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!

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

Sheena and I were heading to the Auckland Xero office on Beaumont Street. Pamela had already visited the Wellington Xero office, but we thought it would be good to take a look at the Auckland office and meet Hamish Carter, the Relationship Manager there. Wow, that's the same title as me? Maybe he will be able to give me some hints on how to manage relationships!

We climbed the stairs of the lovely brick office and met Hamish at his desk. We moved to the large meeting room, if you can call it that, it was empty apart from a large table, chairs and a projector. Oh and a bar and kitchen to the side.

We talked about this year's yMedia Challenge, Xero and how we could work together more. Hamish offered for us to use the Xero Auckland office for some of the workshops we will be holding. He might also come along and speak at them. The speakers are being organised by Adele from Hong Kong, so we'll have to get her in touch with Hamish at some point.

If you don't know about Xero, it's accounting software that's all web-based. So you never have to install anything on your computer, just log in to the website and do your accounts from there. Pretty cool that it's a New Zealand product and they are expecting to take it to the world!