The new frontier

— Mental Health for Students

From the northern to the southern hemisphere, the discussion around students’ mental health is changing, and thanks to technology new ways of support are being explored and implemented.
New Zealand start-up Komodo is a communication channel for students and school staff offering a digital space to understand and monitor young New Zealanders’ well-being. The pandemic and the mass shift to online learning have turned the spot on the importance of mental health among school-aged children, accelerating the start-up’s growth.

Komodo’s software crosses student data with surveys developed by psychologists to identify people who may be at risk and promptly help them to deal with common problems such as cyberbullying, harassment, anxiety and depression.

Ran by two Brits who met at Canterbury University in Christchurch, Komodo is already working with a large number of schools in New Zealand and Australia, with growing international interest and with a fundraiser that has already reached 1.7 million dollars. “I dream that Komodo will eventually be able to support any student, anywhere in the world and in any learning environment. School should be the place where every student is placed in the ideal conditions to give his best.” Comments Chris Bacon, co-founder at Komodo.

— Cocktails in Test Tubes

In New Zealand, the cocktail and beverage category is a rapidly growing sector and consumers are a particularly demanding target, always looking for new and unique flavours. To stand out in a very saturated market, the new New Zealand brand Luxerose has designed and marketed a range of cocktails different from all the others, innovative both in terms of taste and design. Dedicated to a young and mostly female New Zealand audience and designed for the most fun and original social occasions, the Luxerose mixologists have created 3 cocktail blends that reflect the flavours, colours and trends of the New Zealand social scene.

But the real distinctive point is the packaging: a unique set of 3 glass vials that resemble laboratory test tubes, easy to consume both at home or the bar. The box is decorated with a very stylish, modern, and colourful botanical illustration of New Zealand flora and fauna. This makes it an even more sought after and precious object, to be kept, collected, or given to a friend. Luxerose has won several design awards including the Best Design Award, with a strategy aimed at developing future range extensions also in new limited editions. Creative, colourful and whimsical, this new world of tube cocktails adds some fun and a touch of design to any social event, while the brand’s claim reads “Life’s is a party”.

— Between Science and Science Fiction

The country famous for having the highest sheep-population ratio in the world (about 6 sheep for each inhabitant) risks becoming the most popular country in the event of an “Apocalypse”. There are multiple reasons. The ability to produce geothermal and hydroelectric energy, the lower risk of the effects of global warming, the abundance of agricultural land, and the fact that New Zealand is among the top countries in the ranking of social progress: all this makes the archipelago an increasingly popular destination. Furthermore, these “two rocks in the middle of the sea” are receiving really important investments in the scientific, technological, medical, and aerospace fields.

An example? The next rocket ready to go into orbit was produced by the Rocket lab of Auckland, and it will not start from Florida airbases, but it will be launched from the Mahia peninsula in New Zealand. A growing economy and a favourable environment are combined with an increasingly agile and lean bureaucracy, ideal for all hi-tech entrepreneurs looking for incubators to develop their start-ups. The fact that this is the “perfect refuge” is well known, above all by the millionaires from Silicon Valley. As soon as the health crisis broke out, they fled to New Zealand: the most fearful isolationists, to close themselves in real bunkers built 13 meters underground with super luxury finishes, gyms, theatres, and every kind of comfort; the wealthiest dreamers to buy villas with immense land overlooking the ocean.