Founded by Max Farndale 1947 - 2018
2 Nov - A recruitment agency specialising in finding cryptocurrency and blockchain talent has opened in Sydney. Crypto Recruit has set up shop with the belief that it is the first in the world to offer such niche IT recruitment services, said founder Neil Dundon. “The idea was to get some first mover advantage in the market,” Dundon told Business Insider.
“Nowadays there seems to be general pub talk [about cryptocurrencies] — people are just talking about it all the time and it’s just mental at the moment. So three or four months ago I had the idea: why don’t I couple my passion for cryptocurrency and blockchain… with my skills in recruitment?”
The venture is in its early days so Dundon, who has 13 years experience in the IT recruitment and education sector, is currently busy developing a network of recruiters around the world to find blockchain talent.
But he’s already fielded much interest from the tech industry.
“There really are very few blockchain developers in the world at the moment,” he said.
“There is demand out there at the moment. I’m getting very positive feedback on it. But it’s in it’s infancy stages, so I’m really there to build a brand and help these blockchain projects from a staffing perspective.”
With such a shortage of skills, recruitment for cryptocurrency and blockchain developers can sometimes be a matter of hiring graduates or developers with different backgrounds then upgrading their skills.
And those willing to learn can “make a premium” on top of standard technology salaries, according to Dundon.
“A lot of these projects raised a lot of money from their initial coin offerings and they need to move quickly. So just by the very market forces alone, and the speed to which they have to develop, there can be a premium on top.”
Dondon, who established the Bondi business after becoming a cryptocurrency investor himself earlier this year, already has three employees based both in and out of Australia.
“There’s a whole paradigm shift in front of our eyes and a lot of people aren’t even realising it.”
| A BusinessInsider release || November 2, 2017 |||
1 Nov - Gartner analysts share insights on how organisations can scale in the digital era, but warn not everyone can make it through this change. Digital is already reshaping industries, says Val Sribar, senior vice president at Gartner. But there is a certain point where affected industries drastically need to take action. Once digital revenues for a sector hits 20 per cent of total revenue, the shakeout begins, he says.
This happened to the retail sector in 2005, when traditional stores were in denial about online shopping.
They thought everybody wanted to buy clothes in the stores, but customers flocked to online stores like Amazon.
Today, Amazon is the largest clothing retailer in the United States.
For the clothing industry, disruption is the new black, says Sribar, speaking at the keynote this week at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in the Gold Coast.
“This lesson in retail applies to every industry everywhere,” says Sribar. “Twenty per cent is the point of no return.” He says winners are alreading emerging, but some organisations will not make it through the digital shift.
The new competitors and disruptorsSribar says disruptors are finding new opportunities and are attacking the weaknesses of incumbent businesses.
They are serving unmet customer demands, finding ways to use excess capacity in the supply chain, employ new platforms for awareness and marketing and capitalise on new distribution channels.
Digitalisation also exposes the weakness of the incumbents, as new entrants offer more choices, and better customer experience and price.
Sribar points out incumbents who are not standing still amidst this disruption, are using new digital KPIs for the business, such as the Gartner Digital IQ Index to analyse their brand’s presence in social media, e-commerce, digital marketing and mobile.
Sribar says these organisations measure how many ecosystems they participate in, and the conversion rates in each.
Digital asks for deeper outcome-driven measures and this applies to all industries, including government, he says.
“If you don’t create new efficiencies, new value or new ways to engage with customers and constituents, you are destined to fall behind.”
He proffers three ways organisations can scale in the digital era.
First is to scale up by gaining efficiencies. Second is to scale across by taking capabilities learned from one nit to another, while creating a culture that rapidly learns and adapts. Third is to scale out by combining growth and speed that comes with digitalisation.
He says in this new environment, there will be high demand for skills in three areas - artificial intelligence (AI), digital security and Internet of Things.
Continue here to read the full article on CIO || November 1, 2017 |||
31 Oct: Building consents for new homes fell in September 2017, following a recent run of increases, Stats NZ said today. “The seasonally adjusted number of new homes consented fell 2.3 percent in September compared with August, after rising in each of the previous four months,” prices, accommodation, and construction senior manager Jason Attewell said. “Home consents have trended upwards recently, and are at a level last seen in 2004.”Some 2,770 new homes were consented in September 2017, up 6.0 percent compared with the same month in 2016.
