Across the corridor at the Auckland University of Technology's business incubator in Penrose, Jason Swain, who has a university degree, says he is the only person from his class who is still in New Zealand. He returned recently from London, where he led a software development team of 300 people, and has now started his own wireless application business, Parochus.
He believes the quality of NZ universities is high, but the key to luring graduates home is to generate work that is as exciting as big overseas projects.
"I made a lot of contacts [in London] that are helping the company," he says.
"I started the business to try and encourage people to come back. It's a way to live in NZ and still be part of the interest of overseas work."
David Irving, of the much larger company Synergy International, says work in NZ can actually be more exciting than overseas because people in small teams do a wide range of tasks and can be more "experimental."
"In London they are huge projects. You play a very small part in it," he says.
"You can do things in NZ because transaction volumes don't stop you, you can be imaginative, creative, and come up with a novel or exciting solution. That's what attracts our people to stay."
In the 'knowledge society' being examined by the Catching the Knowledge Wave conference, the key to a country's success is no longer natural resources or even money. It is skilled people.
Right now, those people are in short supply. The latest survey by the Institute of Economic Research found that employers are having difficulty finding both skilled and unskilled workers.
Three kinds of responses are being proposed. In education, the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission has recommended a more planned approach to state subsidies, replacing the current system where those subsidies follow student numbers regardless of whether a course is at a university or a private training school.
Secondly, there are ideas for making better use of immigrants. The Auckland Chamber of Commerce has set up a website, www.newkiwis.co.nz, to help skilled immigrants find jobs.
And the third issue is how to tap into the network of 600,000 New Zealanders overseas, both to use their contacts and knowledge of foreign markets and to attract them back home when their skills are needed. Auckland's LEK Consulting is due to report to ministers this month on ideas such as establishing a database of expatriate Kiwis.
Swain says the real challenge is to create internationally successful businesses.
"The change from when I left NZ a year and a half ago to when I came back was quite noticeable," he says.
"There was no talk of venture capital, there was no talk of assistance from the Government. Those things have changed.
"Give that a year or two to flow through and I think things will start to happen."
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