Series Two: The Dairy Industry

Rod Oram was featured on TV3’s ASB Business Show and TV1’s NZI Business Show to talk about the Unitec Forum of the Future in which he is facilitating.

Head of Unitec’s Department of Management and Marketing Dr Robert Davis was also on TV3’s ASB Business Show to discuss a series of discussions Unitec is organising in the upcoming weeks based on the future of New Zealand’s economy.  Click here to view Dr Davis’ interview.

Two Unitec students from the Department of Management and Marketing were also interviewed on TV’3 ASB Business Show about Unitec’s Forum for the Future and their ideas for enhancing New Zealand economy.

Tourism New Zealand’s CEO George Hickton featured on TV3’s ASB Business Show to talk about the future of New Zealand’s tourism industry.

See some of the latest video here.

George Hickton & Graeme Osborne at the UnitecFTF

If you are interested in checking out what was discussed during the Tourism event at Unitec last night the best place to review this is to do a full search using the # code below on the tweetstream.

#UnitecFTF

The hashtag (#) is used to group tweets on a topic from mutiple tweeters in real time and allows a partial conversation to take place.

It is a live feedback loop and at every big event now there is more information being broadcast by attendees on their mobile phones and WiFi than by conventional media.

It is all very much stream of consciousness and for a live event the spelling may be random as tweeters try to keep up by recording and commenting, and asking questions when they can.

The tweets below are showing some of the first ones from the event at and then just a sample and selection of random stream at various points along the process.

At Unitec We had two large video screens running Twitterfall including # tweets from others & a few direct @ questions there were roughly 300 tweets during the 2 hrs that the event was live.

Note: both the twitterfall and twitter search will give varying results as they are live searhes and later tweets will replace the content that is there now.

http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23UnitecFTF

We invited anyone to ask questions which we would then feedback to the live panel.

“Any curly questions for Tourism sector panel tonite please ask us by using the #UnitecFTF hashtag”

This  prompted a number of questions from followers (viewers following the event.)

The UnitecFTF avatar symbol below is us tweeting about the event and the other avatars are feedback from others mostly outside the room.

UnitecFTF Are we live at #UnitecFTF yes we are starting a few mins late about 3 hours ago from HootSuite

kiwinoel #UnitecFTF is the Cycleway project worthwhile > Yup. Better than $2b in roads that won’t be used due to 8% oil shortfall in 2015 about 3 hours ago from TweetDeck

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1. UnitecFTF George Hickton making intro taking the long view of tourism We can’t match AU 2 ways 1. seasonal spread 2, regional spread #UnitecFTF about 3 hours ago from HootSuite
2. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF Doubling exports > Start by NOT doing what we have always done… about 3 hours ago from TweetDeck
3. UnitecFTF binge fliying / being sold like tobacco industry – how to reconceive tourism – Mark Ellington #UnitecFTF about 3 hours ago from HootSuite
4. UnitecFTF Can we grow our economy twice as fast? Ext bus export sectors need to double in real terms contrib to NZ – how do we do that? #UnitecFTF about 3 hours ago from HootSuite
5. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF What strategies are in place to cope with greening of NZ waterways due to Dairy. Are we Pure NZ – or just Green? #NZ about 3 hours ago from TweetDeck
6. UnitecFTF George Hickton, Graeme Osborne, Tonya Wright, Ken Simpson, Sven Damm on panel & Rod Oram in chair. @dialogCRM on tweet team #UnitecFTF about 3 hours ago from HootSuite
7. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF What plans are in place to cope with high cost of air travel due to oil shortages in 2015? http://bit.ly/6uswJ #NZ about 3 hours ago from TweetDeck
8. WhiteHeron What % will the Responsible Tourism criteria be increased to for Qualmark in accommodation sector? #UnitecFTF about 3 hours ago from TweetDeck

