In the fast-paced and ever-evolving technology industry, it’s not uncommon for professionals to find themselves thrust into the role of a project manager without formal training or prior experience.  These accidental project managers face unique challenges as they navigate the complexities of overseeing technology projects.   In this blog, we’ll touch on the world of accidental project managers in the technology industry, shedding light on their experience, knowledge gaps and providing practical advice, with the aim of empowering them to excel in their newfound role. What is an ..read more

The replacement of IT systems is necessary, especially in this fast-paced world of rapidly evolving technology. But for many staff members affected by the replacement, it means change and effort. We often forget about the customer impact because of changing systems. When systems are replaced, it disrupts the entire ecosystem within the company as well as for customers. This article will provide some insights into system replacement projects from a business stakeholder’s point of view and will provide some advice and guidance on how to navigate the change. Oscar Wilde said: “Experience is the n ..read more

As kids head back to school over the next few weeks there are two major factors affecting what is essentially the upstream future of our industry – it starts with kids becoming confident and interested in technology. I was having a conversation with Leon Maritz who volunteers to run code club at Ao Tawhiti school at the summit last year and he told me it happens between 8 and 11 years old. At 8 they say, coding, yeah I did that at school its fun” but by 11 years old if they haven’t had a try it’s more like. “Coding, that sounds hard , I couldn’t do that”. The confidence to try changes on a dim ..read more

We live in a world where women are still heavily underrepresented in leadership roles. Empowering them to step into their full potential is crucial. After attending Powrsuit’s enlightening 1-day Leadership workshop, it became evident that granting women permission to take up space could be the catalyst for transformative action. The two key elements that we explored and built on were understanding your strengths and your derailers. In defining both of these, we were able to lean into our leadership styles and take action quickly. Understanding your strengths. The first key element explored in ..read more

Trigger Warning : This is a bit technical lol Last month a small group of next-generation computing experts from around the world descended for the first time on Ōtautahi, Christchurch for the 11th Multicore World conference. I was curious to hear what a group of top technologists from household names like Microsoft, Google, Linux and top universities and computing research organisations were going to talk about in New Zealand. I was also wondering, would I understand any of it!  The beauty of the Multicore World crowd was the unique, relaxed “at home” atmosphere that organiser Nicolas Er ..read more

More and more companies are moving away from massive cloud service providers. Should you join them? It’s time to take another look at your hosting and infrastructure costs. For years a safe, default hosting decision worked well, or at least well enough, for all sorts of businesses. By promising resources on demand and “abstracting away” the actual hardware, hyperscale cloud services won customers from everywhere: enterprises emptied out their own data centres, and start-ups went cloud native on day one. Cloud services, supplied by some of the largest companies in the world, have almost become ..read more

One Year in! This month I was able to celebrate one year working at Canterbury Tech. It’s been an amazing year with so much to celebrate for our small but mighty team.  In the last 6 months we have seen the fruits of our hard work with an enviable 12% increase in memberships and that continues to grow month on month. This means there are always new and widening networks of technology people to meet and connect with at our events. Here’s a breakdown of what we’ve been up to: Events We’ve increased the frequency of our events and have been building on our Tech Tuesday brand by delivering ev ..read more

I know all too well how hard and slow it has been to turn government focus towards a National AI Strategy (or AI in general) through my past work as the Executive Director of the AI Forum.  The fact is, it’s now too late.  The ship has truly sailed and no amount of strategy will turn it around.  One of the only ways to prevent NZ becoming mass consumers of AI produced by countries with different values and ethics to our own, is for the private and public sector to come together to innovate NZ-made AI. We know the government has a lot of barriers to overcome in progressing their ..read more

It’s estimated that people will have 12 jobs during their lives and that people change their careers 5-7 times during their working life. More recently however, approximately 30% of the global workforce change jobs every 12 months.  Here are some stories from Learning People students who have done just that.  Coding and software development Computer programming started with women. From code breaking at Bletchley Park to engineering at NASA, female coders have changed the world. Sadly, programming today is seen as a male-dominated industry, but we’re working towards changing that. Wit ..read more

The epic growth of data roles in NZ business, and what it means for you. In retrospect, it seems obvious: rather than guessing what your customers want or where your business should focus its resources, use data to make informed decisions based on current and previous trends. But the use of data in NZ businesses is still only relatively new. Rachael Tobeck, Dev & Data Practice Lead for Crew in Christchurch, has seen this change and growth first-hand: “It’s only really been the last five years we’ve seen companies go from reluctant-to-invest to eagerly recruiting a data team as they’ve see ..read more