About My Business
CUIK Technologies Ltd is a Nelson-built technology company creating a locally controlled wayfinding and media platform for regional towns, visitor destinations and local communities. CUIK stands for Cutting-edge Urban Integration and Kinetics, pronounced “quick”. The name sounds ambitious, because the idea is. But it started from a simple, practical frustration. During the Covid lockdowns, I began thinking seriously about how hard it was for local businesses, events and community organisations to be seen in the public spaces that matter. Prime locations are often expensive, limited, or controlled by larger media networks. A small family-run café, local tour operator, artist or non-profit group should not need a national advertising budget to be visible where people are already looking for things to do, places to visit and ways to connect. The original purpose was community-focused. We wanted to create a platform that could give local organisations, civic resources, artists, events and regional stories a proper public home. But we also knew goodwill alone would not keep screens running, software updated, hardware maintained or support available. So we built a commercial model around paid advertising to make the platform sustainable without relying on ratepayer funding or short-term grants. CUIK was fully programmed and developed from scratch in Nelson by our internal team and Nelson-based contractors. I do not have a programming background, so the early work was about developing the concept, finding the right technical people, testing constantly, listening to feedback, and refining the idea. We carried a large prototype unit to trade shows, council offices and demonstrations, asking people to use it, challenge it and tell us what did not work. There were plenty of dead ends, technical hurdles and moments when the sensible option would have been to stop. Today, CUIK operates five public units with eight screen faces across Nelson Airport, Kaiteriteri, Nelson CBD and Kaikōura. Users can discover businesses, events, community organisations and local information through interactive public screens. Advertisers and organisations can appear through full-screen ads, category listings and detailed profile pages with images, descriptions, contact details and QR codes. The QR codes are central: people can take information away on their phone, navigate, book, buy, donate, visit a website or share it later. Through CUIK Media, we have extended the same thinking into bus-back advertising, giving local and national advertisers another way to reach Nelson Tasman audiences. CUIK is still small, but it has a big purpose: to help regional communities tell their own stories, support their own businesses, and build public information infrastructure that stays locally useful, locally controlled and commercially sustainable.
Why We Should Win The Peoples Choice Award
People should vote for CUIK because this is not just a business story. It is a small regional idea that refused to stay small. CUIK started during the Covid lockdowns, when I found myself thinking about how hard it was for local businesses, community organisations, events and artists to be seen in the places where people actually make decisions. The best public spaces are often controlled by large media networks or priced beyond the reach of smaller organisations. That never felt right to me. The idea was simple enough to say out loud, but difficult to build: create a public platform that helps people discover what is around them, then lets them take that information away on their phone. A place where a family-run café, a local event, a tourism operator, a non-profit organisation, an artist, or a community resource could appear in front of real people in real locations. The early days were not glamorous. I had no programming background. I did not come from media sales. We were importing expensive hardware, trying to explain a new concept, testing software, fixing issues, and asking people to poke holes in the idea. Plenty of people thought it would burn money and quietly disappear. To be fair, there were days I wondered if they might be right. But enough people also encouraged me to keep going. Some challenged the idea in useful ways. Some gave honest feedback. Some simply believed that a small Nelson business could build something bigger than expected. That mattered. The turning point came when Nelson Airport agreed to host our first CUIK unit in December 2023. Suddenly the idea had a real public home. From there, CUIK has grown into five public units with eight screen faces across Nelson Airport, Kaiteriteri, Nelson CBD and Kaikōura. CUIK now helps people find local businesses, activities, services, community organisations and events. They can scan QR codes to navigate, book, buy, donate, visit a website or share information later. It is not just about being seen. It is about helping people act. The community side has always been at the heart of it. Around 60% of CUIK’s Nelson Tasman listings are community organisations and civic resources listed at no cost. We also heavily discount or sponsor selected bus-back campaigns for non-profit organisations. The aim is to make community visibility sustainable, not dependent on grants, ratepayer funding or someone passing the hat around. CUIK has also had to punch above its weight. Nelson Tasman bus-back advertising, previously managed by a large national media operator, is now managed locally through CUIK Media. That was a major moment for us. A small local business was trusted to manage a channel usually associated with much bigger players. The David Awards celebrate small businesses that take on bigger challenges with courage, persistence and a bit of nerve. That is CUIK’s story. A vote for CUIK is a vote for regional innovation, local ownership, community visibility and the belief that useful technology does not have to come from somewhere else. Sometimes it can start in Nelson, on the back of a stubborn idea, and grow from there.