On an annual basis, 30,892 new homes were consented in the September 2017 year – up 3.0 percent compared with the September 2016 year, despite a large fall in Canterbury. The national increase was driven by townhouses and apartments, with slight falls for retirement village units and houses.
The regions consenting the most new homes in the September 2017 year were:
Auckland – 10,317 new homes (up 2.9 percent from the September 2016 year) Canterbury – 5,122 new homes (down 18 percent as the post-quake rebuild continues to wind down, but still at a historically high level) Waikato – 3,596 new homes (up 1.7 percent) Bay of Plenty – 2,596 new homes (up 4.8 percent).
Note: We have improved the way we calculate the seasonally adjusted number of new homes consented. We now include an adjustment for the timing of Easter. As a result, the seasonally adjusted increase in the number of new homes consented in August 2017 has been revised down from 10 percent to 5.9 percent. For more information, see Building consents issued seasonal adjustment and trend changes in September 2017 on DataInfo+.
| A SyaysNZ release || October 31, 2017 |||
31 Oct: The word “FinTech” (financial technology) has been thrown around as of late by hundreds, if not thousands, of startups looking to capitalize on the e-commerce coverage that the growing industry has been receiving. A FinTech, according to definition, is a company that uses new technology in the financial world. Originally, it was a term used to define the back end technology of established financial institutions.
Today, the term is used much more broadly and includes new financial technologies, such as Bitcoin, various e-wallet apps and capital marketplaces like Kickstarter. These companies attempt to disrupt the established financial sector and conventional financial channels by offering services that eliminate the need to use their older counterparts. Other interesting developments in the sector can be found in the insightful infographic the fellows at Play-N-Play have assembled.
Contrary to popular belief, the first truly successful FinTech companies have been around since the turn of the millennium. Some were even around since the late 90’s. The first FinTech to truly become a global financial giant out of this sector is none other than PayPal.
Today, PayPal is worth over 80 billion dollars and is, according to Forbes magazine, the 193rd biggest public company on the planet. Though this success has been nearly 18 years in the making, the rise of PayPal to global domination in the industry it pioneered has not been all smooth sailing.
PayPal was started in 1998 and was voted the worst idea of the year in 1999. The financial and venture capital firms assumed the payment processor would never be able to penetrate the market due to the immense size and market share of its competitors Visa, MasterCard and Amex.
PayPal began to convert users who found the payment system streamlined in the relatively new e-commerce experience and offered a cheaper price point for merchants than Visa, MasterCard and other conventional payment processing systems.
In 2000, PayPal had its initial meeting with eBay, a marketplace for auctioning goods. eBay was attracted to the growing user base and thought PayPal could be an asset to their business model. By 2001, PayPal began its impressive user growth and hit 100,000 users, a number that began to shake up the financial markets and bring attention to the growing FinTech sector.
In 2002, less than 4 years after being founded, PayPal had its IPO (Initial Public Offering) and immediately grew 55%, becoming NASDAQ’s biggest gainer amongst newly listed companies. eBay, immediately spotting the ecommerce growth, purchased a controlling interest in PayPal for 1.5 billion dollars.
Continue to the full release on ECN || October 31, 2017 |||
31 Oct: The Science for Technological Innovation (SfTI) National Science Challenge Board is providing $2m of funding for a project to develop adaptable, cheaply reconfigured, rapidly deployed ‘workforce’ robots able to learn from their environments. Project will examine how robotics can deliver an economic boost to NZ writes Stuart Corner for Computerworld New Zealand. SfTI said the project would take a long-term view and examine how robotics could provide solutions for New Zealand’s economic needs.
Specifically, the programme will look into automated and autonomous technologies for small scale, high value, production; delve into ‘learning’ robots; and look at how robots can operate in rugged outdoor environments.
“Researchers will seek to develop new paradigms in robot autonomy and adaptability, including predictive environmental sensor fusion, and automatic improvement of AI-based interpretation of data,” according to SfTI.
The research group will also investigate workforce robots that could ‘communicate’, learn, and collaboratively work alongside humans, and investigate ‘non-written cues’, and the use of icons to communicate and exchange information.
SfTI said the collaborative structure of the research project across academic, commercial and industrial manufacturing sectors would create a dynamic network of information and expertise that will generate new knowledge, skills and revenue.
“From a commercial perspective the primary sector, including agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture and forestry, will directly benefit from the introduction of highly adaptable robots. Robust robots can assist in pre- and post-harvest processes eg cropping, pruning, monitoring nutrients in run off and leaching, and manage environmental inputs like precision agriculture and nutrient management,” SfTI said.
