Out to Market: Communicating tech messages
Last year saw a huge increase in tech listings on the ASX, many of them through the backdoor listings of former mining shells and thus, many based in WA.
But despite the activity, there remain some very real issues for these businesses, not least, how best to attract interest from a market which doesn’t traditionally speak ‘tech’.
The innovative nature of these businesses requires a level of education for consumers and investors alike, which is why I was excited to take part in the recent “Innovation: Seeing Is Believing” tour, a fact-finding program helping the media meet some of the amazing projects we have in WA.
We spent time with tech projects as diverse as Carnegie Wave Energy, a world leader in generating electricity from tidal movement, the high resolution mapping company Spookfish, and of course, ICRAR (the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research) which manages many of the elements which will make up the world’s largest radio telescope at the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in the Murchison.
Of the 18 tech and innovation project teams I met, almost all of them have embraced a more open, transparent and, frankly, welcoming approach to communications than the traditional investment sectors.
Many use video to explain what their products are, and more importantly, the benefits they bring. With video predicted by some to make up as much as 84 per cent of all internet traffic by 2018, it’s wise to be conversant with the medium to distribute messaging. Media releases alone just don’t cut it anymore.
Tech-based companies are also more likely to use social media to share their story and build relationships with potential investors and customers. When I tweeted an image of Talga MD Mark Thompson demonstrating the conductive properties of graphene to WA’s chief scientist Chief Scientist Peter Klinken, Mr Thompson responded.
For an investor under the age of 40, that responsiveness and openness is attractive – it reflects the values of a new generation looking to invest.
Even that dreaded snooze-opportunity, the Powerpoint presentation has taken on a new shine with some companies using alternative services like Prezi or Powtoons to explain their story in an animated and, shock-horror, even interesting way.
It’s great to see WA’s tech industry utilising a broader palette of communication tools than their resources brethren. Innovative by name? Innovative by nature. Other sectors should take the same approach if they are to remain relevant in the future.
Jamie Wilkinson is digital media manager at Cannings Purple.
