It was a South Island trifecta at a technology awards ceremony yesterday, with Dunedin-based multimedia entrepreneur Ian Taylor joining an elite group of New Zealanders in the technology hall of fame.
Mr Taylor, the founder of television production company Taylormade and graphics company Animation Research Ltd, was inducted, along with two Cantabrians, at the annual NZX Flying Kiwis award ceremony in Auckland yesterday.
Christchurch software developer Sir Gil Simpson and electronics industry pioneer Dennis Chapman were also inducted into the PricewaterhouseCoopers NZ Hi-Tech Hall of Fame.
Mr Taylor said it was an honour to join such lumi-naries as Sir Angus Tait, Sir Woolf Fisher and Maurice Paykel in the hall of fame.
"I am just flabbergasted they put me in with that kind of company . . . I feel like an imposter."
The award was a credit to his Dunedin-based team, and the close association with the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic.
"We couldn't have done what we have done in any other city."
Mr Taylor said developing real-time tracking of races using global positioning of yacht races and the latest software, turned it into a television sport and proved "you didn't have to be based overseas".
Despite maintaining Dunedin was the best place for his business, Mr Taylor said he was spending an increasing amount of time away from the city on work commitments.
"But it is always good to come home."
However his latest trip home may come at a cost, with his award "weighing a tonne".
"I expect I will be paying some excess baggage."
NZ Hi-Tech Association chairman Wayne Norrie said more than 100 industry leaders were asked to put forward their nomination for the award, resulting in 35 nominations "of whom the three recipients were considered to be most deserving of the title".
