Joel Brydon

Most of the value created by startups that grow to be successful is captured by founders and shareholders. If community building events (like those organised by KiwiSaaS) are important inputs to that eventual success then those founders and shareholders should surely be willing to pay for them directly, rather than expecting everybody else to cover that cost. I strongly advise all the founders I work with to spend *less* time at “ecosystem” events and *more* time focused on making their own ventures one that counts. That is by far the biggest contribution that any individual can make to actually growing an ecosystem. It requires founders to engage in the sector where their customers are, rather than the “ecosystem” where other founders are, and many are reluctant to do that because those are much harder conversations. It’s easy for those who love the vibe of the so called “innovation sector” to dismiss me as a hater, as they have done in the past when I’ve made comments like these. But these are the hard truths.

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#joinus for our largest and most expansive #smartcities #event and #program ever in #aotearoa Hear from our: #global #thought #leaders #global #taskforce #leads #regional #leads #global #team On: #smartairports #smarttourism #regional #communities #smartbuildings #smartinfrastructure #cybersecurity #digitaltwins #ai #machinelearning #blockchain #digital #transformation #digital #infrastructure #ethics #sustainability

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It’s amazing to finally see the new ABC News digital experience properly out in the wild.   It's been months of work, across a huge number of teams within not just Digital Product but a significant collaborative effort with our friends in both News and Marketing. It encapsulates a significant step forward for us. One that is a deliberate attempt to appeal to a broader set of the Australian public through a modern, fresh and hopefully more inviting look and feel. It’s important as ABC News constitutes well over half of our weekly digital audiences. It acts as a key gateway into our other products such as ABC iview and ABC listen. So by doing a better job of attracting and retaining audiences through News, we anticipate a rising tide effect elsewhere. Yesterday morning at 6am, we had a raft of teams across Digital Product up early to support the launch. The best launches are the uneventful ones and that was very much the case yesterday. It’s a sign though of solid preparation when a rollout of this magnitude goes according to plan. We wanted to coincide the Web launch with the TV brand refresh that hit audiences via ABC News Breakfast. I must say felt the rebrand was looking sensational across TV yesterday. From black to blue – it's really a much more engaging News brand overall now and seeing it coordinated across TV, digital and third party speaks to the incredible collaboration behind the scenes. One unexpected positive from the launch was witnessing an overall server demand drop, as our morning audience traffic increased from 6am. This is a very rare set of events to occur simultaneously! It was due to the new homepage being built a lot more efficiently than its predecessor. Thus requiring less resources and ultimately delivering faster page load times for our audiences. Although you might have seen some minor changes with the ABC News App, there’s a lot more to come here. We made a collective call to stagger the releases here so that we could de-risk the rollout. So watch this space in the coming weeks. Super proud of what the team's have achieved here 😁 https://lnkd.in/gx9zZXDw

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Doing a landscape review of the content approach on some digital agency websites and loving the Ira Aotearoa website. A few things stood out in this fairly crowded market: The approach to te reo Māori throughout the website (the mobile nav interaction is great). Beautiful! The animation in the headings, which capture the facts and the essence behind everything Ira do (stories, culture, community, strategy) 👏 👏 👏 to whoever designed the interaction and wrote the copy. Those images 😍 love the way they tell the story of what's important to Ira as well as the awesome mahi they evidently do for their clients. The copy - mīharo! It is so good to see a website clearly show what an agency cares about and values in their people and their work - whilst also sounding like real humans. Check it out if you're looking for some inspiration - or just to enjoy a website experience done beautifully well.

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Ready to make 2025 your year of growth? Our latest research uncovers the bold ambitions of mid-market businesses in Australia and the strategic technology investments they’re making to stay ahead next year.     📊 52% plan to invest over $100,000 next year   📈 31% will invest between $200,000 and $300,000     This shows a clear trend. Mid-market businesses are ready to punch above their weight, leveraging technology to compete with larger players. With the right tools, the mid-market can thrive in a big-business world.     Read more about our research on the blog and explore the full report.   https://lnkd.in/g84csRGr   https://lnkd.in/gu7mZt3f 

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“Gatekeeper has exceeded what we were hoping for.” Explore Clayton Utz's collaboration with Gatekeeper. From leveraging data analytics for actionable insights to standardising contract templates for consistency, every aspect of their strategy fosters a robust supplier ecosystem and gives the business more control. Find out more in our joint case study: #LegalInsights #SupplierTransformation #GatekeeperPartnership https://lnkd.in/e-sMPsfv

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Sharing my slides from today's keynote at the Innovate QLD Event hosted by the Public Sector Network. I covered: - how we are thinking about innovation all wrong - how to become a better innovator - Examples where Queensland Government is leading in digital innovation #digitalinnovation #digitalinclusion #digitaleconomy

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One of the most simple ideas (re)pitched at Innovate Aotearoa would arguably deliver the most value in the shortest amount of time. A Digital Public Infrastructure (DPS) approach where government standardised on some of the most common building blocks of digital services would save hundreds of millions of dollars per year AND improve the User Experience of our digital services. Building blocks being things like: - Authentication (login system) - Digital Payments (payment gateways) - Digital Identification (proving who you are) - Notifications (sending alerts and emails) - Content Publishing & forms I feel like there have been attempts at most of these in NZ over the years - but they just haven’t had the long term focus in terms of consistent funding and uptake which is needed to succeed. How can we make this a priority again? Should this be led by government or left to private sector? Thanks Pete Herlihy for the talk (and shout out) #PSNINNOVATE

