise your investment by partnering with NZTE.

NZ Architect on World Stage

Recently Auckland ArchiCAD User Patterson Associates won one of three New Zealand Institute of Architects Supreme Awards for The Hills Clubhouse in Arrowtown.

Photographer: Simon Devitt
Photographer: Simon Devitt

This building along with his Maimai house in Auckland’s Ponsonby are now finalists in World Architecture Festival awards.

Other finalists include Beijing Olympics’ Water Cube swimming stadium, and London’s new Wembley Stadium.

You can read more at Stuff.