Christchurch as an attractive location for tech sector businesses

One thing I often hear about is that no-one really knows about Christchurch and the great companies that are doing awesome things here. This has an impact on the talent attraction and retention issue talked about by @terrypaddy @austenrainer and @paulswettenham as well as potentially attracting business and investment. Is this something that others see? Are other locations doing it well and why? What are some of the things we can do to do this better?

We ran a focus groups yesterday on improving Christchurch's attractiveness and opportunities in the high-tech manu value chain. Lots of the same points around talent / people attraction and quality of life, co-working space were raised. We had an interesting discussion about the global trend for large corporates to seek innovation and solutions outside rather than operating their own large R&D departments. We've got examples of Christchurch businesses engaging successfully in this area. It seemed to build on a reputation (esp in hardware) of NZ/Chch businesses having broad capability, being adaptive/flexible and solution orientated. Does this resonate in the ICT area as well? Is this a business-specific opportunity or could we explore it at a city/cluster/collaborative level?

Again, I'll respond to a few comments. I am interested in @terrypaddy's suggestion of the job+OE. As he recognises, I'm not sure how that would work, particularly for younger employees who may not have the maturity to manage themselves :-). I'm also interested in his idea around some kind of exchange, although again not sure how that would work. (My assumption is that we are exploring ideas here and not prematurely judging them.)

I agree about the importance of work culture (@stevedavis) and I think that the remuneration package isn't necessarily just about salary (what about employee shares in a company, for example - that might help to put down some roots with the company? Could we have some kind of concept of a 'share' in Chch...?)

On @helenshorthouse point that no-one knows about Christchurch: I knew about it mainly through visiting NZ and Chch several years back. I don't think I would have considered University of Canterbury without some prior knowledge and experience of it, so I think Chch could do something about raising awareness of what Chch has to offer. This relates to how to attract people to Chch; a different issue is how to retain Chch local people.

On @annaelphick comment: my sense is that corporates want a mix of outsourcing to startups (an opportunity for Chch) and recruiting employers (possibly a threat). I wonder therefore if there's a way of attracting corporates to set up some presence in Chch so that they can engage with the tech startups here.

@terrypaddy I like the sounds of both the “work overseas but still for us” and exchange program ideas. If companies could easily display their credentials to potential grads that they provided both of these options (eg in their job ads with a recognisable logo or accreditation - similar to a 'We accept Via' logo in a restaurant), it would be a simple way to capture a candidates interest initially and would help retain them longer-term. If the candidate stays in his/her job for 1 - 2 years in Chch, she/he then can work overseas for a period and return to their job here etc etc.

With regards to the exchange idea - bringing in grads from overseas will help create a tangible buzz in Chch. Rather than our grads having to head overseas to meet foreigners, bring our overseas friends here. Places like Queenstown and Sydney are exciting for people in their 20s because there is a steady flow of new people from different backgrounds to mix with. Chch is seeing a bit of this now with the offshore talent working on the rebuild here and I've heard only good reports from locals who enjoy their being here. It will help plug a talent gap and increase Chch's global exposure, but there are broader benefits as well to forging international exchanges with like-minded cities and organisations such as increasing the 'buzz' or excitement around the place.

Talent is a perennial problem. For 30 years we've been trying to work out strategies to address shortages of (especially) technical skills. At the same time we've grappled with under-employment of people who've undergone technical training or have existing technical skill and experience. We usually finesse this as 'matching' skills development to skills need. We don't seem to be getting that much better at it. The new ICT grad school is another step and it's close proximity to some of our tech businesses a good one.

New Zealand is now, more than ever, a talent exchange. Consider that 1 million Kiwis live overseas, and 1 million of our fellow Godzone-dwellers were born somewhere else. The very dynamics that draw our young talent off our shores (bright lights, big cities, exciting prospects) are the same ones that draw others here (quiet life, great environment, less stress). We probably don't make enough use of either of those millions but once again we are dealing with individual choices. By being aware of the dynamics of this exchange we can perhaps learn how to benefit from it rather than bemoan it.

While this is a long-standing phenomenon, there are some new twists. One (perhaps not so new) is that a general shortage of talent may be promoting unproductive competition for talent within the region. Again, this is the product of the individual actions of enterprises and requires them to consciously try and change.

Secondly is that while we've been used to the imperatives forcing manufacturing to move off-shore, that's now happening with what we used to think of as high-value activities like coding. Is this a threat or an opportunity for our enterprises?

Third, there's now some growing competition between the 'durables' and the 'disposables' for talent. (I was tempted to call these 'anchors' and 'pop-ups' but thought this new strategy initiative is an excellent time to put away post-quake parlance). Mirroring US trends where grads increasingly turn down jobs at Microsoft, Oracle and Google for places in newly-funded start-ups with ambitious prospects. We're rightly pleased with our own budding start-up culture but we need to make sure that we don't feed it at the expense of our warhorses.

Just picking up on the query from @annaelphick about the potential clusters or niches in Christchurch....we had some comments in our focus group yesterday about the strength of the agritech sector; we have the Hit Lab in the University with interactive/augmented reality; Wynyard (@craigrichardson1) is developing skills around cyber security and data analytics. Are these clusters you see? What else? Can we leverage these better?

Re clusters and niches: Yes, we're really fond of these aren't we, and that approach has served us well in the past. But clustering around content areas can be impeded by perceived competition issues or weakened by groupthink. Given some comments in the other thread, perhaps its more fruitful to consider some clustering around geographical market interest (given the distinct characteristics and challenges) or around enterprise 'stage' (e.g. nascent, emerging, growth, steady state)

I've been watching the thoughtful treads over the week and have a couple of comments to add. In surveys of top issues to tech sector all around the world (including Silicon Valley) are access to talent and capital. I think getting our share of talent is the most important issue - if lots of innovative interesting people live here we will thrive - if they don't we wont. So what is our competitive advantage for talented people that can mostly live anywhere they want? It has to be the lifestyle primarily. Most cities our size also do not have over a million visitors passing through - if they knew the cool things going on in town maybe a few more would stay and invigorate the tech sector further? If you are every hiring some from out of town and it doesn't work out let them know there are lots of other cool things in town.....

With regards to the best markets to tackle, use of IP, how to start etc - there is no correct answer as it all depends. There are successful examples of almost any way of doing things - I've never been clever enough to know but try things quickly and cheaply to test what may work.

I used to think NZ companies could never compete on capital intensive tech opportunities but Xero has proved me wrong. I used to think we had to focus on relatively simple technologies for that reason too. In the past I specifically said we are not going to have a rocket company here but there is a very real, very well funded proposal to build a seriously cool space launch facility in Canterbury - anything seems possible....

Lastly anyone playing in this space has my huge admiration - it is very hard but very rewarding. Hats off to you all.

The clustering idea you mention @iandouthwaite is interesting, especially as tech companies go global really early. What sort of challenges and opportunities could clustering present - including for business model, market validation, competitor analysis?

How are these opportunities and challenges different from opportunities for companies going it alone?

@paulswettenham talked about using the talent that comes out of the tertiaries - what role could the tertiaries and research institutions play in making Christchurch a great place for tech businesses?