Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Real contest looms for Auckland mayoralty, meeting between Sir Peter Jackson and PM Ardern revealed, and NZ First holding up climate change bill. A new contender has entered the arena for the mayoralty of Auckland, in the form of John Tamihere. The former Labour MP, talkback host, and … Read more
New Zealand’s film industry has always been about location, location, location, but what about everything else? What about all the stuff that comes after filming? Jihee Junn talks to Department of Post’s Katie Hinsen at the company’s new state-of-the-art headquarters about her mission to make Auckland into a post-production powerhouse. For much of late 2016, … Read more
In modern sport it’s hard to tell what’s more important: the hi-tech equipment, or the athlete themselves. Ahead of his appearance at Techweek’18, Olympic cyclist and America’s Cup cyclor Simon Van Velthooven talks to Madeleine Chapman about the increasingly important role of technology in sport. When you achieve something as impressive as an Olympic medal, it’s … Read more
A Facebook post by the Auckland Council’s tourism arm encouraging people to hike in the Waitākere Ranges is another example of the council’s mixed messaging on the kauri dieback. Waitangi Day: the annual acknowledgement of the partnership Māori and the Crown entered in 1840. On the same day, the Auckland Council did its best to … Read more
Mayor Phil Goff has announced the results of his first round of spending cuts and, as Simon Wilson explains, they’re full of surprises – not least for him. Phil Goff is not going to slash and burn the council’s spending on promoting Auckland to the world. That’s despite a good deal of gnashing of teeth … Read more
Jihee Junn takes a look at some nifty graphs from ATEED’s latest report and gleans some interesting insights about the city’s economy and future. *Update: a previous version of this article used outdated information from ATEED regarding Auckland’s ethnic makeup. ATEED has now updated the graph and figures in its report. Last week, Auckland Tourism, … Read more
The Herald says communications spending at Auckland Council is out of control, but is that true? Simon Wilson looks at what council comms should be doing and why. The water went off in parts of Auckland yesterday. But Watercare didn’t post anything about it on its website and it put out no information on social … Read more
A year into the job, Mayor Phil Goff is having big problems with his budget. And with water, transport, housing, the America’s Cup, the rest of council and the whole of government. And he’s still trying to beat up on the city’s tourism and economic development agency, ATEED. But somehow, says Simon Wilson, he also … Read more
Since opening in October last year, the AR/VR Garage in Uptown has become home to more than 20 companies working across virtual and augmented reality. Don Rowe visits ahead of their ten day programme at Techweek’17. There are few things in pop culture more futuristic than the idea of virtual reality. Slipping on a headset … Read more
Contrary to what many people in the city of sails might assume, there is in fact an entire country outside of Auckland. Here our Christchurch correspondent curates the best of Techweek’17 in the south. Let’s all say it together: New Zealand should become a digital economy. We get it already. Cow poo is poisoning the rivers … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and a transcribed excerpt. One week ago, on the second week of this podcast, we had … Read more
Here’s a quick and easy and inexpensive way we can all get more excited about Auckland. Change the names of things! No really – Simon Wilson is serious about this. There’s free burgers or something if you can answer all five of these quick questions: What’s the CRL? What’s the LTP? What about the UP? … Read more
There’s a revolution underway. Deep within the Auckland Viaduct lurks the beginnings of our own tiny Silicon Valley. At GridAKL, more than 50 startups, in industries as diverse as medicine, robotics and augmented reality, are running the entrepreneurial gauntlet looking to build a high-growth business – or at least get a second funding round. In … Read more
There’s a revolution underway. Deep within the Auckland Viaduct lurks the beginnings of our own tiny Silicon Valley. At GridAKL, more than 50 startups, in industries as diverse as medicine, robotics and augmented reality, are running the entrepreneurial gauntlet looking to build a high-growth business – or at least a get a second funding round. … Read more
There’s a revolution underway. Deep within the Auckland Viaduct lurks the beginnings of our own tiny Silicon Valley. At GridAKL, more than 50 startups, in industries as diverse as medicine, robotics and augmented reality, are running the entrepreneurial gauntlet looking to build a high-growth business – or at least a get a second funding round. … Read more
There’s a revolution underway. Deep within the Auckland Viaduct lurks the beginnings of our own tiny Silicon Valley. At GridAKL, more than 50 startups, in industries as diverse as medicine, robotics and augmented reality, are running the entrepreneurial gauntlet looking to build a high-growth business – or at least a get a second funding round. In On … Read more
There’s a revolution underway. Deep within the Auckland Viaduct lurks the beginnings of our own tiny Silicon Valley. At GridAKL, more than 50 startups, in industries as diverse as medicine, robotics and augmented reality, are running the entrepreneurial gauntlet looking to build a high-growth business – or at least a get a second funding round. In On … Read more
There’s a revolution underway. Deep within the Auckland Viaduct lurks the beginnings of our own tiny Silicon Valley. At GridAKL, more than 50 startups, in industries as diverse as medicine, robotics and augmented reality, are running the entrepreneurial gauntlet looking to build a high-growth business – or at least get a second funding round. In On the … Read more