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Mark Lenzner shared some important emergent insights uncovered by the Innovation Procurement Pathways Program in his keynote at the Future of NSW Government. The IPP team are drafting an Agile public procurement definition: * an approach to buying innovation that favours flexibility and collaboration, incorporating feedback throughout the procurement stages. * an iterative approach to finding and assessing solutions and suppliers while focussing on outcome and upholding governance and probity principles. It does this by breaking the procurement into multiple stages. Each stage has defined deliverables that require increasing levels of detail and evidence of feasibility and value. * a supporting framework that protects buying objectives and outcomes, similar to the roles of Assurance, Risk and IP frameworks. * incorporates a cross functional team of SMEs who work closely together and with key stakeholders in a process that formalises early stakeholder engagement, ways of working, cadence, feedback loops and allows for adjustments as intelligence and requirements evolve. The key difference between procurement of ICT solutions in the private sector, and public procurement is the need for compliance with probity and policy provisions, which may impede scaling successful solutions. Agile public procurements consist of a single sourcing strategy with multiple discrete stages and options for solution providers to tell us, show us, prove it, and demonstrate how they will work with us before building it with us at scale. Kellie Adlam Marina Troyak Ben Xu Bridget Johnston Snezana Novakovic Mark Lenzner Alzbeta Totova Digital.NSW FST Government

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5 months ago, I joined what I thought was a design platform. I couldn't have been more wrong. What I discovered instead: • A rocket ship that's redefining creativity at scale • A place where "impossible" is just Tuesday's to-do list • A team that ships more features in a week than most do in a quarter • Our mission to empower the world to design isn't just a slogan – it drives every decision • The culture of humility despite such massive success is truly refreshing Just last week? Oh, we only: ✨ Launched Dream Lab (AI magic, anyone?) 🚀 Rolled out 40+ game-changing features 💫 And casually grew our valuation by $6B The craziest part? "We're still just 1% of the way there" That's what we say at Canva, even as we just hit 200M users (🤯) and reached a $32B valuation. Here's to being part of a company that's making creativity accessible to literally everyone on the planet. 🌏 https://lnkd.in/g9U2aUZd

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Default rates can be up to 30% higher than standard energy plans. If it’s been a while since you shopped around for a better deal, talk to the Energy Experts at Zembl.

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This is cool, concerning, and not really surprising. Trust in technology and government varies dramatically across society, and the convergence into digital service delivery brings this sharply to the fore. It's not just age that determines 'willingness' or capability to engage! While the long shadow of the Australia Card seems to be fading with time, the reality of delivering on service promises to people who don't wish to go 'all-in' on digital connectivity will remain. Principles of minimum required data, temporary linking based on service and function, and flexible authentication approaches will all need to combine to actually deliver to more people.

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Want to know more about Spark Accelerate? (My current project with Spark New Zealand) Here’s a good write up featured on Idealog ☺️

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Telstra's report shows Aussie small businesses need to embrace tech for efficiency and competitiveness. Many struggle with priorities like website updates and cybersecurity. There's a gap between recognising tech benefits and implementation. How can small businesses effectively prioritise and implement tech for success? Let me know in the comments below! #Leadership #Cybersecurity #Businessowners

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Unfortunately NZ Rise is winding up. They have been a solid advocate for NZ Tech. Credit to all those who have been involved in this tireless mahi. A call for action to support NZ owned companies and thereby support the NZ economy. We can’t complain about a dwindling economy if we then go and spend our money with offshore companies. A quote from Victoria’s article: “In an increasingly globalised market, NZ-owned digital tech businesses play a critical role in supporting New Zealand’s digital sovereignty, creating local jobs, and fostering innovation that speaks to Aotearoa’s unique needs. Yet, these companies face barriers that larger multinationals do not—whether it’s gaining access to government contracts, securing fair procurement practices, or navigating policies that often overlook the contributions of local firms.” #BuyLocal #BuyNZMade

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Miriam Bell, The Post, good read. Another angle to this is leverage in property accelerates wealth building. That allows downsizing and later-life investing in Kiwisaver and Managed funds. We forget, at age 60, we have 30 years left of investing to spread our money out to age 90. Cashing out, or de-risking at retirement age is old-thinking and frankly, madness. It’s these second-season older investors that will contribute to funds such as Simplicity and a percentage of their money will cycle into the likes of Simplicity Living - as Sam Stubbs says, with a goal to build 10,000 rentals over 10 years. We can’t under-estimate the power of the downsizer-investor, in contributing to the shape of the property market.

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The Federal Budget headlines are here, but what truly matters to mid-sized businesses? Our latest MYOB Bi-Annual Business Monitor sheds light on their priorities, surveying 500 mid-market decision-makers (20-500 FTEs, $5m+ revenue) for the first time 👀. Key Findings: - Operational Efficiency is Paramount: Mid-market businesses are laser-focused 🔍 on overcoming cost pressures. Fuel prices (49%), utilities (43%), and interest rates (43%) are their top concerns. - Innovation for Growth: While cautiously optimistic (63% believe the economy will improve📈), they seek measures that support digitization (36%) and national security (37%). - Red Tape Reduction is Crucial: Cutting red tape (36%) is a major priority, allowing them to scale and adapt more effectively🚀. What the Mid-Market Needs: - Streamlining Operations: Incentives to tackle rising fuel and utility costs, along with support for efficient business processes👌. - Investing in Innovation: Funding for digitisation initiatives and policies that foster growth in green technologies and national security sectors💡. - Less Bureaucracy, More Growth: A streamlined regulatory environment to free up resources and unlock their full potential🔓. Read more here - https://lnkd.in/dpsVuKEd

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