Celebrating NZ Innovation: Hi-Tech Awards, AI, and Tech Leadership

Paul Spain:
Well, greetings and welcome along to the New Zealand Tech Podcast. I’m your host, Paul Spain. A real pleasure to have Marian Johnson from the NZ Hi-Tech Awards and Partly joining us on the show. How are you, Marian?

Marian Johnson:
I’m great. Thanks for having me, Paul.

Paul Spain:
Pleasure to have you on the show. Maybe you can remind listeners where you fit into this big wide world of, of tech and where you are based now.

Marian Johnson:
Sure. Well, I guess I came into it from the Ministry of Awesome. I was the chief executive over there, and also the chairwoman of Electrify Aotearoa, which is the women founders summit. And then the chairwoman of the NZ Hi-Tech Trust, which is the organization that puts on the New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards, you know, which is the gala event for the tech industry every year in New Zealand. And since February 2025, I’ve been go-to-market lead for North America for one of New Zealand’s most awesome startups, which is called Partly.

Paul Spain:
Fantastic. Well, great to catch up. Looking forward to hearing a bit more around the NZ Hi-Tech Awards and the upcoming deadline there so we can encourage listeners to get their entries in. Maybe some tips on how to become a finalist or a winner in addition to being an amazing tech company or individual. And yeah, we’ll also jump through and delve into some of the tech news of the day. Of course, a big thank you to our show partners, to One New Zealand, 2degrees, Spark, Workday, Fortinet, and Gorilla Technology. Well, on a New Zealand front, lots of things happening. One thing that caught my attention is that New Zealand is raising their annual space launch our cap from 100 launches to 1,000.

Paul Spain:
This is, I think, sort of probably well ahead of when we need that. I think Rocket Lab may be doing about 20 launches from New Zealand a year, which puts us in a pretty amazing position on sort of the global stage. I think we’re about the third, in the world in terms of the amount of rockets that are launched from New Zealand. And we expect to see that increase this year. But of course, there are others, the likes of Dawn Aerospace, and we certainly want to see that increase. So it seems pretty encouraging to me that the government are nudging that number up quite dramatically.

Marian Johnson:
Yeah, I think that’s incredible. And interestingly, most, I mean, I’m located in the US right now. And when they asked me about tech in New Zealand, and I talk about our aerospace industry, they look at me like they have no idea what I’m talking about. They really don’t. And the sad thing is, is most New Zealanders don’t either. I mean, you’re in the tech industry, I’m in the tech industry. And of course, aerospace in New Zealand has been something that’s been growing dramatically over the last 20 years. But most people just still don’t know that and don’t understand the real impact.

Marian Johnson:
And one of the most exciting things for me is to explain to an American that, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s actually something that has come about straight away. Our advantage is basically created by where we are, you know, so, and you can’t defeat that. It’s a straight shot up into polar orbit. We have, you know, nice clear skies so that the government can increase the amount of launches that significantly. And so, you know, for that reason alone, there’s already a little bit of a head start. And then you put some incredible innovators there like Sir Peter Beck and so on and so on, and you’re off and racing. And I just want to say one other thing, Paul. You know, 19 years ago, I came to New Zealand and right after the earthquake, I was in Christchurch.

Marian Johnson:
Right after the earthquake, I remember the Economic Development Agency Christchurch had said, was casting about for what was our new kind of position in the world. We were going to create a new economy out of the city that’s coming from, you know, the rubble. And they mentioned aerospace. And at the time, I knew nothing about it. And I thought they were joking. I really thought, what did they like spin the wheel of potential sectors? And that one sounded good. I really didn’t understand how significant that was. And of course, we have that ability to innovate really quickly because we have that testing laboratory at Tawhaki, which all of the aerospace sort of innovators and founders are using very frequently.

Marian Johnson:
KIA Aerospace is out there all the time. I know Don did a lot of work out there. Everybody’s out there. And that just enables not just a community, but the ability to test frequently, which is something that is really sought after.

Paul Spain:
Yeah, yeah. And I know SIOS, who of course, big winners at the Hitech Awards last year. They’ve been, they’ve been busy down at Tawhaki as well. And for those that are listening in that haven’t caught that interview, there is already an NZ Tech Podcast interview with Sam Vai online. And we also have another one coming up, the New Zealand Business Podcast interview as well. So Lots there on what’s going on in our aerospace.

Marian Johnson:
And, you know, SCIOS was only 4 years old when they, when they won. Yeah, I just find that incredible.

