NZTech growing as fast as the tech sector

Ōtautahi – NZTech is the not-for-profit that has been bringing together and representing New Zealand’s technology ecosystem. 

Over the past few years it has grown from one association and 90 member companies in 2016, to represent 20 tech associations and over 1700 members in 2022. 

The 10 year history of NZTech’s pathway and achievements are captured in the recently released report, The Evolution of NZTech.

The report lays out the secret to NZTech’s success including the organisation’s best practice model, strategic framework, community framework, maturity model, operating frameworks and collective impact platform.

As far back as 1990, the tech sector was recognised as a potential competitive advantage for New Zealand. However, over the following two decades, several failed attempts by government to form an umbrella tech sector group resulted in hyper-fragmentation of the sector’s voice.

By 2005, there were over 100 separate tech bodies engaging with the government. Subsequently, this stimulated a group of tech leaders to form an industry funded organisation, creating an aggregated voice for technology in New Zealand.

The organisation that would become NZTech, was launched in 2009 as a purpose driven not-for-profit, funded by membership fees and not receiving any government subsidies to operate.

Its purpose was to help create a more prosperous New Zealand underpinned by technology. The organisation was established with a strong constitution, financial and governance structures, including a membership fee structure to provide a sustainable financial base.

By 2015, with less than 100 members, it was simply another of the many tech associations in New Zealand. At the end of 2015, the organisation undertook a project to identify the attributes of the most effective associations internationally and their best practice.

As a result, the organisation was formally rebranded as NZTech and went on to launch a national alliance of tech associations. The Tech Alliance initially focused on improving the coordination of a group of independent associations.  

Within two years, the tech alliance had grown to 10 tech associations representing more than 800 organisations. Then the association began disincorporating as separate legal entities and reforming inside the NZTech Group to gain the benefits of scale.

The NZTech Group now has 15 embedded tech associations, operating independently in the market with their own brands, utilising a collective cloud based technology platform sharing more than 30 staff and global best practices.

The Evolution of NZTech report documents the philosophies, structures and frameworks NZTech has developed since 2016 as it transitioned from a typical industry body to a platform structure for collective impact. NZTech’s annual meeting will be held in Auckland on August 10.

For further information contact NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller on 021 02520767 or NZTech’s media specialist, Make Lemonade editor-in-chief Kip Brook on 0275 030188