About
Welcome to the New Zealand Digital Podcast. Most episodes will see Paul Spain hosting a discussion in with a selected industry guest – sometimes in conjunction with John Lai or Sim Ahmed. Discussions will be focussed and relevant to those involved with the digital industry. Topics will vary across the digital space – including discussion related to digital marketing, media, online, social media, advertising, film/TV, software and entrepreneurship.
Special thanks to Idealog Magazine, Gorilla Technology and SMNZ for their support, and DJ/Producer Elusive Tones for our intro/outro audio.
History
The NZ Digital Podcast was born out of NZ #1 local dedicated podcast – the NZ Tech Podcast which launched in early 2011 and soon reached the coveted top spot on iTunes NZ charts. Since launching the NZ Tech Podcast, host Paul Spain has had a hankering to see NZ’s digital and creative industries supported and inspired by a podcast focussed on this space. In early 2013 Paul teamed up with John Lai and Sim Ahmed to establish this new podcast.
Guests
While a list of guests will take some time to be established, these are some of the people featured on the NZ Tech Podcast to date: Alan Mulally (CEO – Ford), Alec Ross (Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – US State Department), Dai Henwood (Comedian), Derek Handley (Co-founder, The Hyperfactory), Emily Banks (Associate Managing Editor – Mashable.com), Peter Maire (Founder, Navman), Raffi Krikorian (Twitter), Xzibit (Rapper, Actor, Host of MTV’s ‘Pimp My Ride’)
Paul Spain
Paul launched NZ’s first social network in 2002. That community, WorldDJ.com, attracted over 300,000 members around the world. WorldDJ.com’s biggest innovation was inventing a personalised profile based advertising and content engine – the type of technology which is now used broadly by Facebook and others to generate lucrative revenue from their users. Today Paul’s involvement in the digital space continues from a number of angles including as a regular tech commentator on TV3 and various podcasts, in addition to having been published by Mashable, Stuff.co.nz, PC World and Netguide. Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulspain
John Lai
John has been working in the digital media space, more specifically online publishing, for over 7 years. John runs a successful digital magazine throughout the Asia Pacific region and has experience in both traditional and digital advertising. John has partnered with many brands in the digital space from LG, Nikon, Red Bull, Dell, Nokia, PlayStation to the US Embassy and XMediaLab Australia. John loves his sports and is a big fan of the world famous Liverpool FC. Follow John on Twitter: @iamjohnlai
Sim Ahmed
Sim is journalist working at Idealog Magazine and StopPress – two of New Zealand’s most important media outlets, both closely associated with the digital and entrepreneurial communities. His role sees him digging for interesting stories and anecdotes from the characters that are a part of the exciting technology scene developing in New Zealand. Whether it’s a well-established business looking to take advantage of new innovations in mobile, or a small start-up working from a garage on their first big app – Sim will be looking for the story behind the technology, people, and their passions. Follow Sim on Twitter: @simantics