Paul Spain:
Yeah, no, that’s, it’s very, very pleasing to see, you know, what is, what is possible in New Zealand and often in a very short space of time. And yeah, the SCIOS story is definitely one of those that stands out. Now, also in news, New Zealand related, related. Chris Liddell, uh, who, well, he’s, um, he’s just been recruited, um, by Anthropic, a big AI, uh, company. And there looks like they’re heading towards, uh, a massive, uh, IPO, um, stock market listing. There’s, uh, the figure, uh, the, the Herald mentioned $630 billion valuation there, which that would be the New Zealand dollar one, I think $380 billion. But yeah, Chris Liddell having been recruited to Anthropic’s board and of course, you know, many will have heard of Chris Liddell from, you know, past things that he’s done. In New Zealand, but mostly he’s been doing big things in the US.

Paul Spain:
He was, I think, second in charge at General Motors and took them to a huge IPO, chief financial officer at Microsoft. And of course he worked very closely with Donald Trump in Trump’s first term. As president. I think he was, I saw somewhere it was mentioned he was one of the few people that stayed the full term in Trump’s first term because a lot of other people were coming and going quite quickly. But yeah, exciting to have a Kiwi in such a role. And of course we’ve had other, you know, Kiwis, you know, well involved across the AI world as well. Have you been following Chris Liddell’s journey at all there, Marian?

Marian Johnson:
Not really. I haven’t. I mean, obviously I saw that headline. I thought that’s really quite interesting. The fact that he’s got such a— well, obviously he must have a solid relationship with Trump if he never left in his first administration, because like you said, there were plenty who did. And now he’s over at Anthropic with an in-betweener of Microsoft. Let’s see what he does. I hope he doesn’t add advertising to the Anthropic offering.

Paul Spain:
That seems reasonable.

Marian Johnson:
Given, as you pointed out, that he was a CFO.

Paul Spain:
Yeah, pushing to maximize the financial returns there. I think given, you know, given the Super Bowl ad from Anthropic that was making a lot of fun of OpenAI last week. I would, I would say that’d be a reasonably hard one for Anthropic to come, come back from, certainly any time soon.

Marian Johnson:
Well, you know, as we’ve seen over the last 12 months, you can make anything happen. It’s just all about the story.

Paul Spain:
Yeah. Yeah. Now, there was another headline that caught my attention was it was about a Nelson woman who went into a shopping centre car park a couple of times and then was fined for parking there for 4 hours. And I just like to sort of drill into these types of stories because it’s a reminder that we need to make sure there’s a human element when it comes to technology. And sometimes, you know, tech gets things wrong for various reasons. When I drilled into it in this case, I think it was, you know, 2 short visits. Maybe there was a McDonald’s or, you know, something. Yeah, so there was one case where someone ducked into the mall car park, did a drive-through, and then out again.

Paul Spain:
Then they got this big fine because their license plate wasn’t visible when they exited. Maybe they were behind another vehicle, et cetera. And we just sort of seem to keep seeing these things as we move to a more automated world and technology doing more for us. We can, we can end up generating, you know, pain as well. And I think when we, when we think across everyone that’s listening in, we all have an opportunity to use technology for good. But there also can be these negative side effects. And we’ve got to keep looking out for how we put that humanization back into how we use technology.

Marian Johnson:
That’s right. I think a really important feature there, something to think about is that we also as companies and as leaders making these kinds of decisions, we actually really have to continue to care about the customer as opposed to simply trying to drain them of as much blood as possible. You know, I am living in ultra-capitalist United States at the moment, doing go-to-market for Partly. And I’m just outside of Tampa. But I mean, it really feels as if since I got here, it really does feel as if that is what corporate USA is all about, draining me of as much blood as possible. And then when I’m fully desiccated, they’ll unplug me and replace me with someone else. I mean, not to be too grim about it, but quite often that’s what it feels like. And I wonder if the same thing happened over here, would, would the woman get a refund or would she just be stuck in a total hell of, you know, support systems that are overseas and nobody being able to escalate, nobody being able to make the decision to give her money back.

Marian Johnson:
And then finally, she just pays because otherwise her credit history would be destroyed. I don’t think that’s a crazy thing to think about. And so I really hope that that kind of thing, that ultra-capitalism, that just put your pedal down, make everything AI. You know, make the total cost of business as low as possible and revenue as high as possible doesn’t become the thing that, you know, drives our industry forward.

