Justin Tomlinson

Do you want to know if an article, white paper or resource was written or assisted by AI? The Institute of Directors in New Zealand has committed to placing this symbol on their AI assisted resources. Some AI image creation apps have watermarks or logo's to denote it's source. And recently newsrooms have been found to be using #AI and had to wrestle with their standards. I am not interested in having these AI warnings, as I will judge the brand attached or promoting the work. I trust Kirsten and the Institute of Directors team to put out good materials, and that that extends to anything they create with AI and chose to publish. If the quality is poor because of AI, I will lose trust in their brand. The same with the New Zealand Herald, if they promote or publish a poor quality article because of AI, I will judge their brand and trustworthiness. I see real value in images and video having watermarks which spread differently than text, but I will always look to the publisher, agent or organization pushing an article. The good or poor AI will still rely on their quality assurance and standards. What are your thoughts here? Do you like or find these sorts of triggers helpful?

11

3 Comments

Many moons ago (March 2017) this is what tech education looked like in Melbourne (and was in the CBD!). Many of the UX & Web Dev & Digital Marketing & Data Science focused souls that flooded this particular room did so often (and in Sydney too). And Emma Forster and I would fill this room, week in, week out, basically every Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, plus the occasional Monday, Saturday, Friday, and even a few times, Sunday. Often multiple times per day!! And now, you might say that since education can be so easily accessed online that place is irrelevent, I would dispute that heavily, and plenty of others would too. I would also argue that the reason why a campus, like this General Assembly one existed, was to also help these groups form connection with each other, eventually spilling out to form their little UX nerdout friendship groups, or their creative technology nerdout friendship groups, or their product management nerdout friendship groups where they said 'it depends' a lot. Now, we have low amounts of this type of education+engagement prioritised these days, but I do believe that is wrong, if I'm to look at how HEX and Build Club have gone about it. Not to be an old man yelling at a cloud, but startups and technology sat a bit more comfortably alongside design back when. I remember working on many projects or events with a HCD or service design aspect, but they feel like distinct worlds these days. Connecting in person, regarding technology projects, will always be better in person, though you might disagree, and ultimately, one of us is wrong and I don't think it's me. I know some people who would really love to see this energy revitalised, starting with UX/design as a focal point. It was really really cool having this UX influence run through GA in those days, it's the whole point I got into the tech industry in the first place. In particular, I would LOVE to surface a few organisations that are very design-first (one in particular being a Melbourne-fav of mine, Lyssna.) Pls, tag a UX'er in that might be interested in gathering with other folks and I'll see what I can spin up IRL soon, likely just a coffee catchup to start then go from there as little things grow: Emma Forster, George Cockerill, Kayla J Heffernan, Margaret (Mags) Hanley, Catherine Hills, Claire B., Elise Pace, Jessica Burns, Sarah Hawk, Wesley Rodricks, Ever Ng, Rohan Irvine, Eric Zhu, Sean Breasley, Patrick Stafford, Matthew Magain, Buzzby Gray, Dario Michelone, Lital Sherman, Inyoung Choi, Suchismita Hota, John Isaac, Kristin Mark, Felicity Mulhall, Mel Huang, Ellena Watson 🏳️‍🌈, Thiru Yoganathan, Melissa Orr, Elias Proctor, Ashlee Riordan, Niels Wouters, PhD, Anthony Burgo, Ben Barone-Nugent, Stephen Walker, 💻 Nigel Quinlan, Greg Saxton

71

41 Comments

The new Labour government has just announced its intention of shelving £1.3bn of funding promised for tech and AI projects. ⚠️ Thank you, Evening Standard, for letting me pen an article flagging this pressing issue. Given that the government has made economic growth its core mission and that the tech sector is essential to achieving it, cutting this funding is a huge step backwards and needs to be remedied. Here are my thoughts, in a nutshell, on how this can be done: ➡️ First, the government must recognise that the tech sector is central to ambitions for UK economic growth. ➡️ Then, it should focus on supporting public-private-university partnerships, including creating an incubator – a Y Combinator equivalent – to nurture UK companies and talent and attract global investors. The tech sector is one of the few areas where the UK remains a genuine global leader. Let's keep it this way! Read my full argument in the article linked here. 👇 https://lnkd.in/enfinRvd

