Technology Queenstown (TQ) founder Roger Sharp gave a keynote address to the FACTS conference in Sydney in front of about 2000 travel, tourism and airline professionals.
Sharp established TQ — aimed at building $1billion in annual tech GDP over the next 20 years — in response to Covid devastating the resort’s tourism-dependent economy.
Echoing Mark Twain, he says history doesn’t repeat but it rhymes — "we may not get Covid again but we may get something else".
"It could be war, it could be another bug of some sort, but there’ll be some form of disruption — and everybody in that conference, in the back of their mind, thinks about what comes next when it does happen."
Sharp says conference organisers asked him "to give a talk about what we’re trying to do in Queenstown to help build a more resilient economy".
However, he also took the opportunity to plug the benefits of Aussie tech workers and companies moving here.
"If you think about what we’re trying to do over 20 years, we only need 4000 to 5000 tech workers to meet our financial targets, and it’s a whole lot easier to get Aussies to come than it is Americans, in my view.
"We’re the only alpine lake with an international airport in the southern hemisphere.
"So, if you have an opportunity to send someone to a place like Queenstown where they can ski or mountain bike or hike and stay loyal to the business, why wouldn’t you do it?
"So we’re really focused on how can we get the Australians to engage, because they don’t need a visa, they can buy a house, it’s close and they love it."
Sharp reveals they’re already helping an Australian company relocate some of their staff to Queenstown.
He says yesterday’s audience was also perfect as the company’s first focus is on developing a travel-tech hub.
The other vital ingredient, he notes, is University of Otago’s plan to set up a tech hub in Queenstown to build a bigger talent pool — to that end, the university’s outgoing sciences pro-vice-chancellor, Professor Richard Barker, is moving to the resort next year to drive that plan.
Sharp, borrowing the famous line from The Blues Brothers film, "we’re on a mission from God", states: "This thing feels like a mission — we’ve got a tiger by the tail, and it’s just starting to stir.
"You can see the early signs of it working, it’s pretty exciting."