The project will involve researchers from Lincoln Agritech and SCION, as well as Auckland, Victoria, Massey, Canterbury and Otago Universities.
SfTI Director, Sally Davenport, said: “this is a forward-looking project aimed at underpinning future small-scale production of tailored, high value robots with wide application and an eye on export.”
Davenport said the projects brought to seven the number of spearheads projects funded since the SfTI Challenge launched two years ago with a $32.9m budget. SfTI had also funded a further 28 smaller high-risk, potentially high reward, SEED research projects in that time.
| An SfTI release || October 31, 2017 |||
Sharp & Tappin Technology, a precision engineering company based in Devon, will launch its new advanced composite plate saw at this years Advanced Engineering trade show, which is taking place in Birmingham this week.
The Compcut 200 represents the company’s developing interest in the growing home market for the precision cutting of composites. This new machine has been designed to offer composites R&D teams and test centres affordable access to an easy to use though inherently sophisticated and robust plate saw.
“From our long experience of tackling the challenges of composite machining and taking a good look at the market, convinced us that there was a niche for a unit like the Compcut 200,” said Ben Sharp, Managing Director at Sharp & Tappin.
“We are confident that the 200 offers a tremendous range of features and benefits at an affordable price – easy to use with the minimum of operator training yet capable of consistently delivering very high-quality cuts.”
According to the manufacturer, the Compcut 200 enjoys a host of well thought out features that include:
Sharp & Tappin’s expertise in precision composite cutting is appreciated by its customers. “Our Compcut saws give us the ability to quickly and repeatedly produce high quality test specimens with a near zero scrap rate, - in reality the resulting specimens exceed the requirements of the common International standards,” commented Paul Yeo, Technical Director at CTE (Composite Test & Evaluation Ltd).
“The latest generation Compcut saws produce specimens to such a high-quality edge finish that no post preparation of the specimens edges to remove machining marks is required – significantly reducing the amount of specimen preparation times, which offers our customers significant cost and timescale benefits.”
“Above all, the machines are very simple to use and it’s not necessary to be an experienced CNC machinist to operate the unit – within an hour of training you will be producing accurate specimens.”
| A Sharp&Tappin release || October 31, 2017 |||
Earlier this month Kiwibank announced it will launch another set of FinTech startups onto the global stage with its second FinTech accelerator. The inaugural FinTech accelerator resulted in several Kiwi FinTech start-ups gaining vital support, funding and expertise to build, launch and expand their products in New Zealand and world markets.
Kiwibank chief executive Paul Brock said the success of the first accelerator had encouraged Kiwibank and accelerator partners Callaghan Innovation and Creative HQ to launch version two of the innovative programme.
“The first accelerator saw exciting new Kiwi companies such as Sharesies, Accounting Pod and Tapi successfully launched to market."
“With the second accelerator, we’re looking to help even more startups capitalise on what is a $1 trillion global FinTech opportunity, and to further grow New Zealand’s FinTech ecosystem.”
The First Accelerator's Success
The inaugural Kiwibank FinTech Accelerator resulted in:
Mr Brock said V2 of the accelerator would take on an even stronger global focus. “This time we want to have a strong international flavour and we’re targeting exciting overseas ventures interested in basing their FinTech operations here in New Zealand." “There’s strong interest from startups in China, Korea and elsewhere to take part."
"It’s a win-win, given that New Zealand is perfectly placed to take a lead in FinTech globally by attracting the best and brightest overseas talent and capability to help us take our own FinTech ecosystem to the next level.”
About a quarter of the 12 startups to be selected for the accelerator could come from overseas, Mr Brock said. “Quite apart from the ability for Kiwi startups to experience the thinking and technology being applied in FinTech overseas, the global networking potential alone will be invaluable.”
Investment in Chinese FinTech was NZ$9.2bn in 2016 and it is home to the four most valuable FinTech companies in the world (Alibaba’s Ant Financial, Lufax, JD Finance and Qufenqi). There are more than 400 FinTech startups in South Korea with more than NZ$120m invested in FinTechs in 2016. Globally NZ$26.3bn was invested in FinTech companies in 2016.
Sharesies founder Sonya Williams said:“We got a huge amount out of being in the accelerator – mentorship, a space to work, great corporate support. But by far and away the biggest benefit was that the accelerator gave us the start date and support we needed take Sharesies from an idea and turn it into a successful business."