33

3 Comments

Really proud to get this big piece of work out into the world, in partnership with Commercial Communications Council and Tracksuit. 'Future Demand in Action' is the first report on findings from the Aotearoa Effectiveness Database - our New Zealand version of the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising)'s Databank that we started building three years ago. In the report I look at the style of advertising that most effectively drives immediate sales by converting the current demand in your category, and how that differs from the style of advertising that most effectively drives long term growth by creating future demand. A key outtake is that the main principles of advertising effectiveness discovered by Les Binet and Peter Field hold completely true in a much smaller market like New Zealand and in a post-digital/algorithmic/performance marketing environment 👍 And those, along with a few new things we've introduced to our dataset, make for some really simple 'recipes' for how marketers should approach the management of their brands and advertising. A big thanks to Simon Lendrum and Jodene Murphy who were the people at the start of this journey that made it all possible. Oh and Mark Ritson, you'll enjoy the findings on purpose and NPS 👍

157

11 Comments

Thanks to Kirsten (KP) Patterson, David Downs and Anna Campbell from the Institute of Directors in New Zealand on their reflections and lessons for #governance #directors from the Spark AI* Mini-MBA. Here is my favorite thought on how we should use #generative AI: Treat #AI like a 'high performing graduate'. It has a good base level of knowlege, needs adult supervision in the office, needs to be fact checked, needs good context and requests, your communication will determine it's responses and it will not always perform consistently. Let me know your thoughts on this take. Here are some more of my main takeaways: We have previously talked about an extending digital divide, and we may be seeing an AI class of leaders developing, with some being left behind. As Generative AI is new to a lot of people, many feel they are 'lurkers' - interested but not engaging or not knowing how to engage. You have permission to engage with AI, there is no one that is going to give you an endorsement or permission to explore and learn. Most directors and management are learning about AI together, at the same time. There is room to be an interested learner. Being a learner is key cornerstone of ongoing good governance. There is value in using AI as a "strategy companion", moving past the gimmicky uses of AI that most people engage with. For example in the images there is a clear divide in the depth of use of AI. Understanding the protection of sensitive and private information, AI should be looked at as a significant productivity tool for organizations. David shared a matrix of different uses: - Low risk / Low effort: Email drafting and responses Basic note taking Simple task management Information retrieval - Low effort / High risk: Basic sentiment analysis on public opinion Automated document reviews - Low risk / High effort: Personalised learning and development Advanced meeting summaries Automated report generation Smart scheduling assistance - High effort / High risk: Strategic planning ideas Comprehensive personal knowledge management Enhanced decision support Intelligent virtual assistance AI can help creativity, stimulating and prompting ideas. It can also help with more mundane decisions, allowing space for more intentional thought of complex issues. AI is often thought of as a technological tool, but this can be a limiter on how we can use it, personally as leaders and professionally as organizations. You can start prompts with a caveat, 'I want facts, validate and quote the source of information, and no generated or hallucinated information'. You can also also add these sorts of directions into ChatGPT settings, have a look in the cog icon. This can be a brilliant tool for neuro diverse people, as it can take a large amount of verbal information, and summarize this. There are some things that AI will be an expert on, such as getting AI to write a draft policy on AI use. *I have used AI in this post to refer to Generative AI.

20

10 Comments

As a self-confessed Mark Ritson fanbois (yes, yes, I know he swears quite a bit - get over it!), I loved this article from earlier this year relating to pre-testing ads. It just makes sense. It is also btw, what we do at UserTesting. User Research is not just limited to the domain of UX Researchers or Designers. For Marketers, why wouldn't you want to pre-test before you spend huge amounts on creative copy. The difference is that you can get results back from your target audience in hours, not counted in weeks or even months. Hours. And you save soooooo much $$$. You dont have to follow the feedback, but you do need to listen to it. Its a no-brainer. So why do so many CMO's not bother??? Would love your views... https://lnkd.in/esP39f_F Jamie Anderson Johann Wrede Don M Matejko Sarah Vogt Baran Erkel #pretesting #humaninsights #realtimefeedback #CMO #usertesting

26

'Software is always less interesting than the people who use it.' This for me is the defining line of a new article by the AI Guru/Resident Kiwi that is CreateFuture's very own Angus Allan. You can have all the latest 'bells and whistles' when it comes to tech, but it's all about having the right people and culture in place to really make a success of technologies like AI. Read all about our own AI journey in our latest blog. https://lnkd.in/ehD4Gu2b

2

https://lnkd.in/gHJz7WKi I found this article really powerful but also upsetting, as I see many parallels with the tech industry. There are so many diversity programmes and networks, but very, very rarely does anyone talk about class and how it is such a big factor in if you get hired, your progression, how you're treated when you're finally 'in the room'. It also makes a massive difference in the things that the tech industry makes and how it treats people. I would love to know if anyone else has experienced this or if any organisations are actually recognising the importance of class in the D&I conversation.