Paul Spain:
Yeah. And we see these sort of, you know, challenges a lot. As you point out, trying to actually get that help after the fact can be, can be really, really challenging. And any sort of interactions now with sort of support and customer service can be quite variable as organizations get big and technology comes into play. I had one last week, we had, and probably everyone will have had a courier moment sometime over the last little while. But anyway, our courier for our building dropped some notes in the lobby of our building without coming up to our floor and said, oh, unable to deliver these packages. Rather than, you know, working out how to get up to the correct floor, which they would do on any other day. But maybe they were a bit busy, who knows? And so, you know, I called up to encourage this activity not to happen again and promised to call back within 24 hours.

Paul Spain:
It’s now a week later. New Zealand Post hasn’t, hasn’t responded. You know, the pain continues. And this is not unique to them. But, you know, we just get these sorts of things. They seem to be more and more common that things just kind of are hard when it comes to getting good customer service. And my thinking is technology should be helping this, not hindering it. You know, they’ve got AI there listening in to the phone call.

Paul Spain:
It should be, you know, that should be able to nudge and attach that information to the whatever requests that they’re sort of tracking in their internal ticketing systems and should be able to remind and make sure that, you know, a call is returned appropriately.

Marian Johnson:
But— Absolutely, absolutely. But you know what, I think that’s the thing is that with technology, everything can become so faceless unless you really elevate the customer in terms of importance and making sure that the loop is totally closed and that the customer is well looked after and feels well looked after. And I just, I love the fact that, you know, something like this happened. And then the first thing that happens is I get like an NPS, would you take our survey? And I just, I’m just thinking, really, you want more of my time? I don’t know. You know, I just, yeah, technology can make this extremely faceless and what an incredible point of difference for a technology company or for companies in general to use technology so intelligently and not fall into that trap because so many people will. So many organizations will.

Paul Spain:
Yeah, sadly. Yeah. On the other news front, interesting reading around how one of the divisions of Ukraine’s military, their cyber assault division, tricked Russian soldiers into submitting location information and payments through a fake Starlink registration scheme. Now, this is happening because Starlink has, has, has blocked use for Russia. However, the Russian military, of course, would benefit from having access to, to Starlink terminals. So they were able to basically, you know, promote this, this portal in a particular way. And nearly 2,500 requests came in for effectively sort of dodgy Starlink terminals that would, would, would allow Russian troops to, to, in theory, get Starlink service. And of course, they didn’t get Starlink service, but they, they might well have got hit back by, by the Ukraine military once they knew exact position of where these varying troops were.

Marian Johnson:
I mean, I just had a bit of a giggle because it’s kind of thinking about like Vanta and cybersecurity and, you know, problems within enterprise and training your employees not to click the link and all that kind of stuff. But this is that writ large on a battlefield. And it’s not funny, of course, because there are humans involved in this and probably a lot of death and destruction if it all goes well for one side or the other. But nonetheless, it’s the ultimate don’t click the link, isn’t it?

Paul Spain:
It is. It’s a real reminder. And, you know, just highlights how deep technology impacts all our lives in just so, so many different ways. And sometimes it is You know, in some, some people’s worlds, it is literally a matter of life, life and death. You know what, what they’re clicking on and you know what the technology can do for them. Other news, we talked about the Super Bowl before. One of the ads that was featured for the Super Bowl was Ring’s commercial. Now, Ring, of course, had their video doorbells and their varying cameras.

Paul Spain:
And this, this was interesting to me. So the ad sort of showed off their, their technology being used to find dogs that maybe got, you know, lost in neighbourhoods. And, you know, it seems like this, this pet tracking technology has some, has some benefits in terms of the fact that pets are getting found. But the pushback really is from those looking at the privacy aspects and suddenly recognizing, not that it’s news, but that, hey, these cameras coupled with the data being stored in the cloud and coupled with AI, you know, potentially means that people are getting spied on and As I say, this is not news, but once the dots sort of get joined up and people start thinking about it a little bit more, there’s a bit of recognition that these things can be used in ways that they might not be happy with. And of course, in the US at the moment where you’ve got all the ICE protests going on, you know, there’s concern that, you know, law enforcement might be plugging into accessing the varying cameras, not necessarily just, you know, just the Ring cameras, cameras and then we’ve had this recent kidnapping case in the US as well which is pretty shocking and that camera wasn’t set up to record but they were able to go in and retrieve footage and of course there’s always two sides to these, there’s the positive of hey they managed to get this footage and you know maybe that will help them track down the kidnappers but on the flip side, should they have been able to get access to that video? Are you hearing much around, around this, Marion? Is it something you’ve come across?