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1. UnitecFTF Insperience Prof Ian Yeoman ideas #UnitecFTF about 3 hours ago from HootSuite
2. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF Coromandel freedom campers >>Good idea – low spenders but stay longer. Need infrastructure buildup in regions – not just AKL. about 3 hours ago from TweetDeck
3. UnitecFTF Peak oil is a concern, fossil fuels makes us vulnerable Water is a biggie / our air is a big plus, marine environment in AKL esp #UnitecFTF about 3 hours ago from HootSuite

1. about 3 hours ago from HootSuite
2. UnitecFTF RT @TheWineVault: @UnitecFTF being that tourism & wine are the nations biggest earners what abt more collab in these sectors? #UnitecFTF about 3 hours ago from HootSuite

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1. ajaystwtr Ken Simpson now talking about the customer service levels, used a SA tourist’s experience at Britomart as an example #unitecftf about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
2. UnitecFTF quality of experience – highly disappointing – we need to get past the she’ll be right attitude #UnitecFTF about 3 hours ago from HootSuite
3. UnitecFTF South African visitors just want to get to Eden Park but the trains are late . He (driver) phoned in seeck #UnitecFTF about 3 hours ago from HootSuite

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1. UnitecFTF How can we support regional brands ? Destination branding is different from product #UnitecFTF the wine experience is a total package about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
2. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF Wine tourism > a great niche for sure. And less price sensitive than many segments.But not in all regions. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
3. UnitecFTF @TheWineVault NZ wines rated highly in France it is a highly valued here #UnitecFTF about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
4. UnitecFTF Questions abt wine tourism – food & bev a big part – wine regions, are doing well. Wine tourism is a key offering #UnitecFTF about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
5. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF NZ food bowl > we can only ever produce about 1% of world food – not quite a “Food Bowl” so not best branding. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
6. UnitecFTF Australia is the worlds quarry – NZ is the food bowl. National parks are valuable we should preserve this. #UnitecFTF about 2 hours ago from HootSuite

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1. kiwinoel @tombutlin #UnitecFTF Structural change > I wonder if this is when they talk about elephants? about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
2. UnitecFTF 100% urban NZ as an idea #UnitecFTF about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
3. UnitecFTF Bridget Marsh – Q around structural change – purpose, values of the business , expectations are higher now #UnitecFTF how customers choose about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
4. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF Question time in Parliament > Hell, who needs our Parliament when they have Congress or the Senate or whatever… about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
5. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF Long Tail > Yes – a problem there is that the money is tied up in foreign-owned commodity tourism. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
6. UnitecFTF Questiion time in Parliament as tourism opportuniy #UnitecFTF about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
7. UnitecFTF We can make more at green markets oratory history oral culture / parliament #UnitecFTF about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
8. kiwinoel @tombutlin #UnitecFTF Oil elephant > Agreed and no-one has made ANY comments on it. Are they in denial or something? about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
9. UnitecFTF writer & poets we need to celebrate niche markets / sme very big it is the long tail. #UnitecFTF about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
10. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF – High value niche markets – not bums on seats are most likely in future. Niche markets promoted via web Long Tail Marketing about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
11. UnitecFTF RT @tombutlin: #UnitecFTF Wine trails – a good idea, but upcoming oil shock is the elephant in the room about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
12. tombutlin #UnitecFTF Wine trails – a good idea, but upcoming oil shock is the elephant in the room about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
13. UnitecFTF NZ won a responsible tourism award. Qualmark is a green accreditation as part of assessment process #UnitecFTF about 2 hours ago from HootSuite

@UnitecFTF being that tourism and wine are the nations biggest earners what about more collaboration in these sectors?

