Economic benefits of tech revolution could be ‘enormous’

Originally published in Mountain Scene, 21 August 2025

Six months ago, I arrived in Queens-town with a suitcase, a laptop, and a new role leading Technology Queenstown. I knew almost no one, but have been welcomed with open arms and found a community brimming with ambition and heart.

It’s easy to see why Queens-town is one of the fastest-growing regions in the world. The scenery is jaw-dropping, but it’s the people who make you stay. There’s a quiet determination here, a kind of grassroots grit that doesn’t shout, but gets things done.

One thing I wasn’t expecting to find was how deeply people care about the future of this place and the remarkable lengths they are going to in order to make this place even better for our future generations.

Dick and Jillian Jardine’s gift of land to ensure that the foot of the Remarkables will remain unspoilt forever. Rod Drury investing heavily in everything from mountain bike trails to healthcare to make our everyday lives better. Roger Sharp championing a tech town vision, creating career pathways so our kids don’t have to leave home to chase opportunity.

They’re all part of a wider community of locals quietly shaping a better future.

Queenstown’s tech sector is small enough to feel connected, but ambitious enough to think globally. At Technology Queenstown we want to make Queenstown Lakes a place that is known as more than a holiday destination, a place known as a specialist tech hub, with world-class talent, education and tech innovation.

We have some of the key ingredients already: an international airport, fast fibre networks, office space is emerging, and the University of Otago is establishing a local presence. Proposed investments in renewable energy-powered data centres and sub-sea cables into Southland will further boost our digital infrastructure. We have remote workers, tech entrepreneurs and investors, and some promising tech businesses here in the district building world-class products and scaling globally. Most of us will never have heard of these people, who are achieving remarkable things without fanfare.

But if we want Queenstown Lakes to be recognised as a serious player in tech, we need to start telling our stories. We need to be louder, prouder, bolder and more confident in sharing what we’re achieving, because if we don’t champion ourselves, who will?

Of course, it’s not all smooth sailing. The cost of living here is high, and that’s a real challenge. While others are tackling housing affordability and energy costs in the region, at Technology Queenstown we’re focused on lifting incomes by creating high-paying tech jobs. If we get this right, the economic benefits to the wider community will be enormous.

We’re not trying to be the next Silicon Valley, we’re carving out something uniquely ours. Growth is happening, but done right, it can actually help us create opportunities that let locals stay put, earn well, and raise their families here without having to head off over the Tasman.

Six months in, I reckon I’ve landed somewhere pretty special. And I’m confident we’ll build something that lasts.