Marian Johnson:
I mean, I remember seeing the ad, and because I’m such a Pollyanna, I just thought, saw, oh sweet, you can find your dog, that’s great. Yeah, you can find things as long as you have your setting correct, and of course it would all be in a really safe place and nobody would ever be able to get it. And you know, if that’s all true, then that’s hunky-dory, but Yeah, obviously there’s some serious privacy implications, and those kidnapping cases is just one example of Ring camera footage being used, but it’s being used all the time by the police when they’re investigating one thing or the other. So it is a concern. It is a concern. And this is, this is part of why, this is part of why we really need to make sure that regulatory frameworks that we have in New Zealand and in the rest of the world. But let’s just talk about New Zealand because maybe this will be something that, that New Zealand leaders will, you know, spend some time on. But the regulatory frameworks that are in place are in place from so long ago that they simply don’t apply any longer for what— where technology is taking us.

Marian Johnson:
And All of this needs to be looked at because, like you said, there is a positive, but then you can flip it to the other side and find that there is actually quite a negative. And nobody wants their privacy destroyed in that way. Some people may actually give it away in return for something positive, but others won’t want to be involved at all. So there needs to be a regulatory framework. It’s not black and white. It’s not straightforward. And it’s not all about rescuing puppies.

Paul Spain:
No, you’re dead right about that one. And look, yeah, there is that opportunity for New Zealand to take a different approach. And I think, you know, we have the aspect here where certain sort of private data and information from a Māori perspective is treated as taonga, is treated as a really important treasure. And it shouldn’t be something that can just be compromised. And of course, you know, varying recent sort of news situations, I think, have brought that to the fore with the Manage My Health situation, with police losing, you know, lots of data, you know, even the gun owners register with that data getting lost, which has turned somebody from a gun owner into a gang target. Because if somebody wants guns, then hey, if you’ve got a list of all the people that own guns, that’s the perfect place to go and to find weaponry. And yeah, so there’s all sorts of consequences of these things. And yeah, we need to— We need to do some work, I think, as a country.

Paul Spain:
And there is definitely, you know, I think a dramatic loss of trust, you know, particularly following the Manage My Health situation. And, you know, that and other breaches have kind of taught us that no one’s particularly good at keeping confidential data safe, whether it’s government or private institutions.

Marian Johnson:
And so, yeah, I’m sure you’ve heard that saying about a house, right? That if somebody really wants to get in, they’ll find a way in. You can install locks, you can put sensors on window panes, you can, you can do all of these different things. But if somebody wants to get in, they’re going to be able to get in. And hackers all around the world are just amazing. They are absolutely amazing, enterprising people. And if they really wanna get in, if you’re unfortunate enough to be targeted, it’s gonna be very difficult to keep that data safe. And so therefore, obviously, anybody’s cybersecurity needs to stay ahead of that intent. And everybody needs to understand that this is real and this is actually likely, right? Not unlikely, and you hope you’ll never be the target, But likely.

Marian Johnson:
So what are you going to do to build around that risk? What I feel like I really want to— what I really want to comment on is it’s not just about cybersecurity and it’s not just about customer service. It’s about the fact that it feels to me that human beings and New Zealanders, New Zealand as a country, and also the United States to some extent, is bumbling forward in this, in this era of hugely impactful technology that can have life and death consequences, real consequences for human beings. And we do not have the regulatory frameworks to guard against that. We simply do not. I mean, that one example of deepfakes, for example, we don’t have a rule that we don’t have a law that regulates whether or not you can or can’t. I mean, you’re kind of— it could be kind of covered by this old law, but it’s not quite 100% covered. And that’s happening now. So when are we going to— are we just playing catch-up? Are we just going to bumble around? And, you know, it’s not just about privacy, you know, for individuals.

Marian Johnson:
I think it’s also about our vision as a nation and our vision. I, I really would like our vision to be leadership in technology worldwide. We have something really important to offer here, which is that.

Paul Spain:
You know, we.

Marian Johnson:
Are, we’re quite often listed as one of the most honest and easiest countries to do business with. And having that positioning and having the positioning of our, you know, our tech and our innovation ecosystem and the just the general innovation-based kind of mindset of so many in New Zealand, we should be able to lead on this front. And so I was really, yeah, really disappointed in what we have been doing in, for example, the space of AI, that we don’t, that we didn’t look further than generally just sort of putting our toe in the water and and participating. There are some really amazing things that have come out of that. But most of it is really just sort of, there’s nothing innovative about our strategy. There’s nothing leading about our strategy. And we should be leading because we have the opportunity and a position that we can leverage to do so.

