McQueen jets back for•Accelerate anniversary

HE DIAFT

A FAMILIAR face in town for thefirst anniversary of theWollongong business acceleratorwas Internetrix managingdirector Geoff McQueen.

Mr McQueen now lives in SanFrancisco but was heayilyinvolved in the early stages ofiAccelerate.

After suggesting the idea for aStartPad in the Wollongong CBDhe was excited to visit theincubator and meet 17 start-upsbeing mentored by GlobalSolution Strategies' directorsTakahiro and Joanna Kubota.

"It is great to see this," MrMcQueen said.

Mr McQueen moved to theUnited States after spendingthree weeks in San Francisco lastMay as a guest of Google at itspremier internationalconference, GooglelO.

He was invited to speak at thehottest event in the internationaltech industry calendar becauseof the global interest in his newstart-up company Hiive Systemsand its AffinityLive product.

Google had earlier acceptedAffinityLive into its Google AppsMarketplace.

Hiive Systems was spun out ofInternetrix, which wasestablished in 2000 to buildpowerful websites with leadingtechnology for clients such asCrown Casino and Foxtel. Hiiveapplications was initiallydeveloped as an internalmanagement suite for Internetrixin 2004 but interest inAffinityLive in Silicon Valleyprompted Mr McQueen to startbuilding up sales and marketingopportunities in the US.

"About 50 per cent of ourcustomers are in the US now."

Run around the worldIt seems many in the business

Three cheers: Wollongong StartPad mentors Joanna and Takahiro Kubota with Geoff McQueen. Picture: GREG ELLIS

iniHj at* o

flew to New Zealand on NewYear's Day and ran 25km fromQueenstown that afternoon.

"I just passed the 4000kmmark," Dr Denniss said. "I willreach 100 marathons this week.I'm in Arizona, near a placecalled Tuba City. It's on a Navajoreservation. I'm feeling verygood. Guinness World Recordshave officially only recognisedone person to have run aroundthe world. He took five years andeight months. I'm now on track tobreak this time by about fouryears."

ICT board named

its new board for 2012.The ICT cluster encourages the

growth and competitiveness ofthe industry in the region,promotes its collective capacityand provides networking andskills development opportunitiesand helps develop importantlinkages with regionalstakeholders.

The directors are AntoniodeLiseo of Bond InternationalSoftware, Graeme Watchers ofCSC, Andrew Stephenson ofDaley & Co, Chris Savage of PillarAdministration, Michael Lawlerof Selera, Justin Urbanski off1nmmSr*rmp> and Mplissa Rvan

Wollongong. Craig Peden fromUOW, Brendan Logue fromWollongong City Council andNigel McKinnon from NSW Tradeand Investment are alsorepresented as ICT Illawarrasupporters.

Up, up and awayWollongong manufacturing

cluster members have more thanone reason to be excited aboutpotential opportunities the newHelicopter Aircrew TrainingSystem program at Nowra mightbring.

Boeing Defence Australia hasfor thp pnntrart to

Today: Illawarra BusinessAfter Hours

Illawarra Toyota hosts theIllawarra Business Chamber'sMarch networking event from5.30pm at the Illawarra Toyotaparts and services building,Princes Hwy, Albion Park Rail.

Today: NBN Futures ExpoThe expo continues at the

Kiama Pavilion. Communityand not-for-profit seminars anddemonstrations runconcurrently with the generalexhibition, from 10am to 5pm.

Friday: IWIB IllawarraBusiness Women's Awards

A record turnout is expectedfor Illawarra Women inBusiness' annual awards, from11.30am at the Portof inoFunction Centre.

April 3: The IllawarraConnection

JP Consulting NSW directorJonathan Pain, the author ofinvestment newsletter The PainReport, is the guest speaker atThe Illawarra Connection.

April 3: Wollongong SmallBusiness Club networkingmeeting

Warren McKeon DicksonLawyers principal Craig Pryor isspeaking about legal issues forsmall business and the legalchallenges of running an onlinebusiness at the WollongongSmall Business Club at VillaD'oro, from 5.15pm.

global supply chain forcommercial and military aircraft.

Minerals conferenceThe Novotel Wollongong

Northbeach is celebrating beingnamed host of the NSW MineralsIndustry 2012 Environment andCommunity Conference fromOctober 21 to 23.

The annual conference is thepremier environment andcommunity event for the state's$20 billion minerals industry andthe conference attracts delegatesfrom the minerals industry,consultants indnstrv nartners.