Showing Young Northlanders the Sustainable Future
The Northland Innovation Centre (NIC), a Whangarei-based business incubator with the mission to make Northland the most sustainable region in the Southern Hemisphere by 2025, today launched its Kiwi Innovators series which will connect Northlanders with New Zealand’s best thinkers in sustainable innovation.
The first Kiwi Innovators event will take place at community creative hub OneOneSix (116 Bank St) on Monday, 18 April, beginning at 10:00am.
Keynote speaker at the event will be Ben O’Brien, CEO of StretchSense, an Auckland-based start-up that makes wearable motion capture sensors.
The free event is open to everyone with an interest in sustainable development and new technology. The event’s organisers also specifically aim to attract young Northlanders interested in a career in fast growing best practice industries.
“Increasing pressure on our environment is forcing the world to take proactive steps toward a sustainable economy,” says NIC Chief Executive Martin Knoche.
“While this environmental change has large implications and brings serious threats for the planet, it is also encouraging a new wave of innovation, as people get serious about making change and finding solutions.”
NIC is working with partners and businesses in Northland to leverage the growing global demand for excellence, especially in sustainability practices.
Mr Knoche wants Northland’s youth to think seriously about directing their intelligence and enthusiasm towards careers that will have a positive effect on the planet.
“Northland is naturally well endowed to become a global leader in renewable resources and we need innovative people in the region to help build a positive, livable future,” says Mr Knoche.
StretchSense was a winner at the 2015 NZ Hi-Tech Awards and New Zealand Innovators Awards. They will be demonstrating their latest award-winning sensors at the Kiwi Innovator event in Whangarei.
ENDS
About Northland Innovation Centre (NIC)
At NIC we feel this is an appropriate metaphor. Our business is about channelling skills and resources needed to propel Northland forward as winds of change gather. Increasing pressure on our environment is forcing the world to take proactive steps toward a sustainable economy. NIC is working with partners and businesses in Northland to leverage this change in a way that will help the region build a safe and prosperous future.
Our mission: to make Northland the most sustainable region in the Southern Hemisphere by 2025.
About StretchSense
StretchSense enables technology companies to capture never-before-seen data on how soft objects move and interact. With a range of sensor products, including stretch, pressure, bend, and shear sensors, StretchSense’s goal is to create highly reliable and accurate sensing technology that is easy for customers to integrate into their next generation of smart products. Stretch sensors are enabling new methods of high performance sports coaching, as well as improving rehabilitation & healthcare delivery methods. www.stretchsense.com.
About ONEONESIX
ONEONESIX is a developing urban community space, resurrecting a vital community resource and asset – bringing life, energy and manaakitangi to a building owned by all people of Whangarei. The space is led by Company of Giants, a local collective with a focus on using theatre practices to share stories, create joy, seed action, and develop together as a community.
Northland Innovation Centre 