Paul Spain:
Yeah, well said. Well said. And look, you know, from that legislative perspective, there are you know, some areas that are really difficult and, you know, it’s understandable that it can be, it can take, you know, some time. There’s not maybe obvious answers in terms of how you build that legislation, but in other circumstances, and you mentioned deepfakes, I would imagine, you know, there’s probably some legislation you could put in place there quite quickly that people would be very comfortable with as being good for society. And it’s not something that we’ve gotta sit back and wait 10 or 20 years to figure out because some of it is pretty obvious. You know, should you allow people to make, you know, deepfake sort of, you know, pornography in New Zealand or of New Zealand people? You know, I think you could probably, draw up some legislation on that at pace. Now we’re dealing with challenges around social media. Social media has been with us for 20 years.

Paul Spain:
There’s still debate around whether you ban that based on age and other sorts of things. So that maybe is harder. However, I think there probably would be some buckets around social media you could quite easily, you know, put in, put in place without having to, you know, solve every single aspect of social media, you know, challenges. So, yeah, I think we should be stepping up on that, on that front, and we probably could lead the way in a number of areas.

Marian Johnson:
Yes. And I think it’s about elevating the urgency of this. I’m sure, in fact, I’m absolutely I’m 100% certain that government and legal organizations are working on these frameworks, but with what urgency? I would love to know. And from a leadership as a country, I don’t hear that in any of the speeches or in any of the reports or any of the reporting And, and that’s a missed opportunity as far as I’m concerned.

Paul Spain:
Yeah. Yeah, I agree. There’s probably a lot more that we could sort of delve into on, on, on that topic. But yeah, I would love to see some, you know, just even some sort of easy wins where, where, you know, lines are drawn in certain areas. You know, in the last month or two, heard about Google who fortunately have made a little bit of a change, their parental controls. When a child turned 13, automatically their platform would give the child the option to disconnect from any parental controls. So if a youngster was using a phone or Google services, they would be able to disconnect that at 13, whereas I think Apple’s is at least, you know, 16 for that. Roblox, you know, as a game, they had a similar thing.

Paul Spain:
And I think there’s a still in place that a youngster can disconnect from any parental controls at 13. These should be sorts of things that, you know, we maybe put some structure in place around and a bit more protection, you know, for youngsters rather than just complete maybe the blanket ban that’s been discussed. But yeah, lots and lots of areas we could delve into.

Marian Johnson:
So we’ll keep— I think if you just take into account the leadership that people like Anna Mowbray, Cecilia Robinson have done with the— is it called Under 16? I can’t remember what the name of the act is that they have pressed really hard for. But that’s the kind of leadership I’m talking about. You know, people who who know a bit about the space, um, and people who have the ability to, to lead a debate and lead a discussion and influence, um, politicians. I mean, the fact that the politicians needed influencing on this in the first place said to me that they were kind of asleep at the wheel. Why wouldn’t they even be considering doing this themselves? I mean, it’s not as if it’s not quite famous what Australia was doing. So I mean, I— again, it’s about realizing that tech is all pervasive. It’s either going to make our country or it’s going to make our country, you know, bound to others. And so instead of, instead of deciding that that’s our position, that, that we’re just going to reap the benefits of technology as opposed to leading technology, which seems to be the mindset, You know, we’re going to continue in this space until that mindset has changed.

Paul Spain:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lots, lots of work ahead, but it’s some of it is, is probably a lot easier than maybe it looks from how long it’s been taking to move things along. Another story that caught my attention is Blue Origin have announced their new satellite internet service called TeraWave. Now we know they’re coming in with, with a competing offering to Starlink. And, you know, that, that is going to be, we believe, faster than from Starlink. So that will be very helpful, no doubt, for rural New Zealanders and also to have that competition with Starlink. But their TeraWave service caught my offering because they’re talking of 2 potential download and upload speeds depending on the technology used, up to 144 gigabits per second. So that’s, that’s well in excess of any typical fibre connection that, you know, most Kiwi organisations would have.

Paul Spain:
So that’s their RF or radio frequency offering and then their optical offering in terms of download and upload speeds speeds, 6 terabits per second. So yeah, this, it’s, it’s pretty mind-blowing, this sort of new internet offerings that are coming through with satellite internet. Now that TerraWave service, of course, with those sort of mind-blowing speeds, that’s not for your average consumer. These will be really expensive offerings, and, and they’re talking about the maximum number of customers on a service like that globally of maybe being in the direction of 100,000 customers. Whereas of course there are already many millions of Starlink, you know, connections or customers globally. But yeah, exciting just to see what’s, what, you know, new things are possible with low Earth orbit satellites being, being, you know, put up into these new constellations.

