About Us
The Manawatū Tech Collective is an industry led non profit organisation working towards a thriving local technology hub.
Purpose: Connect and Grow the Manawatū Tech Community
- Connect by providing opportunities for local tech businesses to collaborate and connect with national initiatives and also to connect individuals with companies.
- Grow by providing pathways for companies to advance their mission and personal growth opportunities for people to develop in their career.
Vision: An Energised Local Tech Ecosystem
An ecosystem that is fun to belong to, benefits the member companies, and the region as a whole.
Objectives
- Connect People
- Grow Local Talent
- Tell Our Story
- Promote Local
- Build the Future
Connect People
- Promote and help coordinate the tech ecosystem in the region
- Communicate local and national opportunities (email newsletter, LinkedIn)
- Promote local tech business to the local community: buy local!
- Network with other tech groups in other regions
- Increase engagement of local tech companies and staff with each other eg through Meetups and special events
- Help interns and students connect with local industry
Grow Local Talent
- Attract talent to the region. Senior developers and technical people are in high demand here
- Promote the region as a good place to have a tech career (affordable living, family friendly, easy commute)
- Retain talent in the region with networking, mentoring, training opportunities
- Provide a career path here, jobs for spouses, internships for children
- Exchange programs, pools of interns, freelancers, contractors to take the overload
Tell our Story
- Regular articles promoting local tech success stories / innovations
- Invitations to be part of big national events (Tech Week, Innovation Expo, etc)
- Encourage the big brand names to spend time here because we have stories worth hearing, businesses worth supporting, people worth training
- Contribute to the national ecosystem
Promote Local
- Work with councils, CEDA and others to encourage local government and local companies to buy local
- Get in local media telling stories of what companies here can do
- Maintain an easy-to-search, cross referenced list of local companies
- Promote local jobs to help keep talented people here
Support the Future
- Help the startup ecosystem find tech co founders
- Support digital technology education in schools
- Coordinate with Massey & Ucol for student projects, summer work, internships and scholarships
- Coordinate with other initiatives (Callaghan student grants, Shadow Tech, Summer of Tech, 123Tech, careers expo)
- Create mentoring opportunities
How we do this
Organisational
- Membership base: Being a membership-led organisation
- Board: Being governed by a proactive board
- Staff: By employing staff to implement programs
- Sponsorship: By attracting sponsorship to help fund operations
Local
- Database: Connecting people with opportunities
- Knowledge sharing: Maintaining open dialog with local ecosystem partners
- Tools and schemes: Providing ways for people working in the tech sector to grow in their career
- Events: Running events for networking and showcasing the industry
- Students: By working with educational institutions and student groups to get graduates into the local industry
External
- Knowledge sharing: Maintaining open dialog with national organisations
- Media and social media: Getting content published in the media and maintaining a social media presence
History
Drawing skilled people to the area is hard. Larger centres have higher wages, better beaches and more night life. Local businesses are often not aware that local tech companies have the talent and experience to provide excellent solutions. Students studying at Massey and UCol leave town unaware that there are companies here with global impact would would love to hire them. Big name vendors and speakers stick to the main centres.
Local tech company owners tried fix this for years, but everyone was so busy running their businesses that no one had time to build momentum and keep things moving. ManawaTech was formed and funded by those leaders. Membership is by annual subscription. A board is elected by the members at the Annual General Meeting each year.
We are part of a much broader Tech Ecosystem nationwide. This lets us bring people and events to town that would normally just go to the big centres.