TUANZ Rural Symposium - My Presentation

UPDATE - Here's the video version of the presentation

Yesterday I presented the keynote address at the annual TUANZ rural event in Wellington. It was well attended with around 150 people and a lot of old faces to catch up with.

My brief was to flash back to the 2002 TUANZ National Broadband Applications conference, when 300 people converged on Nelson for 3days to foresee what broadband Internet could do to improve the economy and society, sector by sector. I was asked to give a shout out to the sectors that had done well, while naming areas for improvement. Here's my presentation.

I named and shamed 4 sectors - agriculture for failing with NAIT, health for a total fail, the ever-increasing digital divide in the school system, and failure to use the capability of the Internet to drive regional development.

Interestingly, every one of the 15 or so people who talked to me during the day, with one exception, wanted to endorse my frustration about the health sector and its failure to embrace the digital era.

I'm giving a more substantive presentation next month specifically on these lost opportunities in health, at the ITX Conference in Wellington. Following the TUANZ feedback I feel more confident that my views are striking a chord. Watch this space.

Thanks, Craig and TUANZ, for including me.