Top entrepreneurs at Morgo again

At last year's Morgo entrepreneurial attendees got to watch the personal helicopter, the Martin jetpack, in action. This year they'll be able to testdrive the new fold-up electric bike, the Yike Bike, which is about to start rolling off the production line.

But it's not all fun and games at the annual invitation-only gathering of the country's top entrepreneurs in Waitangi.

Morgo is the brainchild of Wellington venture capitalist Jenny Morel, whose No8 Ventures has money invested in 12 Kiwi companies, including the Martin Aircraft Company.

She's had less focus on the eighth Morgo event, which kicks off this week, than previous years because she's been busy with another of her investments, Rex Bionics – the Auckland company that grabbed headlines recently for its robotic legs. The technology was unveiled last month after seven years of research and has already secured interest from the United States military despite the relatively high price of about $208,000 each to overseas buyers.

Rex company founder and chief technology officer Richard Little is one of several speakers lined up for this year's hype fest along with Yike Bike founder Grant Ryan, from Christchurch, who will follow his talk with a free demo on the bike.

Other speakers include Australian entrepreneur Naomi Simpson from Red Balloon; Kiwi physicist, military theorist and Rhodes scholar Sean Gourley; leading Australian nanotechnology expert Andrew Dzurak; and medical technology developer Professor Jonathan Sackier, who helped develop the world's first commercial surgical robot.

A morning session is also devoted to focusing on China. It's easier to gain a foothold in a country where the market is growing so fast rather than try to take existing market share from others, Ms Morel says.

Her motivation to keep doing Morgo is not only because she gets to showcase some of her investments, but also because she wants to help grow more innovative companies that can go global from New Zealand.

- © Fairfax NZ News