Tech Talk: The Waikato Has Surpassed Its Reputation As The Silicon Valley Of New Zealand

By David Hallett

Silicon Valley-based technology multinationals and their like, wherever they are headquartered, have been turning to Waikato technologists to solve their problems for years.

Commercial sensitivity means only those technologists working at the bleeding edge of technology even know about these projects.

They are sworn to secrecy.

But ongoing relationships like these means the Waikato’s technology sector has continued to grow despite the COVID-19 pandemic and there are many opportunities in this region for those willing to make the move.

The Cultivate Trust recently launched the Tech in the Tron campaign, a collective of private businesses, education providers, and public entities who are enthusiastic about growing the Waikato technology ecosystem, to encourage five hundred skilled workers and their families to the region to help keep up with demand.

The Cultivate Trust has absorbed the work of a former entity, Cultivate IT (Information Technology), and broadened its scope.

As someone involved in both, I am thrilled with this new campaign and the way it was designed to attract people with skills to the region.

I was born in Tokoroa, in South Waikato, and grew up there.

I chose the University of Waikato to study Computer Science, to then buy a house within half an hour’s drive of Hamilton and established software specialist Company-X in the Hamilton CBD.

For me, Hamilton and the Waikato have always been the tech capital of the world.

My business partner Jeremy Hughes and I have always known it is a wonderful place to do business, with our beliefs confirmed three times in the last decade when Company-X ranked on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500.

We want to see a thriving tech sector alongside us here in the Waikato, doubling down on technology, whether that’s agri-tech, sport-tech, bio-tech, or some other form of tech.

We have some big players here already, but we want to attract many more people who want to work for those companies or to set up businesses here.

I wish the Tech in the Tron campaign well.

It is so good to see local government and agencies like Soda and Te Waka getting behind us, and businesses like us, to help continue to grow the sector

Hamilton truly is the city of the future.

David Hallett is a co-founder and director of Waikato software specialist Company-X.

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