Canterbury Software Summit rescheduled

Canterbury Software Summit rescheduled to 26 October

When: Tuesday 26 October
Time: 12:15pm - 7:00pm (nibbles and drinks provided)
Where: Hotel Grand Chancellor, Christchurch
Cost: Free for Canterbury Software Cluster members. $80 for non-members.
Register: Visit www.canterburysoftware.org.nz

Press release, 5-Oct-10,

Canterbury Software Cluster, Christchurch, New Zealand: The Canterbury Software cluster’s earthquake postponed Software Summit has been rescheduled for Tuesday 26 October at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, Christchurch.

Every year the Software Summit gets bigger and better, and this year is no exception. With a wealth of prominent business and technology speakers the Summit has become a key and much anticipated event on New Zealand’s technology calendar.

In the Business Stream attendees will get valuable insights and lessons from successful technology entrepreneurs including:

Steve Kingston, Tait Radio Communications
Grant Gibson, TracMap
Mike Carden, Sonar6
Peter Dickinson, Greentree
Hans Schuitman, Shape Technology
Charlotte Walshe, Dynamic Controls

There is also an extended Technical Stream focussing on key development issues with presentations on iPhone and other mobile platforms, agile development, building SaaS products, and developing for the Google platform. Our technical speakers are:

Edwin Dando, Clarus
John Ascroft / Hadley Trounson, Jade
Evan Williams, Letstrade
Andrei Link, Trimble
Mike Riversdale, WaveAdept

Andrew Holden editor of The Press will be our opening keynote speaker. And Don Rae of NZTE has kindly volunteered to be our MC for the day.

Networking is, of course, one of the major highlights of the Summit, and organisers have ensured plenty of opportunity for attendees to mingle with others in the technology sector.

Canterbury Software committee member and communications manager Shelley Grell says, “The aim of the Software Summit, which has been running annually since 2002, is to encourage growth of the ICT industry by sharing examples of successful innovation, commercialisation and export.

“We are seeing amazing response and support for the Summit this year, and this is reflected in the high quality of our speakers and sponsors. Well over 200 people registered for the Summit last year, and judging from the increasing attendance we are experiencing at our monthly cluster events, we expect this year’s Software Summit to be another record success.”

As a non profit incorporated society the Canterbury Software Cluster couldn’t have organised this event without the generosity of sponsors and prize givers. We’d like to recognise and give our huge thanks to JOOB, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, IBM, the Canterbury Development Corporation, Clarus, Unlimited Magazine, Liquidity and Dancing Water for helping us to bring together some of the country’s brightest hi-tech stars to share their experiences and help reenergise businesses and individuals at the Software Summit.

We’d also like to thank everyone on the Canterbury Software committee who have gone beyond the call of volunteer duty to ensure a top-notch event that is set to provide valuable learning and industry networking opportunities for all.

The Canterbury Software Summit 2010 opens at 12.15pm on 26 October at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Christchurch, with presentations running in two parallel streams (business and technical) between 12.30pm and 5.30pm. Drinks, networking and a prize-draw will follow between 5.30pm and 7.00pm. The cost to attend is free for Canterbury Software members and $80 for non-members.

Event Programme

Business Stream (Chancellor 1) Technical Stream (Chancellor 2)
12:15 Registration & Opening address
12:30 Andrew Holden, The Press
12:55 Sponsor - JOOB
13:15 Steve Kingston, Tait Radio Communications 13.15 Edwin Dando, Clarus
13:45 Grant Gibson, TracMap 13.45 John Ascroft / Hadley Trounson, Jade
14:15 Break – refreshments and networking 14:15 Break - refreshments and networking
14:35 Sponsor – CDC 14:35 Sponsor – Clarus
14:45 Mike Carden, Sonar6 14.45 Evan Williams, Letstrade
15:15 Peter Dickinson, Greentree 15:15 Andrei Link, Trimble
15:45 Break - refreshments and networking 15:45 Break - refreshments and networking
16:05 Hans Schuitman, Shape Technology 16:05 Mike Riversdale, WaveAdept
16:40 Sponsor - NZTE
16:55 Charlotte Walshe, Dynamic Controls
17.30 Drinks & Networking – Sponsor IBM

Speakers

Business Stream

Andrew Holden, The Press
Andrew Holden has been the Editor of The Press for two and a half years, and prior to that was its deputy editor for four years. Originally from Melbourne, he has 30 years experience in journalism, from daily newspapers to community titles and magazines in three countries.

