June 22, 2008

Quick catch up on last few weeks...(cont'd)

I met Wayne Stewart of Business Mechanix when I was doing my internship at YouthLaw. I remembered that Wayne had once mentioned that Business Mechanix does some work for Wintec in Hamilton. yMedia was still looking for 3 industry members for this year's yMedia Challenge. I gave Wayne a call and we set up a meeting, see if he was interested in what we were doing.

I arrived at the office on Beaumont Street with my backpack and suitcase, I was travelling to Wellington in the afternoon. Wayne told me about his travels to the states for a Microsoft conference on the tertiary sector, Business Mechanix was the only New Zealand company invited to the conference, he explained that Business Mechanix does a significant amount of work for the tertiary sector in New Zealand. What a perfect fit for yMedia.

Pamela arrived and Wayne invited Lyndal Stewart (Business Development Director of Business Mechanix) in as well. We talked about the yMedia Challenge and what we are doing this year. Lyndal has recently started a chartiable trust called "Technology Reaching Youth Foundation" which aims to provide reliable and sustainable access to technology for youth across New Zealand. She mentioned that she was looking for some research around what existing schemes have achieved and areas where more development is needed. I instantly thought of the Head of Communication Studies at Unitec New Zealand, Jocelyn Williams. She has been finishing off her thesis about building community through free Internet access in New Zealand. After the meeting, I introduced Lyndal and Jocelyn by email. Both were receptive to the introduction, hopefully they will both find it valuable!

1 comment:

Lyndal Stewart said...

Wow- what a great post! Wayne & I were so impressed with the team at YMedia- both Pamela and Nathan are so passionate about what they do, its great to see. We look forward to being involved with the yMedia team in the future and totally support what the team are doing. Its great to see student's skills being utilised for positive benefit for the community!