Tim Calder

This evening Students of the University of Otago were fortunate to participate in Public Policy discussions with the New Zealand Business Roundtable Executive Director, Rodger Kerr. Unfortunately much of the discussion seemed to circle around the recent event of Winston Peters and the undeclared donation of funds to the Spencer Trust.

It was good to see however the range of different diciplines the students came from and how each of their questions related to policies that would potentially effect their future careers. There was a good turn out of business students, many of which had recently competed in the Audacious Business Plan Competition who had some excellent questions for Rodger Kerr and the MP’s that attended the event. These questions brought about great discussions on Entrepreneurial incentives and support and challenged the MP’s that attended to pay more attention to this growing area of activity.

For those of you NOT on my Our Stadium Supporters Club mailing list, below is a copy of what was sent. If you would like to receive updates on the progress of the stadium please follow this link.

Dear Member

As you may be aware, the district plan change which is needed to re-zone the land for the stadium is progressing and the Dunedin City Council are now accepting further submissions on those that were received in the first round. Here at Our Stadium we noted there were a number of “standard” submissions against the plan change the content of which we do not agree with. We have therefore drafted a further submission and are requesting your help. We are asking that people take the further submission that we have drafted and send it to DCC. All you need to do is:

• Complete your name, address, telephone and e-mail
• Indicate whether you wish to be heard or not at the hearings
• Check you are happy with the contents – by all means please feel free to amend as appropriate
• Then either e-mail or post it so that it reaches DCC no later than 26 September

Your help is very much appreciated

Regards,

Tim Calder
Secretary

[Further Submission Form]

For further information about the project you can visit, Carisbrook Stadium Trust, Our Stadium Supporters Club, and Wikipedia.

10:06 The Sunday Group: The Dunedin Stadium Debate

It’s planned to be the biggest indoor venue in the country, a bright star in Dunedin’s otherwise (some say) flagging fortunes. But the proposed stadium, with its price tag of almost $200 million, has its detractors – concerned citizens who say it will cost a lot of public money, for little public good.

Chris Laidlaw chairs a panel that includes: Malcolm Farry, Chairman of the Carisbrook Stadium Trust; Bev Butler, President of Stop the Stadium; Tim Calder, a founder of the Our Stadium support group; and Otago Regional Councillor Michael Deaker.

Produced by Christine Cessford

After constantly hearing about all of my parents exhaustive efforts in competing in the Ballance Farm Environmental awards over the past few years I was shocked to read the google alert that came up reporting on a ‘Scoop article’ explaining that they are keen to do it all over again. A lot of time goes into preparing farms for these awards as such a wide range of areas are judged. I understand that this time my father has been preparing for a couple of years and thanks to Environment Bay of Plenty (EBOP) he has managed to retire and plant many uneconomic and environmentally sensitive areas of the farm.

Bruce and Tessa entered the Ballance Farm Environment Awards in 2006 and won the Ballance Nutrient Management Award. Judges were impressed by the Calder’s switch from blanket fertiliser application to a planned approach of identifying individual paddocks and liming and fertilising them according to the results of soil test recommendations. (Scoop, 16/9/08)

This announcement comes just as I finish my Sustainability paper which is part of the Otago MBA with John Craig. John has spent the last three weeks discussing the many areas of unsustainable business processes, many of which are not often considered by those exploiting the environment. It was John’s intent to make us aware of how companies are making unsustainable decisions, which can be prevented, in order for us to become more environmentally aware managers.

Last week I met with Pierre-Em and Jason over drink at South Bar to catchup with how our ventures are progressing. Pierre-Em is the co-founder of G-tours which is developing a cross platform software solution that combines GPS technology and data management on mobile devices for the tourism industry. Jason is the co-founder of PocketSmith which is an online cash flow management system used to help you budget for future purchases/savings goals.

At this meeting we talked about forming an ICT network of young entrepreneurs around Dunedin who would meet regularly to discuss our highs & lows, successes & challenges. We would also use this opportunty to allow people to network with other companies in related industries and to listen to guest speakers and angel investors. This would also provide people like us with a chance to discuss the support they require as many new business ventures are not aware of what organisations can help them.

One of the main objectives of forming this group would be to endeavor to gather together enough like-minded people that have great ICT ideas which need developing so that we can establish New Zealand’s first Y-Combinator which we would call The Distiller.

Y Combinator is a new kind of venture firm specializing in funding early stage startups. We help startups through what is for many the hardest step, from idea to company.

We invest mostly in software and web services. And because we are ourselves technology people, we prefer groups with a lot of technical depth. We care more about how smart you are than how old you are, and more about the quality of your ideas than whether you have a formal business plan.

The Y-Combinator has experienced huge success overseas with a range of great investor ready businesses coming out of incubation regularly. We believe this can be replicated in Dunedin as there is already the key components of this concept in place;

• Kickstart Entrepreneurial support,
• UPSTART Business incubator,
• New Zealand’s most valuable Angel Investor network,
• Otago University’s Centre for Innovation and research,
• and five supportive regional mayors which make up the Otago Forward Economic Development Strategy

In the next few weeks we will be approaching these different organisations and others to try to establish ways that we can all work together to achieve success. At the same time we need to start our regular meetings at the Dunedin Club where we have been allocated conference rooms and more importantly the bar.

While we are upgrading the Our Stadium Supporters website follow this link to Dunedin Stadium Redevelopment Supporters Thread which was formed independently of our group. This tread has provided me with some great insight to some of the activities going on with this development that I wasn’t aware of and has some interesting industry commentary:

Just noting here that cost isn’t an environmental effect, so therefore anyone for or against the stadium will only have their opinion on the environmental effects of a stadium listened to at any hearing.

The RMA specifically excludes financials from environmental effects.

J.H.Kunstler

This tread is a must read for all supporters with questions and comments.

Juice TV have started collecting votes for their 8th Annual Music Video Awards. Finalists include a complete who’s who of NZ music right now – Opshop, Shihad, Tiki Taane, Autozamm, Nesian Mystik, Hollie Smith, Luke Thompson, Atlas, Elemeno P, The Brunettes and so many more with All Awards decided completely by public vote. My mate Jonny Love is one of the finalists for the ‘Best Breakthru Video’ category (follow this link to vote) which is a massive achievement in such a competitive industry. The awards will be announced on Tuesday September 30th at the Stamford Plaza in Auckland, broadcast live on New Zealand’s Music Channel Free-to-air in Auckland and on Sky Digital Channel 62 across NZ.

This week Jonny will be in Dunedin, where it all began, to celebrate his 26th birthday (6th) and perform at Dunedins top bar ‘South’. I will also be amoung the cellebrations at Jonny’s album release party on the 3rd of October whereby from the 6th onwards you’ll be able to purchase a copy of Jonny Love’s new album “Last day of June” in all major music stores nationwide.

Good luck and Happy Birthday for this weekend Jonny, look forward to catching up.