19 January 2004
Media release: For immediate release
Knowledge Wave Gap Filled
New Zealand’s Knowledge Wave 2003 Conference has stimulated the development of a new internet business innovation
information exchange.
The information exchange www.ideas.org.nz will help developing businesses, innovative thinkers and a range of public and private business development
organisations make connections with each other.
The developer of the information exchange Matthew Blomfield says he saw a pressing need for it when he attended last
year’s Knowledge Wave conference after being nominated by the Tyndall Foundation as an emerging business leader.
“There were plenty of great people at the conference with good ideas, businesses with a desire to innovate and grow,
and agencies willing and able to help – but they all spoke about the difficulties of getting together,” Blomfield says.
Blomfield left the event convinced that an internet business innovation information exchange would fill a critical gap
in the process of connecting young innovators, businesses with development challenges, and public and private sector
agencies able to assist with the implementation of business growth strategies.
“I knew that James Lunday from Sustainable New Zealand and the Tindall Foundation had also identified the problem and
some possible solutions..
“So, I went back to the Foundation, offered a voluntary commitment from my own M J Blomfield business team to build the www.ideas.org.nz information exchange. The Foundation provided seed funding that enabled us to carry out the necessary research. .
“We’ve spent most of the last year liaising with a wide range of Government agencies, education sector and private
sector organisations, business leaders, and young innovators to build a system that will help them all turn good ideas
into business results by cutting through the maze that often separates them,” says Blomfield.
“We’ve analysed the needs of potential users, developed the IT systems and the website architecture with beweb limited,
and we’re very close to achieving the on-going funding base to ensure that www.ideas.org.nz is sustainable, free-to-use,
easy-to-use, and always up-to-date.
“The exchange system is now up and running, and we expect to secure the operating funding from supporters to get it
‘live on line’ in the first quarter of this year,” says Blomfield.
ENDS