Tim Calder

MomentumPlus Ltd is a company formed by Darryl Goad - Health and Fitness professional, and Andrew Hamilton - Chartered Accountant, as a one stop shop for small business owners who find themselves under considerable time pressure and stress because their businesses are running inefficiently as they have ineffective systems in place. Both Andrew and Darryl have seen first hand people battling with work life balances, some have very successful businesses but poor lifestyles where others are putting off dealing to escalating business problems. Andrew lectured the Tax Accounting paper on my Master of Entrepreneurship course. What made Andrew’s lectures understandable and interesting was how he could apply the academic principles through real life, recent examples that we as a class could relate to. Andrew and Darryl’s seminars are a must for any business owner as they provide the tools to develop a healthy life and successful business.

WordPress has just launched an Open Source app that lets you write posts, upload photos, and edit your WordPress blog from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Wikipedia describes WordPress as a blog publishing system written in PHP whereby all data is stored in a MySQL database. Since iPhones have recently been released in New Zealand I would suspect that WordPress’s new application will support the growing movement of people starting to blog. I never thought I could get into this personal opinion/information sharing type of thing, but the WordPress interface makes it very quick and easy to write & publish a post online. Now that this system has been made possible using an iPhone (which now operates on a 3G network) the extended coverage will allow for faster information sharing whereby posts can be made instantly from the time of first thought.

Price Waterhouse Coopers have yesterday released a very interesting report which they have conducted on the complete economic benefits of stadia titled “From dressing rooms to conference rooms”. This report identifies key findings which relate to drivers for their development, increased attendance, multi-use applications, community/commercial benefits, funding structures, opportunities and risks, and planned stadia expansions/developments. This is a ‘must read’ for the antis out there as it encompasses both the economic and accounting aspects which are important to be considered together. Thank you to the Otago University for forwarding the Our Stadium Supporters club this information.

My Hero:) Rod Drury has today retired from personal blogging.

I was first introduced to Rod at the University of Otago, School of Business, when he came to speak to the Master of Entrepreneurship and Otago MBA classes. I was inspired by Rod’s successes with Aftermail and with his current global, online accounting software Xero. After listening to his lecture I started following his blog where I enjoyed reading about his opinions and learning from his developments. As an enthusiastic young entrepreneur myself I am keen to follow in his footsteps with some of my web based ideas.

Rod Drury will continue posting occasionally at http://blog.xero.com

It took me a while to get into but now Facebook has become something I look forward to viewing and has changing the way I keep in touch with friends. There is growing opinion that Facebook is heading into troubled waters as employers are starting to view their employees profiles which has begun to restrict the content that the university student base users are uploading. I can understand this concern as I monitor what I upload and filter comments from friends that could offend others. I believe this common concern may create an avenue for another player to enter the social networking web platform as Facebook’s focus becomes to broad. I have just finished launching my second group on Facebook where people are able to join the Our Stadium Supporters club to grow our membership numbers. This is a perfect example of where Facebook is crossing over between personal to business use which is restricting users true personalities in response to those that could be watching and judging.

In what seems to be a very positive move the Carisbrook Stadium Trust is proposing a change to the district plan which would allow them to rezone the land at Awatea Street from Industrial to Campus Zoning. This would allow the trust to further the stadium development and transform this derelict land into a vibrant, functional, and enjoyable area. This news has aggravated the ‘Stop the Stadium group’ as they are seeking to encourage their members to make submissions to the Environment Court against the change in order to delay the process. Not only is this an irresponsible move, it could potentially delay the completion of the stadium which is only just on target to be ready by the 2011 Rugby World Cup. This delay would also end up costing the city more as construction would be put on hold until the appeals have been considered and ruling is made.

The University has recently released iTunes on campus, which means that from the convenience of your own home you are able to download audio and video podcasts of lectures, music performances, and short films. The Otago University’s presence on the site puts it alongside some of the world’s finest universities, including Duke, Harvard, Stanford and Yale.

Novell NetStorage has also been made available at the University. This new system allows students to access their documents stored on the University computer network from remote locations anywhere in the world, like their flats.. Advances like this allow students time to be used more effectively as well as the computer resources on the University campus.

A new Anti-Progress Group, vehemently named “Stop the Stadium“, has formed against the proposed multi-purpose stadium in Dunedin. It is such a pity that these few people cannot see past their own lifetimes and self importance to view this development as what it should be; a 50 year vision. Local Dunedin TV station Channel 9 is running the story tonight as this topic continues to create a stir in the community. Channel 9 is also running a series called ‘The Great Stadium Debate’, designed to help inform the people of Dunedin about the proposed stadium and the controversy surrounding it. I took part in the second episode of the series, sharing my views as a current student at the University of Otago, and debating against three true “antis” (who were clearly blind to the benefits this stadium would bring to the city and instead, only managing to focus on the cost). I sincerely have no problem with people having negative views on the stadium proposal, my only gripe is when they decide to knock the project without being fully informed first, as if they were, they would find that all their concerns have already been addressed. I firmly believe this is the best solution for Dunedin and challenge those who oppose to try and come up with something better.

Rabobank has to be the World’s Greatest Bank as they provide such excellent customer service and internet banking facilities. Every time I call the 0800 number I speak directly to my personal bank officer who straight away recognises me and is able to help me with any of my account enquiries. Rabobank was the first bank to have the RSA SecurID unique code generators which provide the highest level of security, since then other banks have started to bring out this high level of security. Not so long ago Rabobank released their high interest RaboPlus on call accounts which make saving very exciting as you can instantly wire across money to and from your account to take advantage of their excellent interest rates calculated daily. I have a RaboPlus account for all of my companies surplus funds including Share Investment company Chicken Stock Group Limited. I was introduced to Rabobank when I was very young through my parents as I come from a farming background where Rabobank is very well established and recognised around the world as a leader.