N E W S BUILDING BLOCKS OF ENGINEERING NOW VIOLENT? 10 June 2016 Huge line-up of talent to help Kiwi exporters – Go Global ExportNZ’s annual national conference Go Global headlined exceptional speakers including the entrepreneur who started China’s largest business-to-business e-commerce site, Diane Wang of DHgate. DHgate is a platform for small to medium sized businesses to find international buyers. Diane Wang explained how DHgate worked and how New Zealand businesses can participate. Ms Wang has been a champion of small business and women in business in the wider APEC region and will bring valuable insights into e-commerce opportunities for New Zealand businesses. ExportNZ executive director Catherine Beard says Go Global was a master class of exporting excellence, including three ambassadors, US innovation guru Gary Bolles, and sessions on collaboration, marketing, social media and what the next generation want from their brands. “Market researchers are finding that Millennials have significantly different drivers in terms of how they view the world and what is important to them, and businesses that fail to understand them will miss the boat and have no idea why. Jaqueline Smart, head of planning at J Walter Thompson knows why - and shared this at Go Global,” Catherine Beard says. “New Zealand is a country of small to medium companies and this is true of the export sector as well. Even our biggest exporters are relatively small when compared to the multi-nationals they are competing with. “That is why innovation, strategic collaboration and marketing are all critical for Kiwi exporters to gain EXPORT NZ competitiveness and win market share.” VIDEO Kiwi robotic tech to take on Europe Kiwi company Invert Robotics, which uses robotics to revolutionise the way industrial tanks are inspected, is raising capital to expand into the European dairy market, and is in partnership discussions with a multi-billion euro turnover company over the use of its technology. Christchurch-based Invert Robotics invented a climbing robot using a world-first patented attachment technology. It enables faults in industrial tanks to be found remotely, increasing inspection accuracy and significantly reducing the risk of workplace accident. The robot uses advanced sensors to monitor its condition and high definition cameras to feed detailed inspection data instantly to an operator, who controls the robot standing safely outside the tank. Currently the robots are used in the New Zealand dairy industry to inspect the interior of stainless steel tanks and dryers, some up to six storeys high. The robots attach and drive up the inside walls of the tanks. The traditional method for carrying out these inspections has been to have people abseil from ropes inside the tanks, looking for cracks with torches. James Robertson, Invert Robotics ceo says that it is a very exciting time for the company. “To be sought out by this European company, who could find no equivalent technology anywhere else in the world, is a massive vote of confidence for Invert Robotics and the team that has supported and guided us. “We have been perfecting our inspection robots, working with trans-Tasman dairy companies, and over the past four years have carried out more than 250 inspections. We know we have a product that is truly market changing. “The next step is to expand offshore, serving the sectors we know well before we get into other industries. “We’re focusing on the European dairy market, because of its potential. Its size - at eight times New Zealand – and the high level of attention paid to health and safety, combine into a huge opportunity, making our robots an attractive and low risk option for tank inspection in that market." The company was founded by Robertson in 2010 in partnership with Powerhouse Ventures, a technology investment, business incubation and IP commercialisation specialist. Invert Robotics is partway through a capital raising, via trans-Tasman equity crowd funding platform Equitise. http://tinyurl.com/z8wvlba They are the building blocks of many an engineering career, but is Lego as we knew it a thing of the past and are we now feeding kids anger? Lego toy products have become significantly more violent in recent years, according to newly published research from the University of Canterbury. A cross-disciplinary team of researchers has identified that the increasing violence in Lego products seems to have gone beyond simply enriching game play. The results of 161 participants rating hundreds of catalogue pages showed that the violence of the depicted products increased significantly over that time. The chances of observing violence in a Lego catalogue pages has increased steadily by 19% per year. Currently, around 40% of all pages contain some type of violence., according to researchers. Not as you remember it? CANDIDATES TO GET GRILLED BY BUSINESS The tough questions are about to be put to Auckland mayoral contenders around how they will deliver more prosperity to the city.The first in this series is being held on Friday, June 17 and a second debate is planned for Thursday, September 8. Candidates will include Phil Goff, Victoria Crone and Mark Thomas. CAAA LAUNCHES WEBSITE The Compressed Air Association of Australasia (CAAA) has announced the launch of its new website at www. compressedair.net.au. Easy to navigate and more user friendly, the redesigned website includes a wealth of information to support manufacturers, suppliers and end users of air compressors operating in Australasia. The new CAAA website not only boasts a more user-friendly and mobile optimised design, but it also contains even more content to support the industry. The relaunched website includes a number of new sections including; Compliance and Education. IThe CAAA represents members from the air compressor and related industrial sectors in Australia and New Zealand.
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