Marian Johnson:
That’s really quite incredible, isn’t it? I mean, great to see that there’s competition for Starlink. Maybe that will do something for the pricing. But a duopoly hasn’t really served us that great with them in other areas, has it?

Paul Spain:
So not always, not always.

Marian Johnson:
But the impact on New Zealand with our geography, with our terrain and the challenges around, you know, around internet access, that, that’s definitely going to be a step in the right direction.

Paul Spain:
Yeah, yeah. All right. So that’s all the kind of general news. Very keen to sort of, you know, step in and delve in more onto the New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards. Maybe you can, you can give a bit of an overview for those who maybe have never been to the Hi-Tech Awards before or, you know, aren’t too familiar with with any of the background and the history of the Hi-Tech Awards?

Marian Johnson:
Sure. I mean, I feel like if you didn’t know anything about the tech industry in New Zealand and you went along to the New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards, you would be, it would be a perfect way to be introduced to the incredible innovation that is taking place in New Zealand. And, you know, I got involved with New Zealand Hi-Tech Trust gosh, I don’t know, like maybe 7 years ago. And I started off on the Trust. I was lucky enough to be asked to be a judge of the startup category because I was so involved in startups. So they figured that’s a good place to put me. And my favourite place, actually, because that’s where you see really and truly what’s coming down the track. And you see it well before everybody else does..

Marian Johnson:
And some of the applications that I used to sit down and see— I’m not allowed to be a judge anymore because I’m now the chair, which is such a bummer. But anyway, the innovations that you’d see coming down the track were just mind-blowing. There was one one year that was— I’m going to get this completely wrong, and hopefully, hopefully I’m not going to offend whoever was the founder, but I think, I think actually they I think they were actually acquired really quickly. But it was basically a— it was essentially a software platform for programming large numbers of robots at the same time. And when I first read it, I just thought, is this real? Like, is this now? Is this today? Like, I have questions about whether it’s real and it’s now and today and possible. But even more, wow, this is something coming out of New Zealand. It was so future forward that I was amazed. And that’s the kind of application I read on a regular basis.

Marian Johnson:
And last year, it was the 30th anniversary of the New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards. So this year is year 31. It was a real milestone year. Record attendance, 1,000+ attendees, and that was at the TSB Arena in Wellington, which is a lot smaller than where we’re going to be this year in Auckland. I think even more promising, we had a record number of government ministers in attendance, and I’m so happy about that because all of these, this like the various winches that we, that, that I’ve had so far in this podcast have been around leadership and so on, but We had a record number of government ministers turning up, and that signals how seriously the tech sector is now being taken at the highest levels, and that’s incredibly encouraging. And then all of the winners on the stage, you start off with Syios Aerospace who developed their innovation in 4 years. That’s incredible. And when you look at the judges for the company of the year, they’re international investors, they’re international founders.

Marian Johnson:
This is, this is basically the place that you come to see what the heck is happening in New Zealand innovation and where you get a sense of what we’re really, really good at. And most of the time you will leave thinking, oh my gosh, I had no idea that was happening here in New Zealand. So kind of like how I was cracking up over aerospace right after the earthquake and I had no idea Look what’s happened in this country over the last, you know, 15 years. It’s been incredible how fast our tech sector has developed. We’re now the third largest export earner and so on and so on. None of this is surprising to you or to any of our listeners, but I just feel like— well, I don’t feel like, I know that the awards are a perfect place to, a perfect entry into seeing what is happening in our innovation ecosystem.

Paul Spain:
Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, for me, I really enjoy following the awards, you know, talking to those that have been nominated and win because, yeah, it is, it is a real, you know, taste of the very best of innovation and leadership and excellence in tech. Across the country. I’m thinking the company you were referring to there in terms of being able to, you know, control robotic fleets was probably Rocos. Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah.

Paul Spain:
So we had David Ings, who was the CEO and founder or co-founder on an episode back in 2020. So for those that are curious, you.

Marian Johnson:
Can look You could probably— and they.