Steve Kingston, Tait Radio Communications
Steve has been the Development Manager for Tait Radio Communications since 2001, and among many other development projects, has overseen the development of the company's first range of digital air-interface products and systems, targeted at the Public Safety market. Prior to joining Tait in 1997, Steve headed Telecom’s Mobile Radio Engineering group and was the driving force behind the establishment and operation of New Zealand’s first nationwide public access mobile radio system, Fleetlink.

Charlotte Walshe, Dynamic Controls
Charlotte Walshe is the CEO of Dynamic Controls, a New Zealand based medical device company owned by US Home Medical company Invacare Corp (NYSE: IVC). Dynamic Controls is the leading global designer/manufacturer of electronic control systems for power wheelchairs and mobility scooters. It is also one of Australasia’s largest Contract Electronics manufacturers, specialising in high tech, turn-key solutions for Australasia’s leading innovators and exporters, with NZ$100M turnover and 360 staff.

Grant Gibson, TracMap
Grant Gibson has been the General Manager of TracMap New Zealand for the past three years. Since joining TracMap in 2007, the company has grown to be the largest provider of GPS systems into New Zealand agriculture, and won a number of awards, including the 2010 New Zealand Hi-Tech award for Emerging Company, and the 8th fastest growing company in the 2009 New Zealand Deloitte fast 50. Prior to joining the TracMap team, Grant has had 12 years in senior financial positions, including five years as Head of Finance for Westpac New Zealand.

Mike Carden, Sonar6
Sonar6 was founded in 2004 based on the idea that performance management should be simple and rewarding. The first generation of the Sonar6 toolset was launched in February 2006. Growth since then has been rapid. Sonar6 now has customers all around the world and is well known as the innovator in Human Resource software.

Mike Carden is a Sonar6 Co-founder, Director, and GM Sales and Marketing. He originally trained in Artificial Intelligence but ended up spending much of his career in consumer marketing for global corporations. Mike has worked in over 20 countries. His big claims to fame include establishing a number one market share position for HP as they launched their Pavilion home PC in Asia/Pacific and crashing a plane into the sea.

Peter Dickinson, Greentree
Peter Dickinson is a Director and Chief Executive of Greentree International, and a Director of AintoG. Greentree is a local company that specialises in developing effective financial and business management software for medium sized enterprises. For over 20 years, through a widespread, dedicated Business Partner Network, Greentree's products have been chosen by and successfully enhanced the operations of more than 10,000 organisations.

Peter has a 37 year track record in the technology industry covering NZ, Australia and international activity with extensive involvement in the product and market development of NZ technology products. His previous role, General Manager - Marketing and Strategy for Gen-i Limited, involved taking a lead role in the strong growth of one of NZ's leading technology companies. Prior to this Peter provided management consulting services to organisations ranging from medium sized, privately owned technology companies to large multi-national corporations. In 1991, he founded the NZ Software Exporters Association (now NZSA).

Hans Schuitman, Shape Technology
Hans Schuitman arrived in New Zealand with his family at the age of 13, speaking no English. Almost two years later, he ditched secondary school to join another institution - the 'School of Life'. At age 24, he had achieved the position of chief design engineer at one of New Zealand's iconic companies, electricity solutions manufacturer PDL. In 1971 Hans left the corporate world to return to his own home workshop and set about creating some 13 successful business concepts and companies.

Shape Technology became one of the flagship brands under the broader Schuitman Group umbrella. Shape designs and manufactures technology components and products for the electronic industry. The company has a hand in making human interactive, multi-purpose touch screen technology products as well as security systems and prison-cell doors. Robotic systems and solutions are also part of the repertoire along with vehicle parking control systems including multi-bay parking meters. The export base is growing and Shape alone enjoys annual growth of between 35-50%.

