A slice of the pie
Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas.
In, er, last week’s issue:
A slice of the pie
With proposed healthcare reform currently shaking up the US, one Kiwi company intends to make the most of it.
Fifteen years ago Ian McCrae turned Orion Health into a global player by harnessing a new invention called the Internet. Today your doctor and local hospital almost certainly use Orion products, allowing them access to a single view of patients’ computerised records.
Now, McCrae wants to take advantage of Obama’s proposals for full digital health records for the whole of the US. “That’s a big pie,” says of Obama’s billions. “All we need is one percent of that.”
Still a big goal, but design and usability, he reckons, is the key-that Orion software will be so easy and instinctive for healthcare people to use, they won’t need instructions and won’t need to learn anything new.
Easier said than done? Read about the inroads the company has already made into the US in the latest Idealog and on
our website.
Record number of records
A pretty sad tale but a mind-boggling collection of vinyl. Paul Mawhinney bought his first record in the 50s, and was hooked. As his collection grew (and was nearly turfed out by his long-suffering wife when it crept over the 150,000 mark) so did Mawhinney’s realisation that vinyl was a dying art form that must be saved for future generations. The collection now boasts three million records, most unavailable anywhere else, and is valued at over US$50 million. It’s up for sale at a fraction of the price as Mawhinney struggles with ill-health but so far no one is biting … a fascinating look at a man trying to leave a legacy.
http://vimeo.com/1546186
Harshing their mellow
A video of kids undertaking the marshmallow experiment, where they’re handed one of the fluffy treats and given the option to eat it now—or wait 20 minutes and get to eat two. While there are some super-cute pained expressions here as the littlies desperately try to resist temptation (and who can’t relate to that?), there’s more to the experiment than just intolerable torture.
http://vimeo.com/5239013
We want a pitcher
They say practice makes perfect. And if you’re going to sell your hot idea, you’re going to have to perfect your pitch. By practicing it. A lot.
And what better way than by entering your great idea in the The ICEHOUSE calls it a real-life Dragons Den, run in Auckland over three weeks in October, but you won’t be thrown cold to the dragons. ICEHOUSE CEO Andrew Hamilton and Ken Erskine, director of the ICE Accelerator and ICE Angels investors, will host a content-crammed seminar session on October 8: ‘The 3 keys to successful pitches’. Learn what investors and big customers are really looking for; find out how to tailor your language to the critical questions they will ask; and hear how pitching well has helped other businesses take leaps into high growth.
Take that information and prepare your 60-second pitch (yep, 60 seconds!) for delivery in a small group coaching session with an ICEHOUSE expert on Thursday 15 October. The leading pitchers from each group will compete in front of the whole audience for a chance to be one of ten finalists in FAST Pitch 2009. Finalists each receive two hours of individual coaching by ICEHOUSE experts.
And on October 27, finalists get to pitch to a panel of judges (including Idealog publisher Vincent Heeringa), angel investors, venture capitalists and businesspeople. There are four category awards: Best Intellectual Property Idea, Best Funding Opportunity for Investors, Best Presentation Skills and the People’s Choice Award. The overall winner will be selected from the winners of those categories.
The grand prize is valued at over $15,000 and includes three months in The ICEHOUSE’S leading incubator ICE Accelerator and the opportunity to pitch directly to any of the participating investors. The total prize pool is valued at over $45,000 and is supported by ICEHOUSE founder The University of Auckland Business School and corporate partners BNZ, BCG, Ernst & Young, HP, Gen-i, Microsoft, Minter Ellison Rudd Watts and Telecom.
All that for just an $85 entry fee. Register at www.theicehouse.co.nz, and here’s ICEHOUSE’s Andrew Hamilton explaining FAST Pitch on the telly.
Give us a hand
Idealog is now four years old. Like all four-year-olds, we could do with a little guidance. So help us out: we’ve put together an easy five-minute survey to let us know what you think of Idealog: the things you love, and the things only a mother could love. We know your time is precious so we’ll make it worth your while: every completed response we receive will be entered into a prize draw with the opportunity to win a THERMAGENIUS heat pump water-heating system worth $4,500, plus $500 towards installation from Leap. So tell us what you think, and don’t hold back!
You can complete the survey online in just five minutes; there’s also a print version of the survey included with newsstand and subscriber copies of the current Idealog.
GetNet – website design that can bring you business.
Want a website that generates business? GetNet websites do just that. When people are at your website they need to immediately ‘get’ that they’re at the right place, they need to be convinced that you’re the right company for them and they need to be able to move forward by enquiring, buying, requesting info or making a booking. Go to www.getnet.co.nz to find out how you can get a website that brings you business.
The cream of the crap
The Tracy Awards are calling for nominations for the Worst Advertising of 2009. Here are the submissions so far. Words fail us (and failed these advertisers, too).
Job of the Week
Intermediate Packaging Designer (P0518)
Packaging Design Agency • Great Central Location - Modern Offices • Fabulous Opportunity
Our client is a well respected international packaging design agency, and they are currently looking to get an intermediate packaging designer on-board to work alongside their Creative Director. In this role you will be able to demonstrate your wide variety of packaging experience and your passion for this niche of the design sector.
The Creative Director is looking for someone who’s passionate about great design/creative and who is young, hungry and prepared to challenge things. Someone who can really add value to the design team and who has that special creative vision and is happy at times to work to a strict client criteria.
This is a fantastic time to get involved with this company as they are gearing up their profile and wanting to really let people know all about them! In this role there will be lots of future prospects.
To be considered for this role you will have an outstanding portfolio of packaging design with the added bonus of some brand design work. But most of all for this role you need to have enthusiasm and a positive attitude!
If this role sounds like the right next step for you, then please send Sarah Adams your CV and portfolio (no bigger than 3mb) to sarah@portfoliorecuit.co.nz or apply on our website.
Who can you trust?
Last week’s Weekly was sent out with an erroneous link that resulted in a message saying the destination website was “untrusted”. The mistake was ours, and we’d like to reassure readers that there was nothing untrustworthy at the end of the wire. We’re sorry for any confusion.
Quote of the week
The way to get good products is really good design up front. Once you do a good design people will copy it. You have to be putting out good design twice as fast as everybody else to stay ahead.
-Ian McCrae, a few clicks ahead of the rest of us
More at Idealog online
Read more on our website: web exclusives, opinion, creative directory, Idealog TV, the Idealog blogs and the Idealog podcast. See you at idealog.co.nz.
The Idealog team
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