Paul Spain:
Were acquired, weren’t they? They were, yeah. Drone Deploy acquired them. Yeah. So yeah, so that was— but they were winners, I think, in the NZ Hi-Tech Awards in 2021, just from a quick search. So yeah, there’s just so many So many success stories, but I think hugely inspirational to be following and involved in the Hi-Tech Awards wherever you get plugged in. And of course we’ve got so many people that do give of their time to be involved in judging, like yourself being on the board of the Hi-Tech Trust and serving in a whole range of ways. Yeah, there’s so much that comes out of that. And of course, you know, over the years we’ve been doing more and more interviews with some of those, you know, who have won awards or will do in the future.

Paul Spain:
So yeah, it’s great to be able to be plugged in. So in terms of for 2026, the deadline is fast approaching for the awards. So, you know, What would you like to sort of share around, you know, what are the, what are the tips if folks are, you know, wondering whether, whether they can maybe stand out and win an award?

Marian Johnson:
Well, first of all, I just want to say that the deadline is the 2nd of March. And unfortunately for everyone at Swytec, everybody seems to wait until the 1st of March to start like finishing their application and then they don’t send it off until midnight, at which point there’s like an avalanche of applications that come in. So be smart, start now, or like polish the one that you’ve already started and get it in and, and get it done. But in terms of the quality of applications, um, you know, they’re obviously super variable, but I’m always amazed at how many applications I’ll read all the way through, when I get to the end I have no idea what they do. Honestly, that just kills me. If you, if you can’t do a really quick elevator pitch right at the start before you go into the details, then you’re going to have a hard time growing your business. And this is a really good place for you to refine it, is filling out an application like this, completing an application like this, because it really helps you. It really helps you get super concise in terms of your storytelling about what problem you’re solving, how your solution solves it, what the heart of your value proposition is, and why you’re different from everybody else in the sector and why you deserve to win.

Marian Johnson:
I mean, that is right there and then the whole secret of your business. So you should be able to go bang, bang, bang, bang, that’s it, and have the judge be wowed by, you know, the singular flow and logic of your argument. But what happens really often, which really surprises me, is that there’s so much buzzword usage and overcomplication. And oh my God, if everybody tries to do their application by throwing it into Claude and ChatGPT, which I have no doubt people will, it’s gonna be even worse in terms of buzzword bingo and the rest of it. Please, if you’re going to use AI, which is like, I would too, absolutely, But have that as a starting point and then dive right in and clean it up with your own language, with your own understanding of your value proposition, of your innovation, and, and make it really hugely impactful and make sure that no one could possibly read it without knowing exactly what you do and why you should win. So to me, that’s the critical thing. When you get to the end of it, if you gave it to your mom, would she be like, I totally get what you’re doing. It’s amazing, darling.

Marian Johnson:
And you should definitely win. And if she does, or your dad does, then maybe you’re onto something.

Paul Spain:
Good tips. Good tips. Now, there’s a whole range of categories, right? For those that aren’t super familiar from, you know, business and individual excellence across technology and innovation, I think it’s something like 11 categories. So there’s plenty of opportunities. Everyone’s going to fit into, you know, probably one bucket or another.

Marian Johnson:
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And every year the Trust gets together and one of the exercises we go through is, are these categories relevant? Do these categories need to be updated? And most of the work is in the name so that people can recognize themselves. One of the more difficult categories recently has been around manufacturing and hardware. Yes. We want to make sure that people really can see themselves in that. And what we mean is manufacturing and hardware.

Marian Johnson:
Make sure you read the blurb underneath that explains exactly who that applies to, because I think you’ll find yourself once you have read that blurb. But you’re right, there is something for— there’s a category for absolutely everyone. And we truly have reduced it to the shortest list we possibly could. And a lot of that has come down to the length of the actual evening. And also, obviously, all the different types.

Paul Spain:
Of technology that are out there. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, and it is always an incredible evening. So You know, also for those, you know, if you’re certainly if you’re based outside of Auckland, you know, this now’s a good time to just get in, get your flights booked and so on.

Marian Johnson:
100%, get that ticket. It is always, always, always sold out. And we as trustees have actually been wrapped on the wrist for promising tickets to people who can’t afford tickets or trying to get, you know, a bunch of, you know— anyway, there’s a very— there’s a shortage of, uh, gift tickets, um, and, and that just goes to show how, how popular a ticket this has become. Yeah. Um, I do also want to say that this year is going to be really interesting because, um, and also necessary because The economy has been such a gray subject for so long now, it feels like, you know, the economic downturn is just dragging. And last year, you’ll know, I think our numbers for the tech sector as a whole contracted in terms of the— there were quite a few layoffs, especially in Wellington. There was a, a smaller number of graduates that came out of high school and went into STEM or technology. It has been about— it feels like years of downturn.