Technical Stream

Edwin Dando, Clarus
Title: Agile Thinking
Software is a complex endeavour; it has unknown unknowns. Innovative solutions are often the result of environments that foster multiple perspectives - i.e. creative, scientific, engineering etc. However software projects are often managed by mechanical process thinking. Why? Would the iPhone have been developed in a production line environment? In this introduction to Agile thinking, Edwin will ask why the IT industry attempts to manage highly complex environments with methods that are based on predictability and will demonstrate the underlying philosophies that are changing how software projects are managed.

Edwin Dando is the Managing Director of Clarus. In 2002 Edwin moved from being a developer to a project manager overnight. Coming from a background mixed in creativity and science, he immediately saw serious downfalls in how software projects were being managed. Seeking ways to address this he discovered Scrum. Since then he has been actively applying Scrum and other Agile practices, helping many software teams across New Zealand improve how they function. Edwin is a Certified Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Practitioner and a PMP. His company Clarus has grown steadily since inception in 2006 and has recently been selected by Dr Jeff Sutherland (the inventor of Scrum) to become the exclusive NZ Scrum partner. Edwin is actively involved in the international Agile community and is known for his passion for improving how the software industry functions.

John Ascroft & Hadley Trounson, Jade
Title: Developing for the iPhone: Innovation and Usability
Many believe that the introduction of the iPhone brought about a fundamental shift in the usability, functional abilities, and expectations of phone and PDA users. However along with this shift came a new challenge: how to develop for this revolutionary platform? Join John Ascroft, Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) of Jade Software Corporation, and Hadley Trounson, a member of Jade's development team as they take you through the iPhone environment and its focus on user-centric design and market driven innovation. The Jade team will also outline the total shift in developmental paradigm encountered, plus their experiences in introducing the new platform and the technical development challenges encountered along the way.

John Ascroft is Jade's Chief Innovation Officer, responsible for the Jade High Performance Technology division and the corporate Innovation program. John has been at Jade since 1983 and has held a variety of technical and management roles in the research, development and marketing areas, including a one year assignment as VP North America based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Hadley Trounson has been a member of the Jade team since 2008, working with both the Jade and JOOB technologies. Hadley participated in the iPhone Application competition run by Jade in 2009, where he learnt about iPhone application development, deployment and marketing.

Evan Williams, Letstrade
Title: Building a SaaS application from the ground up
Evan Williams is Chief Software Architect for Christchurch based SaaS start-up Letstrade International Ltd. Evan is originally from South Africa, and has worked around the world for companies in the UK and New Zealand, in both consultant and in-house software development roles - mainly involved in the financial and government sectors.

Evan's talk will be about the Letstrade team's experiences over the last year of building a globally targeted, cloud-deployed SaaS ERP system, in particular looking at some of the challenges faced with latency, scaling and availability to satisfy 24/7 customer demands. He will also talk about some of his findings on running an agile self-organising team and what needs to be done in order to keep delivering regularly and in an environment that is both fun and satisfying.

Andrei Link, Trimble
Title: Developing and marketing mobile phone applications - challenges and opportunities
Whether you are in business-to-business or business-to-consumer markets, developing for mobile phones is undeniably a huge opportunity. The presentation is intended for companies starting to navigate the challenging landscape of mobile software development and will provide an overview of technical and marketing issues inherent in developing applications for leading platforms including iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Nokia.

Andrei Link is the Marketing Manager for the Trimble Outdoors family of location-based applications from Trimble - a leading provider of advanced solutions utilising positioning, software and wireless technologies. Trimble Outdoors applications are available on the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Nokia and other platforms, and have been translated into Western European languages. Andrei has worked for Trimble in several software development and marketing positions. He is a certified Google Advertising Professional and Project Management Professional, and holds an MBA degree specialising in marketing and finance.

Mike Riversdale, WaveAdept
Title: Developing for the Google platform
Mike Riversdale (aka Miramar Mike) has been working in, with and against IT departments from all types of organisations around the world for nearly 20 years. His passion is connecting people with usable information - helping organisations collaborate, through clear communication and online collaboration. Mike co-founded Wellington-based WaveAdept with Dave Livesey in 2009.

Mike is a well-known evangelist for the Google platform and will be presenting and demonstrating Google's Developer Tools and APIs, what's out there right now and where it's going in the future.

- Ends -

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