IT Going Green at CeBIT Event

Hey all,

The word is out that the theme for this year’s Seneca Student Marketing conference revolves around “green” marketing awareness, initiatives and strategies.  To stay consistent with the same theme I dredged a really interesting video while perusing the Globe and Mail website.

I’ll get to the details of the video in just a bit but first, what’s CeBIT? CeBIT is a business event for the international ICT, digital and telecommunications industries.  The annual event attracts key players from the ICT wholesale and retail sectors, banks, services sector, goverment agencies and anyone passionate about technology. 

The video highlighted how the CeBIT convention has always been about showing off the fastest computers and the lastest IT technoogy but this year’s convention was all about the concept of Green IT and how the IT industry is putting forth much effort into producing cleaner and more efficient computers. 

Organizers of this event are working with the Climate Savers Computing Initiative which is comprised of popular IT firms, computer manufacturers and chip makers such as Microsoft, Google, Intel, IBM, Dell, HP and Lenovo.  The comittee’s objective is to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses caused by the use of computrs per year by 54 million tonnes!  According to Green Peace, research indicates that people want the government to invest in Green IT.  

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/video/vs?id=RTGAM.20080306.wv_cebit0306&hub=VideoLineup§ion=Life&pos=3

                                                                                                              

New Zealand ICT Profile – Software Sector

Hey All, 

After browsing around a bit I stumbled upon a site that provides a nice profile of New Zealand’s ICT cluster – Software sector.  Here’s some highlights I dug up:   

New Zealand’s software industry is characterised by innovation, a creative approach to problem-solving, historical self-reliance and the innate ability to ‘do more with less’.  ‘Think Global’ mindset enables New Zealand to design, develop and deliver scalable software, services and solutions to more than 20 countries including key export markets in the USA, Europe, Asia and Australia.

New Zealand’s impact is being felt around the world, particularly at international trade fairs, where New Zealand is often showcased under one national banner. In their international forays, many New Zealand software companies have established significant partnerships with some of the world’s most notable industry leaders.

Many industry observers suggest that New Zealand’s propensity for growing highly innovative and unique software, services and solutions presents itself with a unique challenge – retaining local ownership of our biggest and brightest stars!

Potential for Growth – ‘Bigger Than Texas’

New Zealand’s software industry, as part of the broader ICT sector, has been identified as a high growth sector with the potential to more than double its contribution to the growth of New Zealand’s economy. The ten high-performing ‘creative’ industries, including software, are currently growing at around 8.7% annually – more than twice the country’s economic average. The last five years’ export statistics record a steadily increasing upward curve in sales of software and computer services. This figure barely scratches the surface as figures for the sale of software services are not included.

The software sector in New Zealand is growing much faster than expected due in part to human capital, notable partnership strategies, R&D and endless pursuit for innovation and excellence.  The software sector is a substantial market right now in the region growing more than double the country’s economic average. I firmly believe that with the right support structures in place, New Zealand’s software sector will prosper mightily in the next few years especially in the areas including health, business applications, 3D digital games and entertainment.

Industry Associations

• New Zealand Software Association
  www.softwarenewzealand.org
• Information Technology Association of NZ
  www.itanz.org.nz

http://www.ict-nz.org.nz/profiles/sector-software.html

Till next time…
Idan W.