15

3 Comments

There's a lot of chat about Gen-Z and the 'anti-hustle' movement. Is it more of a generational criticism or simply younger workers who are more vocal in calling out over-work? Check it out in the article that I penned for The Canberra Times ✏ --- "Gen Z's 'anti-hustle' approach to work is irking older generations. Anti-hustle is a term that refers to workers pulling away from discretionary, outside-of-hours work in the pursuit of work-life balance. And apparently anti-hustle job ads have risen by 30 per cent since the pandemic. I've seen criticism of Gen Z for lacking ambition with specific advice that they need to do the time, referring to the need to slog your guts out early in your career if you want to make something of yourself, professionally speaking. I can't help but think that it's underpinned by the notion that, "I had to do it and therefore vou should" But the truth is, Gen Z calling out the toxicity of hustle culture should be celebrated, not diminished." Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gU6i9DaA

27

5 Comments

At the Launch Vic Awards Nights, there was a lot of talk about the VC’s in our ecosystem, and quite a bit of mention of Angel Syndicates, but no mention of Venture Studios. In fact when people ask me what I do, I often have to explain what a Venture Studio is. So let me make the Venture Studio pitch. Firstly, what is a Venture Studio? Venture Studios give life to startups in two main ways. 1. Ideas are incubated and validated within the Venture Studio, once validated, the team finds the external resources/ people needed to bring the idea to life. 2. External founders brings ideas to Venture Studios, in which the Venture Studio provides services and resources to the founder in exchange for equity. So who is a Venture Studio good for? High Quality Founders, with scalable ideas: The success of a Venture Studio relies on the success of the startups they work with so naturally Venture Studios are looking for the highest quality founders / startups. Early stage founders who are missing a technical partner: During the early days of your startup, if you don’t have a technical partner, you generally require investment or you need to take significant financial risk to fund your MVP build. While most investors won’t want to invest until you have a functional MVP, this is the exact stage many Venture Studio’s like to play in. Why choose a Venture Studio over a development agency? Your developers will have skin in the game The app development process often goes wrong, because building apps is hard. If things go wrong, it’s easy for relationships to sour, and shortcuts to be made. Since Venture Studio’s success is so heavily tied into the success of their startups, by choosing a Venture Studio you have the peace of mind that your developers are so heavily incentivised to deliver an awesome product. Support beyond development Again because the success of the Venture Studios are so heavily tied to the success of the startup, it’s in the our best interest to ensure you are supported beyond your product build. So when it comes to GTM, capital raising and beyond, we aim to provide support and introductions where we. De-risk your financial position So this is the obvious benefit, get to launch without paying or paying a lot less. All of this is not to say, VC’s, Angel’s, Dev Shops all don’t play an important role in this ecosystem, I just feel the Venture Studio voice needs to be heard a bit louder.

22

2 Comments

ANALOG LEADERS IN A DIGITAL WORLD...Again “If you look at history, Australia is one of the best managers of adversity the world has seen and the worst manager of prosperity.” I wonder why we're so scared to take a risk? Follow SOFTWARE Australia today and help us build a software industry to take on the world.

