Liz Foxwell-Canning was caught off guard when she was asked to take the reins of Canterbury Tech, but has made huge strides in her short time as fractional chief executive.
The organisation focuses on bringing the region’s tech industry together, with monthly events that attract around 100 people.
It also hosts two major events each year: Tech Summit, happening in September, and Tech Week’s Tech Fest, happening Tuesday this week – more details below.
A tap on the shoulder
After Liz joined the board at the end of 2024, her friend Lousia Taylor decided to step down from the CEO role.
Liz asked chair Michelle Shirtcliffe if there was anyone the board liked for the role and, to Liz’s surprise, she was asked to take the job.
After getting approval from the rest of the board, Liz accepted and is now CEO of Canterbury Tech two days a week.
Canterbury Tech is described as Aotearoa's most active tech community, a quality that Liz wants to retain and build upon.
She stepped into the role at a pivotal time for the organisation, at the start of a new three-year strategy period, and during one of the most macroeconomically complicated times in recent history.
“We're in a super fast changing environment right now. The pace of change in the world is faster than it's ever been … and we need to ensure that we are keeping up.”
Three-year plan
So, after Liz took over the role in February of this year, she and the board got busy planning.
The result was a strategy for the next three years of Canterbury Tech, with each year having a strategic focus.
“This year it's ‘Create’, which is around refreshing and creating additional member value.”
The organisation already offers the popular monthly in-person events and regular online events, student memberships to offer talent pipeline into local tech companies, webinars and more.
It has now added short upskilling courses at heavily discounted rates for members and Liz wants to continue to add new value over the coming year.
Year two’s theme will be “Attract”, growing membership numbers, and the final theme will be “Facilitate”, making connections between members to generate new opportunities.
While increasing membership was important, Liz said that more vital was keeping a high level of engagement with members.
“I'd rather actually have a smaller organisation that's highly engaged than a large organisation where only 10% of the people are involved actively month on month. It’s about getting that balance right”
Tech Fest
This week marks national Tech Week, which includes a massive Canterbury Tech event: Tech Fest, on Tuesday May 20 from 1pm to 7pm.
Liz said the venue was the “beautiful” The Piano in Christchurch Central City.
“The quality of the event, the quality of the speakers, the topics, the facilitated networking and the buffet to round off the evening – I just think it's going to be an amazing event.”
The event is free for members, and will include a huge range of speakers as it splits into two tracks: FinTech and MedTech, with speakers from the likes of Dynamic Controls, Taska Prosthetics, Xero and Akahu.
Plus, there will be dedicated networking time for the 300+ attendees, both facilitated and unstructured.
The day’s agenda can be found in full on the organisation’s website.
All aboard
Liz said Canterbury Tech is and will continue to be an environment where everyone across the industry is welcome and extended an invitation.
“Come along and get out of it what you want. If you want to give something back, even better. Talk to us and we'll endeavour to help make stuff happen.”
