Mōrena koutou ITP members and supporters, I am floating around in a very happy space this morning after the wonderful Emily Blythe won the Innovator of the year award last night at the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year event.

Emily and I first met when Mike Riversdale and I paired up to mentor her Young Enterprise team as they developed their Flatpak idea - an invention designed to secure the load on a quad bike to improve safety. Emily left school and with Mike and I as investors the three of us ran this fabulous wee business for a few years. Watching Emily develop as a young entrepreneur was such a privilege, she is determined and hard working. So when we wound Flatpak up so she could pursue her latest venture Pyper Vision we were both thrilled to have been close to the Emily magic for a short time helping her get started. (Mike, Emily and I below). 

I don’t usually pay much attention to these awards but how awesome were they this year, Trans activist Shane Lal winning Young New Zealander and Professor Rangi Mātāmau winning New Zealander of the year. 

Quick aside - working to support future generations is incredibly rewarding. I wrote a quick blog last night on Talking Tech in School as a mechanism for opening young minds to the possibilities of our industry. The ITP team are in the process of lining up talks in schools for next term and are looking for a diverse range of volunteers, so have a think? Is this you? Have you got a story to tell? 

AI dominated the tech news again this week. Elon Musk and others called for a holt to training of AI engines, Peter’s editorial addresses this with an argument we shouldn’t hit pause on AI, we should regulate it’s use now. Every nation is grappling with this but as Peter points out here in Aotearoa NZ “RNZ reported this week that an AI strategy for Aotearoa won’t be in place until at least 2025 - regulation will take even longer. We are way behind the ball already. We’ve had years to prepare for this and we’ve effectively done nothing.”

Sticking with AI news we also read how it could replace 300 million knowledge worker jobs, I’ve been hearing that my job will be automated since I joined the workforce so like the BBC reporter says “… all firm predictions should be taken with a very large pinch of salt". Also worth a mention is how ChatGPT is helping scammers write better phishing scam emails correcting their grammar and spelling - so we all need to be on alert. 

Brendan’s cartoon this week sums all of this kōrero up nicely. 

In sadder news for our industry Gordon Moore, the Intel and Fairchild Semiconductor co-founder and creator of Moore's Law, died aged 94. In simple terms Moore's Law states that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years. The law claims that we can expect the speed and capability of our computers to increase every two years because of this, yet we will pay less for them. Another tenet of Moore's Law asserts that this growth is exponential. He made this observation in 1965 and nearly 60 years later it’s still proving to be true. 

Looking for a fantastic course to enrol in? Our CIO Course is coming up, it’s run as a series over a number of weeks and focuses on governance, strategy, leadership, security governance and all of those great skills we need to enhance our careers in this industry. With a small cohort of participants one of the best parts is working with a diverse range of peers. Simon Lloyd-Evans one of the CIO’s who deliver the course, wrote this overview last year, we need 8 participants and the course starts on May 26th. I have spoken to past attendees who all rave about the experience so do please check it out. You can register here or email us with any questions [email protected] 

In general news from the industry, average salaries in our industry are up to $111,737 according to the seek data published in a recent report on how those in low-paying sectors experienced the biggest wage growth in the past three years. The Latitude Financial hack gained personal information of 14 million Australians and it has emerged 1 million NZ drivers licenses and 34,600 NZ passports were also stolen. 

While I am in a good news kind of mood - how awesome is it that there is now a Menopause Tech industry emerging. It’s awesome for women who are struggling to manage their symptoms and also fantastic that a new phase of women leading technology companies is emerging with this. 

I have had a busy week with ITP members, one of these was catching up with our Fellows to discuss some of the bigger issues facing the industry, and the world - global economic stability and climate change for instance. Coming up this week we have Tech Chat Tuesday online, the Wellington Branch is co-hosting a Cyber Security skills shortage event with Whitecliffe, and the Nelson ITP community is getting together for a Curry night. 

If you have an awesome project you would like us to shine a light on please get in touch. Ngā manaakitanga (with best wishes), Vic