Eventfinder chief executive on Ministry's $3m site

Media Release: May 15 2009

TVNZ interviews Eventfinder chief executive over Ministry's $3m website

Alison Mau interviewed Eventfinder (eventfinder.co.nz) chief executive Michael Turner on TVNZ's Breakfast program on Thursday to discuss the Ministry for Culture's spending on a website, nzlive.com, that has cost the New Zealand taxpayer $3 million so far, with published plans to spend another $3.2 million over the next 4 years.

TVNZ Breakfast News says that "Cabinet will soon consider the future of a website in which the Government spent nearly 3 million taxpayer dollars in the last 3 years. Critics and competition say the events listing site, called nzlive.com, designed to showcase what's going on around the country, is identical to the commercially owned website Eventfinder. The Minister of Arts and Culture says the website is an issue from the previous government's arts policy. He says he's looking at the site and will be raising the matter with cabinet soon".

Turner agrees with the Minister, Christopher Finlayson, that the wasteful spending is an issue that needs to be raised in cabinet, and that National inherited the problem from the previous government.

Eventfinder has repeatedly offered to provide event information to nzlive.com to reduce costs, eliminate duplicate effort and allow the Ministry to focus on meaningful support of the arts, as per its original mandate.

"Although the previous government brushed off our proposals to save the New Zealand taxpayer millions, we are hopeful that this government is serious about cutting unnecessary and wasteful spending, especially considering the tough economic conditions the country now faces", says Turner.

Media commentary and historical documentation regarding the issue are available from the website Whynzlive.com. The live interview can be viewed on TVNZ's website - http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/breakfast-thursday-may-14-2735317/video

Although nzlive.com receives only around one third of the traffic that eventfinder.co.nz receives, the Ministry is moving ahead with a new tender to dispose of the Ministry's existing technology and replace it with a new platform that will include features very similar to Eventfinder's current site.

Eventfinder's technology platform is internationally recognised, enabling content sharing agreements with global media companies Yahoo and MSN, as well as New Zealand media companies APN and Fairfax.

Eventfinder is planning to expand its operation by exporting their proprietary technology overseas, and has signed licensing agreements to deploy their platform into three European countries.

"It's a tough environment in which to raise investment so we can expand on our existing overseas licensing deals", says Turner.

"Investors recognise Eventfinder is a world-class operation with significant competitive advantages, but they get a bit jumpy when our biggest domestic competitor is a taxpayer funded Government Ministry".

"We're hoping to get an agreement with the Ministry to co-operate instead of continuing to compete directly by duplicating our services at taxpayer expense".

The Ministry for Culture's acting chief executive Bronwyn Dalley has confirmed a meeting with Eventfinder on Thursday 21 May.

ENDS

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