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1. about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
2. UnitecFTF what does NZ value as a country and as a brand – is that wider A sense of vision is needed – what is our place in the world #UnitecFTF about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
3. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF Peak oil & fossil fuels elephant > Looks like the elephant has left the room… about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
4. tombutlin #UnitecFTF Aborignial art works for Oz, Maori art is unique, strong and integral to NZ experience about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
5. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF Peak oil & fossil fuels elephant >will affect all lifestyles and will make most of us very unhappy. So what to do about it? about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
6. UnitecFTF clarifictaion of purpose n business – more about what is the business giving back, is the business value in its own integrity #UnitecFTF about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
7. UnitecFTF Our purpose is to be happy – maybe we need to have a different attitude to growth. Many of us do it for lifestyle #UnitecFTF about 2 hours ago from HootSuite
8. tombutlin 100% urban NZ? #UnitecFTF that’ll fly. Like 100% Ski Oz about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
9. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF Elephants – crikey – what kind of circus are you running here??? Seriously – thanks! about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
10. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF Style Pacifica etc > Otherwise just local consumption and therefore dead end. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
11. UnitecFTF Would the elephant in the room (peak oil & fossil fuels ) please stand up hoping to slip this one back into play #UnitecFTF about 2 hours ago from HootSuite

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1. kiwinoel #UnitecFTF Wellie > Film is a driver as well. LOTR = 60m searches a year – hell that’s more than enough to make everyone rich! about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck
2. UnitecFTF peak oil has been a big focus – debate / cost of air and carbon – - we need to focus on longer stay visits as a postive outcome #UnitecFTF about 2 hours ago from HootSuite

George Hickton TV3

“Unitec’s Future Forum this week discusses tourism and what role it can play in boosting New Zealand’s economic performance.

Yesterday there was some good news from the tourism sector as inbound visitor numbers rose nine percent in September.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton talks about the future of the industry.”

View the video on Tv3 (Thu, 22 Oct 2009 7:53a.m.)

The October 22 session (6.30pm- 8.00pm) will explore the Tourism sector’s strategic response. The two guest speakers will be Graeme Osborne, chief executive of Tourism Auckland and George Hickton CEO of Tourism NZ will be guest panelists along with Rod Oram as Chair, Dr Ken Simpson http://bit.ly/3Jp9SD along with business students Tonya Wright and Sven Damm.

Please come along and ask our panel questions. If you aren’t able to be there send us a question via twitter using the hashtag #UnitecFTF and follow the discussion on twitter @UnitecFTF

The venue is Unitec Performing and Screen Arts, Theatre , Building 6, Entry 1, Carrington Road. The shortened map URI is http://bit.ly/xA9cB Entry Gate 1 is near the Pt Chev end of Carrington Road.

It would pay to be early as this is the 3rd session of 3 and that would give you time to get your video and TV face ready (only kidding.)  Each programme will be filmed and edited for the web by students from Unitec’s Department of Screen and Performing Arts.

Unitec forum – how to raise NZ’s economic performance – Video

Unitec students Tonya Wright and Svenn Damm

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 8:01a.m.

Auckland’s Unitec Institute of Technology continues to run its Forum for the Future, looking at ways to raise New Zealand’s economic performance.

Unitec students Tonya Wright and Svenn Damm share their ideas for enhancing New Zealand economy.

Watch this mornings Video here or use this short URI http://ow.ly/urss to let your friends know about it.

John is Chief Executive of Synlait while Fonterra is the 800 pound gorilla of the industry- sort of like David and Goliath except that a $100m baby company isn’t that small.

We hear a bit about Fonterra but not so much about the rest of the industry. Such as Tatua, Synlait,ViaLactia Biosciences, and other stakeholders like DairyNZ who will be represented by Tim Mackle tonight.

Most New Zealanders are “townies” now and in fact only about 11,000 farmer shareholders supply the bulk of NZ’s milk to Fonterra who export about 95% of their product.

Perhaps we should take a bit more interest than we do.

The Dairy sector in New Zealand is a big deal – but imagine you decide to split from the biggest player (Fonterra) and pursue a different high value added strategy – this is what Synlait are doing.

