Home Articles Wellington is wooing Australian tech talent across the Tasman with its new...

Wellington is wooing Australian tech talent across the Tasman with its new digital campaign

0

A new talent attraction campaign designed to put New Zealand’s capital of cool on the radar for Australian tech talent has recently been launched, in a bid to help attract the workforce needed to support the booming ICT and creative sectors.

The Wellington Works digital campaign tells the story of the city’s culture, collaborative community, balanced lifestyle and global opportunities through the desks of Xero Strategic Programme Manager Erin Connolly, Carnival Mobile iOS Developer Sam Jarman and Zing Designs owner Zheng Li.

 The campaign is part of Wellington City Council’s Destination Wellington programme, and coincides with Grow Wellington’s attendance at the NZ Jobs Expo in Melbourne on April 18-19.

“Wellington Works is designed to highlight the professional opportunities and lifestyle advantages through talented people who work in some of our most exciting companies,” says Positively Wellington Tourism Chief Executive David Perks.

“Targeted banner and social media advertising will drive viewers to an interactive page telling an authentic story of why Wellington works for each desk’s owner. It’s about bringing real stories to likeminded Australians looking for their next career or life move.”

Why is Wellington wooing Australian tech talent?

As New Zealand’s fastest-growing sector, there is huge demand and competition for developers, analysts, strategists and UX designers, says Chair of the Wellington City Council Economic Development & Arts Committee, Councillor Jo Coughlan.

“Right now there are over 330 Wellington IT jobs being advertised on Trade Me, with 63 per cent of those falling into salary bands of over $100,000. These are high value jobs.”

Wellington has the highest concentration of web-based and digital technology companies per capita in New Zealand. In fact, Wellingtonians are more than three times as likely to work in ICT as people in other New Zealand cities.

Wellington is also one of the cities with the highest proportion of fastest-growing technology companies in APAC in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific index.

Grow Wellington Chief Executive Gerard Quinn says the digital campaign is another way of raising awareness among New Zealand expats and Australians considering a career move.

Perks revealed that Australians have made over 12,000 visits to the Work section of WellingtonNZ.com since it was re-launched as a one-stop-shop website in May. “The Wellington Works campaign aims to more than double that by the end of April.”

10 reasons to move to Wellington

  1. Wellington is one of the most affordable cities to live in Australasia – office rent in Wellington is, on average, less than half that in Sydney at US$26/sqm and US$78.80/sqm respectively.
  2. Wellington is great for business – it boasts liberalised laws towards equity crowdfunding and great co-working spaces such as The BizDojo, no wonder it has more start-ups per capita than anywhere else in New Zealand.
  3. According to the Quality of Life Survey 2014, 92 per cent of Wellingtonians agree or strongly agree that Wellington is a great place to live and only 1 in 6 reported feeling stressed. Cue Pharrell’s Happy…
  4. Wellington has a thriving film and digital production industry. Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, Avatar, The Adventures of Tintin, and The Hobbit trilogy were all made in Wellington. How cool!
  5. Nearly all residents live within 3km of the sea, and one hour drive away from the city are pristine forest parks and the world renowned wine region of the Wairarapa.
  6. Wellington’s Central Business District and waterfront district both have free WiFi. Who on this planet doesn’t love free WiFi?
  7. Wellington has been named the ‘Coolest Little Capital’ by Lonely Planet and was listed on BBC’s Hottest Cities in the World 2015, Virgin’s World’s Best Start Up Cities’, Rough Guides’ Top 10 Cities for 2015 and CNN.com’s ‘8 Great Coffee Cities’.
  8. Wellington has an incredible culinary scene with craft beer and craft chocolate a major part of the culture as well. Rough Guides said, “There’s a real buzz about the city’s café scene and smart new craft-beer bars are bubbling up across the city.”
  9. CNN raved about Wellington’s coffee, even putting its flat whites above Sydney’s! “While the ubiquitous flat white was purportedly invented in Sydney, the drink was perfected in Wellington, where it’s become the nation’s unofficial national beverage.”
  10. Vogue wrote that Wellington was becoming so cool it was rivalling hipster capital Portland, Oregon. “Welly, as it is affectionately known, has in recent years become a locavore’s dream, with budding coffee, food, and cocktail scenes to rival that other hipster capital.”

So, are you packing your bags and heading east across the Tasman?