November 2021 Newsletter

Nau Mai, Haere Mai.

Welcome to the ThincLab Canterbury monthly update.

Image credit: University of Canterbury

Congratulations Maggie-Lee

Professor Maggie-Lee Huckabee became interested in speech pathology and the processes of healing from brain trauma whilst recovering from a head injury herself many years ago. Now as director of the University of Canterbury Rose Centre for Stroke Recovery, her amazing research is bringing new hope for many patients. This work has been recognised for translating academic research into problem-solving applications with commercial potential. Prof. Huckabee’s latest accolade is the highly prestigious MacDiarmid Medal given by the Royal Society of New Zealand – Te Apārangi. Maggie-Lee’s startup company Swallowing Technologies is part of the ThincLab Growth Programme and is currently raising a seed round in an effort to take this technology to clinicians globally.

Berkano Foods Makes Innovation Nation Top 10

ThincLab currently provides an advisory programme to businesses in conjunction with FoodSouth, the food and beverage innovation hub based in Lincoln. So it was great to see FoodSouth company Berkano Foods making headlines during Global Entrepreneurship Week, featuring amongst the Innovation Nation Top 10 as selected by NZ Entrepreneur Magazine. Berkano Foods is rapidly building a reputation as a premium provider of ready-made vegan meals.

Why Meta Matters

ThincLab advisors keep a pretty close eye on the world of business and tech. But our recent “Thinc-piece” discussing the opportunities for New Zealand creative tech in light of the Metaverse announcement, turned out to be quite prophetic. Less than a week later filmmaker Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital was acquired by games company Unity in a multi billion dollar transaction. Catch up with other thought-provoking articles in the news section on the ThincLab Canterbury website.

Callaghan Launches Global Signals

Callaghan Innovation has launched Global Signals reporting on events, products, practice, business models and technologies that have the potential to grow in the field of food and agritech. Curated by serial entrepreneur (and apiarist) Melissa Clark-Reynolds, there is also a related series of workshops on the topic planned for the near future. The workshops are subsidised and super affordable, so be sure to grab a spot.

AmeriKiwi Reimagining Business

After interviewing almost 300 people in business, Steven Moe of Seeds Podcast fame and local legal beagle has published a thoughtful series of essays on Reimagining Business. Available as a free download or audio podcast the essays precede the 2022 launch of his book on this topic.