Update from ITPNZ
Here's a quick weekly update from ITP CEO Paul Matthews
This week: ITP and Umbrella launch the first of a series of free public webinars covering off how to be effective working remotely (including looking after your mental health) and we'll be kicking off our mentoring programme over the next few weeks.
Plus, still a lot going on from your professional body. A reminder about getting $5 your first order from ITP's new merch store, CITPNZ and CTech webinar, an update on ITP events and more!
Free public webinar on remote working
The tech sector as a whole has a heap of experience in remote working and other flexible approaches. By and large we were the largest adopters of this, and it's not uncommon to have dev teams working together across the country and indeed the world.
In light of everything that's happening, and in conjunction with talking to Government about the concerns of our members (especially consultants), we've been thinking about how we can help other industries.
The first step for us is putting together a free webinar panel to help share some of what we know as an industry. This will be provided by IT Professionals NZ in partnership with Umbrella Wellbeing and is aimed at all people from all industries. It will explore how to make yourself productive, keep your sanity while isolated, and keep your business going while working from home.
I'll be facilitating the panel, which will feature exited tech entrepreneur, IT consultant and ITP President Mike Dennehy with productivity and other tips and tricks, Registered Clinical Psychologist Gaynor Parkin talking about how to keen sane while isolated, and experienced CIO Simon Lloyd-Evans talking business continuity in the face of all of this.
We'd love to have you along to both hear from the panel and contribute your insights.
ITP Mentoring relaunch imminent
We are beyond excited to be launching some major changes to our mentoring program next month. Mentoring is a great way for our members to gain worthwhile professional development from experienced members of our community, to help elevate your career prospectives.
For our more senior members, becoming is a mentor is a great way to give back to your community and you'll get just as much out of it as the person you're mentoring. It's also a good way to get your continued professional development hours for certification :).
We will have more information in the coming weeks, including a call for Mentors shortly. And yes, virtual or remote mentoring is fully included in this. We're hoping every member chooses to be a mentor, mentee, or both!
Reminder: Get your gears on
As announced last week, we're super excited to announce the new ITP online store, affectionately known as the ITP ClanGear store. You can now get your hands on a whole range of awesome ITP merch from jackets and polo shirts through to hoodies and hats.
So now, whether at work, events, or in the weekend you can show you're part of your clan - New Zealand's professional tech community. Perfect for you and the whole team.
We'll be adding more gear over time, and we haven't skimped on quality - this is all top-notch gear and very competitively priced for the level.
Check it out at shop.itp.nz
$5 off your first order
To celebrate the launch, we'll give you $5 off your first order over the next week. We already run the shop on very low margins so this is a really good deal.
Just use the Voucher Code "clangear" to get your $5 off.
But get in quick - this ONLY applies for the next week and expires on Sunday 22nd March.
Team options
And if you're an ITP Corporate Partner and your staff are members, we now offer a co-branding option on the jackets. So you can include your logo alongside the ITP logo, to go that extra step in showing your clients you're serious about professional practice.
Check out shop.itp.nz for more info.
P.S. And if your team aren't all members, contact us about group membership options for corporate partners. It'll save you heaps.
Update on ITP Events
As we mentioned previously, we've put precautions in place including postponing ITx 2020 and any other event with more than 100 attendees (before the Government made the same decision) and putting careful safeguards in place at other events.
This week we brought all our Branch Chairs together (via Zoom) and amongst other things, agreed we would postpone all national and local face-to-face events of any size until at least the end of April. We'll make a call about May later, but it's likely this will also be affected.
Instead, we're going to be running a series of seminars for member on a range of topics - some are going to be awesome!
CITPNZ and CTech: What, why, how
Speaking of webinars, a reminder that our CITPNZ Webinar will be happening next week on the 25th, the webinar is a great chance to help you answer question if you are thinking about getting certified this year, and to help you get started.
Chartered IT Professional NZ (CITPNZ) and Certified Technologist (CTech) professional certifications as opposed to technical certifications. This means that rather than assessing whether you can do specific tasks with specific technologies, they independently confirm that you:
- Know what you're doing (in your chosen area)
- Keep up to date in your field
- Are trustworthy
- Are bound by a Code of Ethics, and
- Can demonstrate actual results
In short, you're someone that the professional body of the sector has independently assessed and can endorse as a bona fide professional. It's not a guarantee that you'll always get it right; but it is a commitment that if you breach your ethical responsibilities, the professional community can hold you to account.
This webinar starts with a run-through of what they are and why (from a high level), followed by a detailed walkthrough of how to apply and plenty of time for Q&A. We're excited to see around 100 registrations so far.
Free SkillSoft Business Continuity videos
SkillSoft have made available a series of high quality videos about business continuity. As with most of their content, it's not just the standard stuff you find online - it's a top-level offering.
You can view the videos here, and there's a blogpost with more info here.
Comments
You must be logged in in order to post comments. Log In