"The company is never going to get off the ground until this leap of faith is taken and we got that from the Kiwibank Fintech Accelerator”
The Kiwibank FinTech Accelerator will open for applications on October 2 and the 14 week pro-gramme will begin in February 2018 and finish with a Demo Day in May 2018.
Creative HQ CEO Stefan Korn said: “Being able to run another FinTech accelerator with Kiwibank and Callaghan Innovation is an excellent step in the right direction to put Kiwi FinTech on the map globally and to establish Wellington as New Zealand’s hub for innovation in the finance sector.”
Applications for the 2018 Kiwibank FinTech Accelerator 2.0 are now open! Click here to apply or for more information on New Zealand FinTech, head to nzfintech.kiwi. You can also read more on NZ FinTech companies making it big on the FinTech Talk section of inner.kiwi.
| A Kiwibank release || September 26, 2017 |||
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has published a commentary on initial coin offers (ICOs) and cryptocurrency services, alongside online resources for investors.
The FMA said it wanted to facilitate responsible innovation, and ensure that the regulatory regime remain relevant and agile. The FMA said this was supported by the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, that sets out one of its principle purposes is to “promote innovation and flexibility in financial markets”.
The FMA said it regularly engages with other regulators and industry bodies (both locally and internationally) on innovation and market flexibility. The FMA said its work in this area was part of an “ongoing effort to better understand, and share our views, on the risks and opportunities associated with technological change and innovation.
FMA said investors must understand the risks involved with cryptocurrencies and associated services before they invest.
“Most online exchanges are unregulated and operate exclusively online, with no connection to New Zealand. This means it is hard to find out who is offering, exchanging, buying or selling. It also makes it unlikely investors will recover their money if things go wrong. Using cryptocurrencies may make investors a target for scammers.
“Consumers need to be aware that cryptocurrencies are volatiles, their value can change quickly and they aren’t widely accepted in the same way as legal tender. The currency held in digital wallets is at risk of being stolen, just like a real wallet.”
| An NZ|Advisor release || October 26, 2017 |||
26 Oct: From the Mantra5 Blog - What initially began as a six month project has turned into a life changing experience for all involved. The Hydrofoil Bike was nominated, and won, Gold in the ‘Concept’ category at the 2017 New Zealand Best Design Awards. The win was great piece of validation for our design team. The whirlwind of attention we have had as a result of the awards has been all the more encouraging – especially given that was only our most recent prototype. Rest assured we will be entering the new and improved model into the 2018 Best Awards’ Consumer Product category.
For us, the awards ceremony was us a chance to take a step back from the pressures of finalising our pilot production model – to take a moment and reflect on the last six years. Over that time we’ve made some groundbreaking accomplishments, such as waterproofing electric bike motors and batteries, achieving hydroplaning efficiencies at high and low speed, and successfully performing the world’s first underwater submerged launch. It’s also a testament to a diehard Kiwi resilience and innovation.
“So many times we’ve had people tell us what we we’re trying to achieve couldn’t be done. That kind of feedback can really hit you hard…especially when it’s coming from an hydrodynamic expert.”Guy Howard-Willis | Co-Founder.
Now, with all the positive interest we’re really excited to begin our pre-sales and development of future models and components. But, we know we have to continue to be laser focused on production and commercialisation – to make this dream a reality.
The next step for us is revealing the pilot production model, the Hydrofoiler XE-1 at Big Boys Toys on November 10-12th, at Auckland Domain.
A final thank you to the Designers Institute of New Zealand for giving us a reason to reflect, and celebrate our successes to date.
| A Mantra5 Blog || October 26 2017 |||
26 Oct: The German industrial giant Siemens plans to merge its rail business with the French train equipment maker Alstom, the companies said Tuesday, creating a behemoth that can compete with the Chinese-state backed China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation. The combined company, Siemens Alstom, would make systems and equipment for two of Europe’s high-speed rail lines, Germany’s ICE and France’s TGV, which can zip between cities at about 185 m.p.h.
“We are creating a new European champion in the rail industry for the long term,” said Joe Kaeser, the chief executive of Siemens. “This will give our customers around the world a more innovative and more competitive portfolio.”
The European rail industry faces pressure from China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, which has been making an aggressive push to expand around the globe, including in the United States. It is part of China’s larger economic and geopolitical agenda that encourages its technology and infrastructure companies to seek foreign markets, refashioning the global economic order to draw countries and companies more tightly into the country’s orbit.
Continue here to read the full article published in the NYT September 27, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
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