THE INNOVATORS

FEATURE

“What is now proved was once only imagined.” – William Blake

‘Future forward’ is the only orientation that counts. Here’s to the thrill of progress, the necessity of innovation and to creating this bright city’s future, one step at a time.

WORDS Joshua Brosnahan

If you went back in time to watch a classic rugby or cricket match 20, 30 or even 40 years ago – how different would it be from the typical stadium experience these days? If you ask business developer and serial innovator Greg Stubbings, he’d say: not different enough!

“Years ago, the average Kiwi might have been happy to park two suburbs away from the stadium, line up for 40 minutes to get in, then sit in silence on a hard wooden bench pretending to enjoy a warm beer and a cold hotdog. These days, not so much. The modern world has really spoiled us!”

As a former TV sports producer and reporter, Greg is a lifelong fan of live sport. He was increasingly disheartened by the trend towards fewer and fewer people attending live games.

“You don’t have to be a marketing genius to see there are obvious issues selling the ‘old world’ stadium experience. These days we all have infinite, two-way entertainment options in the palm of our hands. We are used to getting everything on demand and doing things our way. Live sport can’t afford to be an analogue ‘pay up, line up, shut up’ experience anymore.”

Believing there was a way to help sports do it better, Greg and his team began building a digital platform and mobile app that aimed to completely overhaul the fan experience.

“Our Fanatical platform lets you see exactly where your seats are and reserve a parking space close to your gate. You can then see a full menu of all the food and drink options available and pre-order something to pick up as you walk in. No more queues.”

At the game itself, Greg envisaged a far more comfortable, spectator-friendly experience.

“When you get to your seat, you might find you want to hire a cushion or a blanket. Maybe another drink? Order those on the app. Need to go to the toilet? Get estimated queue times so you can choose the best time and place to go.”

A key part of what Greg wanted to achieve with Fanatical was helping spectators become a more active, engaged part of the stadium experience.

“Fanatical lets people send messages and photos to the big screen. And request a song from the DJ. One of the things I really like is the option to guess the score and vote for the MVP – with live updates of just how wrong we all were!”

Greg and his team ran a full season trial with the Canterbury Rams basketball team to test their newly minted Fanatical platform.

“The Rams were a perfect fit for us because they are totally committed to the fan experience. You can’t help but be impressed with what those guys do.”

With testing complete, Greg’s team is now looking for more sports organisations to work with.

“My hope is that more Kiwi sports embrace that ‘doing the same thing we’ve always done’ isn’t going to put the fans’ proverbial back on seats. It’s time to compete with other entertainment options by creating the best possible fan experience. If that means getting a beer delivered to my seat… then let’s make that happen!”

fanatical.app

WORDS Liam Stretch

The Canterbury region has a long history of folks taking on the world with great ideas. An aerospace company with an innovative vision for the future is one of the latest to take on this mantle.

Kea Aerospace is based in central Christchurch and aims to send its solar-powered aircraft to the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

For those who didn’t take high school Science, the atmosphere is a little like an onion. It has layers. In one of those not-so-oniony layers is the stratosphere – approximately 20 kilometres above the Earth’s surface or 65,000 feet. It’s there that Kea Aerospace wants to send its flagship aircraft, the Kea Atmos.

The Kea Atmos will be the largest unmanned aircraft ever built in the Southern Hemisphere, with a wingspan of over 30 metres. It will be a green aircraft propelled by electric motors powered by hundreds of solar cells to collect enough energy from the sun each day to enable it to fly continuously for months.

Described as a game-changer for aerial imaging, the Atmos and its suite of equipment will be able to improve intelligence gathering on smart cities, disaster management, agriculture, and environmental and maritime monitoring. It trumps the capability of current piloted aircraft, satellites, and drones.

“We’re in a bit of a sweet spot in the stratosphere where we can actually be low enough and get high resolution. But also, we can get that broader coverage. And we’re not burning fuel, we’re not putting pilots in danger, and we’re flying above the weather in the jet streams,” CEO Mark Rocket says.

You may recognise the name, that’s because self-described ‘internet entrepreneur’ Mark Rocket has an impressive résumé when it comes to aerospace; he was one of the seed investors and former codirector of Rocket Lab.

Alongside his commercial experience, he was part of a group that began aerospace meetups in the city, which has now formed into Aerospace Christchurch, and they will hold their first national summit on 21 February.

A couple of things spur Mark on to succeed with Kea Aerospace; one is simply the project itself.

“It is such a super cool project to build the largest unmanned aircraft in the southern hemisphere. You know, it’s going to be a beautiful aircraft with incredible applications. I like the novelty of it. I like to do things that haven’t been done before.”

He also wants to support the emerging talent in Ōtautahi.

“A key motivation is that I saw all these great graduates coming out of the University of Canterbury, and they had very few local aerospace jobs to move into. So, they had to go to Auckland or to offshore aerospace companies.”

The Kea Atmos will be launched from Kaitōrete Spit on the banks of Lake Ellesmere Te Waihora as part of Project Tāwhaki. Project Tāwhaki is a partnership between Te Taumutu Rūnanga, Wairewa Rūnanga (together as Kaitōrete Limited) and the New Zealand Government to protect and rejuvenate the Kaitōrete environment while developing aerospace activities and research and development facilities.

As development continues, Mark’s eventual hope is that there will be fleets of Atmos aircraft operating around the globe with mission control based in Christchurch.

keaaerospace.com