“Picture this: you run a multimillion-dollar business in an industry that is one of our biggest export earners. It’s a hands-on enterprise that requires technical knowledge and business smarts, daily decision-making and constant risks.

Yet you’re stuck in Commodity Hell, reliant on the whims of international markets, exchange rates, rising costs and consumer trends. You have one customer and that customer sets the price of your product*.

You’d be looking for a better way to do business, right?”

That is the opening paragraph from a background feature on Synlait

(*That part has changed a bit with the advent of electronic auctions)

From Fonterra to new frontiers—how Synlait plans to go from farmer to pharma

To read the rest of this feature go http://ow.ly/tRjC

“They’re the first farmers to split from Fonterra and have caught the industry’s attention.”

“Synlait is talking ingredients for functional foods and nutraceuticals, consumer products with health, medicinal and other benefits that make up a US$40 billion global market growing at 20 percent a year.”

“End game

What really makes Synlait’s long-term investment worthwhile is the prospect of tailoring its products for use in the booming nutraceutical market. Yes, ‘nutraceutical’ is an ugly word but it’s worth a lot.

Think of the space between nutrition and pharmaceuticals and you get a massive industry that includes functional foods like fruit drinks, dietary supplements and a burgeoning industry of tablets consisting of kiwifruit extracts, colostrum or bee jelly protein.

Nutraceuticals also form the basis for infant formula, hospital foods, energy drinks and health tonics. Estimates of the size of the market vary wildly from billions to hundreds of billions, depending on definitions.”

“Along the way, they’ll turn the commodity model on its head. Fonterra “won’t turn on a milk drier for an order of less than 1,000 tonnes,” says Penno. Synlait aims to do short-runs of milk powder at competitive prices, thanks to cheaper transport costs and cost savings elsewhere in the system.”

More recently – in NBR – about that milk drier…

milk processor Synlait admits its $100 million equity drive has slowed, it still has plans to double capacity by 2011. NBR http://ow.ly/u12B

See http://ow.ly/ugi4 for more details  – Please tweet Questions and feedback to #UnitecFTF.

If you are quick there may still be seats available. ( Guest bios for speakers.)

If we really are to close the gap with Australia then everyone and every sector has to do better but as Dairy and Tourism are huge so we should get informed don’t you think?

Video from NZI Business October 14: Rod Oram discusses closing the NZ-Aust gap (3:57)

The short URI is http://ow.ly/ugf0

The government’s economic goal of lifting living standards to those of Australia by 2025 is being put under the spotlight in a series of debates hosted by Unitec this month.

Business commentator Rod Oram discusses the issues and leadership required to
get productivity in motion.

Next session tomorrow night on Dairy Sector’s Strategic Response with Rod,  John, Penno, Tim Mackle other panellist from Unitec and you? For the tweet sized updates follow us @UnitecFTF use #UnitecFTF to ask us questions also.

This was also an experiment, bringing people outside into the conversation via Twitter. More on that later.

In the room, Rod Oram chaired a panel consisting of:

Rick Boven, CEO of the New Zealand Institute
Ajay Murthy, an exchange student from Bangalore
Sven, an exchange student from Germany
Robert Davis, head of Unitec’s Department of Management and Marketing
David Caygill, who’s part of the 2025 Taskforce

The night’s topic: catching up with Australia by 2025.

Each panelist gave a brief presentation of their take on what NZ needs to do to be internationally competitive. Some key takeaways:

• “Dairy can’t incrementally improve it’s way to where it needs to be; tourism can’t survive on cheap Australian tourists” – Rod Oram
• “We are tremendously efficient at making low-value things” – Rod Oram
• “Invest in our students, the entrepreneurs of the future” – Rob Davis
• “Our innovation system is not yet world class. We create lots of research papers, but not many patents.” – Rick Boven
• “We don’t have a shared understanding of what the issues are, just lists of factors” – Rick Boven

And then the debates and dialogue began. Some key issues and questions:

Is Australia and 2025 the right target? As an important target to reach, and as something that can inspire people.