1

How much does a company waste on duplicated / unused technology? According to a report* NZ businesses are wasting $334M / year technology they don't use. For small business for $900 of spend, $600 of that was going to waste and when you scale.... phew.... it's not pretty! And while a 2022 report, I don't think this has got better. At STATE3 we see this a lot. A proliferation of similar technology all doing a similar job or technology subscriptions which were brought and used once if at all... why have one SaaS subscription / portal / CRM / app when you can have 6 that do the same thing and that are possibly never used! The reasons are pretty straight forward: Poor Processes IT Investment - The business goes off roading and buys something on a credit card without due diligence or engaging with the digital / technology team first. Shadow IT - total frustration with the processes in-house so someone gets a bright idea and buys something.... Mergers & Acquisitions - a company acquires another and they keep everything separate and ta dah! There will be others. In hard economic times, the belts get tightened so it makes perfect sense to aim for where the bloat is... in the spend that is duplicated or not used. And this means taking some steps, such as.... * Figure out what you have (Technology / capabilities audit) * Find out if its actually being used (surveying usage (if possible) * Standardise Technology Offerings via a menu of options * Move to a 'user pays' model * Undertake the very unsexy approach of strengthening technology Governance by making people accountable and responsible. We can help with this by showing you what you have, how integrated it is with the rest of your stack and what the TCO is. When you know what you have, you can optimise decision making and ditch the risk. #digitaltransformation #businessstrategy #success #state3enterprise * Report: https://lnkd.in/gRxU_7mC

29

10 Comments

So....funniest thing happened at an AI training session with a government agency this afternoon. 😀 I was demonstrating how Microsoft Copilot was a multimodal tool and asked it to create an image based on this prompt: "Policy analysts working late into the night in New Zealand" Check out what Copilot created! I love it. Whoop whoop it's the policy police! For some reason, policy analysts are all working in red jumpsuits and masks? And there are creepy flying pig things? Tell me why that happened? Is it something to do with a policy/police confusion? In case you're wondering, I was demonstrating the capabilities of ChatGPT vs Copilot. Rest assured that ChatGPT created a much better (more logical) image.

28

9 Comments

We invite you to help guide the work to establish a new kind of organisation that will implement the research, development, and operations of a Māori-centric digital identity structure that will be determined for, by and with our whānau and hapū. This kaupapa is about developing a legal entity that supports digital-identity processes built to incorporate and respect our culture while being able to interoperate with the local, national and global standards to create and capture the function of “identity" for our people. Your input will be used to formulate actionable research questions that address the gaps, challenges and opportunities. The intention is that this mahi will take its place as part of the digital landscape and be bound by our whakapapa, tīkanga and kawa. You can participate in two ways: Fill out our survey - 15 minutes https://lnkd.in/g4_szKqB Or Attend one of our four workshops scheduled for this and next week  6 places in each - Thursday 18th 11am - 1220pm - Thursday 18th 2pm - 320pm - Friday 19th 11am - 1220pm - Monday 22nd 11am - 1220pm https://lnkd.in/gPU-dSRC Together, let's work towards a shared digital identity to support our digital future so that we are deeply rooted in our present, our past and future. Ngā mihi maioha,  Ahau.io, Waikato University and funded by SfTI, one of the National Science Challenges.

38

6 Comments

I had the privilege of talking with folks in Wellington about helping us shape the online world we want for Aotearoa at the Wellington dialogues with NZTech. In my remarks, I emphasised that our work in New Zealand positions us as global leaders. Nearly ten years ago, our Harmful Digital Communications Act and ADR initiatives set the stage, establishing Netsafe as a model for online dispute resolution that is now looked at internationally. Every year, we help over 25,000 individuals navigate online harm, showing the world what’s possible when we prioritise online safety. We also finished 3rd out of 700 projects in the APAC region for the Meta Lama competition for AI with our online harm classification project. But to truly make our digital spaces secure, inclusive, and resilient, I challenged us to think beyond just managing harm—and to think about how to prevent it. I asked those in the audience to imagine an online world that’s safe by default, where tamariki ( children) and different communities can explore and connect without fear. With upcoming legislative reforms, we have a unique opportunity to lead again. Strengthening protections, closing gaps in accountability, and expanding digital education and balancing rights and responsibilities. I also said that of course, regulation alone won’t solve everything but done well it can give everyone clarity and include some important guardrails. Education is at the heart of effective online safety. By empowering individuals across all ages with digital citizenship, we build awareness and understanding, helping users recognise risks, protect themselves, and engage responsibly online. Investing in education cultivates a more resilient digital community, capable of adapting to the evolving digital landscape. Effective online safety requires partnerships with tech, advocacy for digital ethics, and a commitment to education that spans all ages. We must build resilient systems that anticipate and address emerging threats, and not simply react to them and stifle innovation. No single organisation can tackle these challenges alone. By fostering partnerships between tech companies, policymakers, and civil society we can co-create solutions that are robust and dynamic, leveraging collective expertise to address issues before they become problems. Wellington Dialogues underscored the value of reconnecting our local perspectives with the global stage. By exchanging insights with international leaders, we can bring the best ideas to New Zealand and share our successes in return. The Wellington Dialogues simply reaffirmed the power of collaboration. Mia Garlick , David Shanks Nurain Janah Nicole Lopez Jed Horner, PhD Sean Lyons Philippa Smith, PhD Graeme Muller #tech #safety #innovation #socialmedia #newzealand

