By Yoke Har Lee
Some of New Zealand's best technologies will be showcased at the New York Yacht Club tomorrow at a presentation to venture capitalists, wealthy individuals and pension funds representing billions of dollars of capital.
More than 100 US investors will get a sample of what our companies have to offer by way of technology.
Professor Peter Hunter of the University of Auckland and Prism Software chief executive Chris Johnson will do presentations.
Also pushing our case will be our ambassador to Washington, Jim Bolger; Arlene Mayne of Virtual Spectator (the company doing the animation coverage for the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger races in the America's Cup); Douglas Paul from Caltech Capital Partners; and Jeremy Levin of Perseus Capital. Mr Levin was involved in clinching the licensing of the human organ modelling software done at the University of Auckland.
Trade New Zealand has organised the event and is sponsoring it through its special investment programme.
Nick Arathimos, manager of the programme, is realistic about the prospects for big money pouring in. "We are not looking at the big billions but at small placements into strategic and smart New Zealand companies," he said.
The organiser for the event, Jane Cunliffe, NZ's consul-general and trade commissioner in New York, will tell the Americans what they already know: New Zealand is famous for its scenery.
But she will also point out that our software solutions are world class.
Examples include Aoraki Corp's Jade software used by IBM and others; Binary Research Ltd, which Symantec Corp bought recently for its Ghost disk-cloning software; and the virtual organ-modelling software developed by Professor Hunter's group at the University of Auckland.
In the area of biotechnology, Jim Watson's Genesis Research is supplier of research in plant genomics, while UniServices, the commercial arm of Auckland University, has groundbreaking research in endocrinology and cancer therapy.
NZ pitch to US wealthy
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