Caygill’s answer, in a nutshell, was that perhaps both were arbitrary targets, but we need something to focus on in order to improve our standard of living.

From the tweetstream, a comment from @kiwinoel:

Catching up with OZ is a 80’s-90’s concept – staying in shape as a society in radically changing times IS a 21st century one.

and

Do these chaps not read what is being written about where to from here. They are still worried about deckchairs, not the ship.

Another question that arose: What role does government have in bringing this new future about?

This opened a wide area of discussion. The rough consensus seemed to be, government can’t change a nation, but at some stage this is going to involve policymaking. It’s not a simple argument of all government involvement or none at all, it has layers and shades of grey.

Another area of (approximate) consensus was around improvements coming from small, highly motivated groups and communities. This was strongly represented in the twitter comments, as well as in comments from several panelists.

As an experiment, the Forum for the Future was a success at sparking debate and discussion, from this ringside viewer’s perspective.

Here are some of the other tweets that there wasn’t time to cover on the night. Fodder for future discussion here on the blog, or in future forums.

@kiwinoel: Oz economy in trouble medium term – not sustainable. can only feed 1m of 20m long trem due to salination. why not be ourselves?

@kiwinoel: Shared understanding starts with participation of all sectors in our economy. At moment it is top down and corporate.

@Natobasso: I’m liking your analysis. Lots of data and not a lot of visualisation of same for future benefit.#UnitecFTF

@JonathanGunson: Government can help/encourage hopes and dreams by getting out of the way. We need to celebrate success. Right now we champion ‘bloke-ism legends’ (Hillary All Blacks PJackson)

@kiwinoel: Agree – that is part of it for sure – but success of neighbours etc too – not just media stars

@GeniusNet: Govt wants better “productivity” but trans-Pacific connectivity proceeding at glacial pace. How can we get this message across? …also can we pursuade govt to invest in digital innovation challenge in parallel with BB rollout. What will we use broadband for?!

@Keith_Ng (who was also in the room): Can we discuss intergenerational equity, in relation to investment in education and globally mobile workforce?

Keith_Ng: Where will leadership come from if govts fear to do what’s necessary, because they won’t be reelected?

That last tweet was probably one of the evening’s key questions. Whatever the government’s role is, it will take some courageous – and potentially unpopular – decisions. How do we enable our leaders to make the decisions they need to?

And the award for funniest tweet of the night goes to a direct message I got from @Justin Flitter:

catch up? we need another 15 million people? and a huge army to help america? we should sell them water ?

The topic for the panle was the the 2025 challenge how big is the task and how will we do it?

The two guest speakers were Dr Rick Boven, director of the New Zealand Institute, and David Caygill, a member of the 2025 taskforce, chairman of the Electricity Commission and a former Labour cabinet minister.

Rod Oram with David Caygill

Rick Boven (right)

David Caygill with Robert Davis

Rod Oram with David Slack

Thanks to everyone who came along or supported in other ways and especially all those who helped with the production on the night.

“Business leaders and students will be getting their heads together over the next couple of weeks to discuss how New Zealand’s economy can catch up with Australia’s by 2025.

Business leaders and students will be getting their heads together over the next couple of weeks to discuss how New Zealand’s economy can catch up with Australia’s by 2025.

The forum has been organised by the tertiary institute Unitec. Business journalist and Unitec professor Rod Oram spoke to Michael Wilson about the forum.

People can participate in the Unitec Forum for the Future via blogging and Twitter.”

Associate Professor, Dr Robert Davis will be speaking about the first session tomorrow morning (Thurs Oct 8th) on ASB Business LIVE just after the 6.30am news so make sure you tune in.

If you want to follow the discussion on Twitter check the hashtag #UnitecFTF and/or follow @UnitecFTF on twitter

Update: Here is the video link from 3 News this morning http://ow.ly/tggb