A national-scale data hub could create a 'completely new marketplace' in New Zealand.

We need more skilled workers and more support for R&D, writes Phil O'Reilly.

As our information pool grows exponentially, new technology enables us to process big data to provide stunning insights in many fields, writes Alexander Speirs.

When trade diplomats gather in Singapore next month for the latest round of secret negotiations in the wide-ranging Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, the issue of intellectual property will again generate heated debate on the sidelines.

My dad said for years that by working overseas I had learned marketing skills that would be considered brave and bold, if I would just consider coming home. Brain drain, "Flight of the Kiwis" - whatever you call it, I was one of the million-plus New Zeala

Xero is well known to be growing rapidly, with more than 135,000 customers in its latest update, but also interesting is the amount of innovation occurring around Xero as a platform.

Nestled on the outskirts of downtown Auckland is the headquarters of Oktobor Animation - a local computer graphics animation studio driving industry-leading development and production.

We're focusing our attention on four well-documented ICT trends - cloud, social applications, mobility and big data - which are converging to both drive and enable innovation.

Imagine you have cancer. You are sitting at home with your laptop, connected simultaneously by video to your GP, radiologist, surgeon, oncologist and a cancer specialist from Boston, who will come up with your combined care plan.

Artist's impressions of the Lysaght Building, soon to be renovated as part of the Wynyard Precinct.

New Zealand has no problem generating innovation. Hardly a day goes past without a story in the media about some new technology or a smart idea being turned into a business by an entrepreneur.

Innovation has typically been a domain dominated by small-businesses and forward-thinking entrepreneurs. But it's important for New Zealand's success that big corporates create an environment in which innovation can be fostered and flourish.

Innovation from the edge instead requires you to build in order to learn, says Grant Frear.

All CEOs are motivated achievers but Skope Industries boss Guy Stewart has an incentive to succeed not shared by most: he's managing his parents' retirement nest egg.

Today's banks are complex. Over the years they have grown from small retail operations into sprawling financial institutions, along the way acquiring other businesses, inheriting product lines and processes.

Staff from the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will produce a scorecard of Auckland and NZ's innovation system, and the results should be favourable.

Just adding more science, research or development will not improve the innovation rate or export success of New Zealand companies. Innovation is a complicated beast and happens all over the value chain.

Healey, the public sector director in Microsoft NZ's Enterprise and Partner group, has been at the company only a matter of months. But he relishes the intellectual challenge of working with the public sector on issues of national importance.

Young Maori business enthusiast Shay Wright is buzzing about developing a new kind of business support framework for Maori.

Steven Joyce is adamant that innovation has always been in New Zealanders' DNA - a product of the isolation which has driven us to a "do-it-yourself" mentality.

Imagine if we could ensure young New Zealanders were the most digitally literate in the world and had opportunities to be more innovative and better compete in a modern economy.