For the second year running, newspaper reports in Australia reluctantly admit that New Zealand is doing a much better job of promoting its ICT industry at CeBIT than Australia.
Most of the 30 Australian companies represented at the national pavilion were disappointed at being “out-blinged” by the Kiwis, says Melbourne’s The Age.
Sixteen New Zealand companies were represented at the world’s biggest ICT trade fair, CeBIT in Hannover, Germany, which wrapped up last week. This is the third time New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has hosted a New Zealand pavilion at CeBIT.
The business leads and transaction business for some of the attending companies is reported as very good, says Hans Frauenlob, ICT sector director of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. In addition, the media coverage has been positive, he says.
“Zephyr Technology was profiled on the BBC technology website on the first day of the show and [the company] has been almost inundated since with inquiries and interest in its smart fabric products,” Frauenlob says.
Zephyr’s products enable physiological and biomechanical monitoring out in the field by combining patented smart fabric sensor technology with algorithms and system design. Its customers are in the medical, defence and sports and wellness markets.
“In the sense of getting New Zealand on to the radar screen in terms of being a plausible place where technology can come from, I think CeBIT has served very well as a vehicle for that,” he says.
Most of the New Zealand companies exhibiting at CeBIT say their expectations have already been exceeded, says Frauenlob.
“In the coming weeks we’ll see how much of that translates into business.”
Some of the Kiwi companies present at CeBIT are 4RF Communications, HITLabNZ, HumanWare, Massive Software, Phitek, Rakon and Simworks.
IT minister David Cunliffe visited the fair.
“It is anticipated that deals will be struck [at CeBIT] that are potentially worth millions of dollars in export earnings,” he says.