New cover, courtesy of DDBIdealog was first launched six years ago and it has won best business magazine at the Magazine Awards every year since. Even so, when you’re putting out a mag focused on innovation, there’s always room for improvement, so co-founder and publisher Vincent Heeringa, ex-editor and digital boffin Matt Cooney (the NBR’s Hazel Phillips takes over in mid July), the Image Centre team and DDB, which was responsible for the cover concept and the small ad campaign, gave the old girl a good going over. The latest issue features new sections, a new lay-out, new writers and a soon-to-be-relaunched daily business news service and tablet offering, all filtered through the sieve of innovation and ideas. And to celebrate the transformation, Idealog invited Sam Morgan to speak about some of his business ventures and the importance of media that inspires New Zealanders to try turning their ideas into income.
211 captains of industry attended the breakfast at the Pullman and Morgan started off talking about recent comments from a visiting US academic who said New Zealand has Woody Allen syndrome: always complaining, despite not really having that much to complain about. For him, this negative attitude manifests itself in the fact that he gets asked about twice a week to speak at “Why New Zealand is fucked” conferences, so it was nice to hear some positivity from one of the country’s savviest entrepreneurs and to be inspired by two business success stories (Xero and Brazialian dairy initiative Leitissimo) and one potential success story (Pacific Fibre) that he is involved with.
In Xero’s case, Morgan says its revenue trajectory is close to that of TradeMe and it has similar goals: make things faster and easier, the two things Morgan says he tried to achieve at TradeMe. Pacific Fibre is a massive infrastructure project, and while he admits that’s not really his area of expertise, he believes it’s crucial to get the cost of broadband in New Zealand down. Once this has been done, he says it will definitely make things faster and easier, which will change the way Kiwis—and specifically Kiwi businesses—use the internet.
As for Leitissimo, which you can read about in the latest Idealog magazine, it shows how New Zealand dairy expertise is being used to create wealth in New Zealand by exporting that expertise to other markets. Turns out New Zealand isn’t just a grass factory. Occasionally it’s an innovation factory.
But enough boring words, here are some exciting pictures of people sitting around tables and ogling an Audi taken by Sarah Heeringa. [nggallery id=10]