Marian Johnson:
But this year, we’re really going to be celebrating this tech ecosystem because there have been some incredible heights reached, and this is time to celebrate. This year is going to be like no other. This year you’re going to see AI front and center. You’ve got, you know, the government’s AI strategy is published. The New Zealand Institute for Advanced Technology is happening. There’s $70 million committed to an AI research platform. And this is going to be the first awards year where we’re truly going to see, I think, the, the impact of that AI-native component coming into the entries that are coming in. And that is basically an enhancement across every single sector, right? And then I also have seen the stature of the awards has grown internationally, and what we are constantly hearing from winners over the last 2 or 3 years is that winning this award has become a catalyst for international recognition and market attention and investor interest.

Marian Johnson:
As it should. And definitely, as it’s always been, for talent attraction. So I feel like the awards are not just a celebration, they’re also becoming quite the launchpad into global markets. And of course, many of our, the, you know, the tech sector already in global markets. I always come at it from the framework of startups. But yeah, it— I’ve seen that really change in the awards, that international piece is becoming more and more of a place where the awards are having impact.

Paul Spain:
That’s really fantastic to hear. Now we’re just about out of time, but I’m curious about your work at Partly. We’ve covered Partly in the past, but yeah, would love to hear how that’s going and how you’re enjoying working for, you know, one of New Zealand’s most innovative startups?

Marian Johnson:
It’s incredible. You know, I’ve been following the Partly, the Partly story for so long now. I met Levi and Nathan and Mark way back when at Ministry of Awesome. They came into Te Ohaka, which was our coworking space for high-growth startups. And it was really funny because that actual cohort that came in, there were so many reasonable successes that have come out of that, like Komodo, for example, and Contented, who’s just raised. There’s so many. I’m going to leave a whole bunch off the list. But the fact of the matter is, is that, you know, partly it was all about the founders in the beginning, and they did quite the pivot, and then they just took off.

Marian Johnson:
It was just kind of a case of, You know, when you, when you have the beginnings of product market fit, you can just see it go, you grow, right? The door is open for you to flood through. And that’s exactly what happened with Partly. So it is so cool to have been on the telling people what to do side of the fence and then being able to move to the, okay, this is where the actual work is. It’s on this side. And doing go-to-market for Partly has been, an incredible, it’s been an incredible time. Coming into North America with no network around certainly the space that we’re in, which is the automotive sector. I have no network around the automotive sector. Last time I was in the United States was, what was it? Gosh, 2005 maybe? Apart from, you know, obviously coming and visiting, but from a work perspective.

Marian Johnson:
So having to meet the entire sector from scratch and building a network from scratch, telling the story of Partly, and suddenly being in the space where the scale is insane, the competition is insane. There’s something here for every problem that you could possibly have. It’s already there. It’s already happening. And what has been really wonderful has been to discover that actually the thing that we have built, which is AI infrastructure for automotive, is— this is new space. This is a brand new category, which in itself is a challenge because you have to explain the category and you have to explain why people need the category, right? But nonetheless, you can see the impact that we’re going to have in the United States and the impact that we’re already having in Europe and Australasia. It’s, it’s really, it’s really exciting. So that whole AI infrastructure piece is really quite unique and no one can deliver it like Partly can deliver it.

Marian Johnson:
So we’re in a really unique position.

Paul Spain:
Exciting, exciting times. Well, we’re out of time, but a reminder for people, 5 PM on the 2nd of March is cutoff for their Hi-Tech Award entries.

Marian Johnson:
That’s right, don’t tell the SwayTech team, they can’t take it. 22nd of March, I mean, 2nd of March. Yeah, and 22nd of May is the.

Paul Spain:
Awards, 2nd of March is the deadline. So get your tickets booked for that one. And we’ll certainly look forward to catching up at the awards. So yeah, great, great time ahead. Wonderful.

Marian Johnson:
All right.

Paul Spain:
Thank you. All the best. And I’ll let you get back to the lovely Florida. A big thank you to our show partners, to Fortinet, Workday, Spark, 2degrees, One New Zealand, and Gorilla Technology. Well, that’s us for this episode. And just a reminder, if you’re listening to the audio, you can follow us on video platforms as well. All right. That’s us.

Paul Spain:
Thank you, Marion Johnson, for joining us on this episode.

Marian Johnson:
Thank you, Paul, for having me.

Paul Spain:
A pleasure.

Marian Johnson:
Cheers.