Kia ora NZRise Whanau,
It’s been another massive year for us as New Zealand owned digital technology companies, my co-chair Breccan sums up the highlights in a video recap you can view here.
In the meantime some of the highlights plus what is coming up in 2020 are listed below. I wish you all a safe and relaxing summer break but knowing that as business owners we never really take a holiday, I hope you at least get some downtime to recharge.
Safe travels, Ngā mihi, Vic.
2019 Events – another great year of member events including:
- Peter Hughes, State Services Commissioner fireside chat
 - Supporting Nethui
 - Diversity in tech with speaker Livi Ah Hoi from Z.
 - 4th edition of the government procurement rules – what do they mean for NZ business? With 5 of the MBIE Government Procurement team
 - We also ran a quick fire feedback event to brainstorm ideas to pass to MBIE
 - Fireside chat with the Chief Sensor, David Shanks – thanks Miki Szikszai for facilitating
 - The AGM – where we said farewell and thanks to Don
 - Supporting the Digital skills hui
 
Submissions – it was a cracker year for policy submissions, the main ones were:
- Workforce Development Councils composition
 - R&D tax credits bill
 - Government procurement rules
 - Government model contract template review
 - Reform of Vocational Education
 
Skills and Capability
- Victoria continues to chair the Digital Skills Forum on behalf of NZRise
 - In this capacity she has also been engaged by the Future of Work Tripartite Forum for input into Digital Skills and capability for the workforce
 - NZRise worked with other industry groups to provide ongoing feedback to a range of agencies and policy initiatives in this space
 
What’s coming up in 2020
- General election – NZRise along with InternetNZ, ITP and NZTech will be preparing an updated Manifesto for political parties leading up to the election
 - Welcome to 2020 NZRise function Weds Feb 12 – save the date
 - Presentation to MP’s on Disinformation, Digital Democracy and Online Voting in the early new year
 - Future Government Summit 25 March https://futuregov.digitalnations.co.nz/
 - 4th Annual Government Digital Transformation conference 20&21 May http://www.dtnz.aventedge.com/