94

8 Comments

As part of my job - I'm regularly connecting with startups and learning about what they do.   Hi - I'm Marshy 👋 - if we're one of those recent connections.   I chatted with Peter Kakris about ScreenCoach - and between him and his co-founder Stephanie Kakris I think they're building something exciting.   Here's what I love:   👾 It's a gamified system for managing screen time. Kids love games. Kids love screens. Rather than fight with this - they've built something that leverages this.   💪 This is far more effective for habit formation. No you don't need to goof around with Atomic Habits. You need a process that involves adapting over time. ScreenCoach applies this.   🤼‍♂️ It plays to different personality types. Some kids love chipping away at things. Others like building a stockpile of credits and bingeing like a glutton. Guess which one I was growing up? 🤣   ScreenCoach aren't taking the typical startup path and have a crowdfunding campaign that's running now if you want a piece.   Jump on board and good luck to the team! 🛝 I give them the official Marshy thumbs up of approval™ (patent pending)

23

7 Comments

The Founder Mindset 🧠- what is it and can it apply to corporate 👩‍💼👨‍💼 ? Coming Soon 🌏 to SXSW Sydney with your support. Have you thought about the mental model and the capability toolkit 👨‍💻 that are used by the best founders 🏄‍♀️ . What are they and how do they make the difference? Equally, every corporate 🐘 talks about being more ''like a start-up'' 🐅; more entrepreneurial. Is this possible and if so how? 💃 🕺 Eg., TAKING RISKS Most founders thrive on risk-taking and most large corporates are usually risk-averse? Good founders break down risk into a series of steps to map pathways. 🏂 Or is it just a lack of corporate agility 🤸‍♀️ that hinders break-through innovation? Eg., BUILDING MOVEMENTS Great leaders will motivate teams to get behind a cause. So both corporate and start-up leaders build movements. The big difference is that start-up leaders usually lack the money 💵 and the mandate 🏛 . They have to truly sell a vision to people and often with limited financial reward 💰. They have to persuade potential customers 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 with much less personal pedigree. A corporate leader will often use the brand 💥 to build the movement and use their mandate 🥩 and three-line-whip⚡in the company to get the movement 🚀 working. But they deal with a different complexity. Just one of the themes, we'll explore in this panel with the huge experience and wisdom of the panel - 🍇 Kirstin Hunter, MD at Techstars and co-founder and former CEO of Future Super; Alan Jones, highly experienced tech investor, start-up coach & former product director at Yahoo and Bronwyn van der Merwe, a senior leader Accenture Song, formerly VP of Design at Culture Amp, Fjord, Part of Accenture Song, and BBC. Moderated by me, global marketing & innovation exec at Unilever, Castrol, Philips and worked for/with the founders at lastminute.com & Shazam plus my own start-up. Last chance to vote for our session below. The Marketing Academy Fishburners Forbes Forbes Australia Marketing Week The Startup Network Startup Daily Australian Institute of Company Directors Accenture

7

Some more great coverage off the back of the #GlobalSearchAwards win, this is in New Zealand from the Fairfax Media, The Southland Times & #ThePress Stuff, telling the story of Ben McIntyre's journey, teaming up with Dan Sim and taking the world by storm with Kia Ora Digital. One helluva story - congrats Ben, Dan, and the whole team. It's a privilege being part of this SEO 2.0 movement, where it's all about generating revenue from organic search for our eCommerce and SaaS clients worldwide. #EveryConversationIsGold #BuildingAnOrganicRevenueRocketShip #WaitUntilTheTechnologyIsReleasedForKeywordRevenueAnalysis

7

2 Comments

Check out the demo walkthrough of NZ-hosted AI models with full data sovereignty. The target market is local government and education sectors in New Zealand, who do not want to allow data to go overseas or enable AI companies to use their data for training. Thanks Lloyd Vickery #AI #NewZealandTech

4

2 Comments