Michael Dell: Next Dell could come from New Zealand

New Zealand’s HiTech association scored a coup recruiting computer maker Michael Dell as a judge for its annual awards which were held last night in Christchurch.

The Texas-based entrepreneur was impressed by what he saw. Commenting on the awards Dell said; “I’ve been hearing about the great ideas coming out of New Zealand for a long time. The opportunities for your ideas to scale and grow has never been greater and never been more global.

“Every new wave of growth and success has been driven by new ideas and new technology. And there’s no reason why New Zealand can’t be the home to the next Dell or Salesforce.com. Embrace your entrepreneurs and give them every encouragement,” he said.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare took out the PricewaterhouseCoopers Supreme Award, while the IRL Emerging Company Award went to human resource software developer Sonar6. Xero, which sells small business accounting software as an online service won the HiFX Innovative Service Product Award.

On a personal note I’m pleased to see an old friend and colleague Keith Newman recognised in the SwayTech Journalist Award. Newman worked with me on PC Magazine New Zealand and manages to combine being one of the country most talented technology writers with being a first class radio documentary maker and a creative poet.