Author: Simon Lyall

AKLgamedev Meetup: ‘Guardian’ Launch – Auckland – 12 September 2018

What

Come along and celebrate the release of Metia Interactive’s ‘Guardian’ on Wednesday September 12that the September AKLgamedev Meetup is during Māori Language Week.

The Guardian story is an interactive fiction. The game will showcase our unique cultural identity in New Zealand and highlight beautiful regions of our country in a contemporary and original story across popular platforms.

This is a journey that will take the player into a world of mystery and impending mayhem while discovering the truth behind an ancient secret.

AGENDA
– 6:00p | Doors open
– 6:10p | Welcome
– 6:20p | Guardian: A journey from idea to now.
– The importance and uniqueness of telling Maori stories.
– Using a narrative script engine with Unity.
– Community announcements.
– 7:00 | Meetup ends – Progress Bar

When and Where

Wednesday 12 September 2018
6pm – 7pm

Room TBC
AUT City Campus
St Paul St
Auckland CBD

How Much

Free

More

Meetup Page for event
The Auckland Game Development Meetup
Guardian

The Great Kererū Count – Nationwide – 21-30 September 2018

What

The Great Kererū Count is NZ’s biggest citizen science project to help gather information on the abundance and distribution of the New Zealand pigeon — also known as kererū, kūkū or kūkupa.

Everyone in New Zealand can get involved with the Great Kererū Count, whether you see any kererū or not, sharing your observations with us will help build up a clearer picture of where the kererū live, how many there are and what they are feeding on.

The humble kererū is one of New Zealand’s most valuable assets when it comes to our native forests. Long before humans came to this country, kererū have been undertaking the largest plant restoration project the country has ever seen. Kererū are the only bird left in New Zealand that are able to swallow and disperse the seeds from our largest native trees such as tawa, taraire, pūriri and matai. Kererū can live for 21+ years and are essential for native bush regeneration. Their disappearance would be a disaster for our native forests.

This year we have 3 Options available with multiple ways to make your kererū observations – Computer, Laptops, Tablets and Smart Phones are all ways you can get your observations into us.

When and Where

21-30 September 2018

All over New Zealand

How Much

Free

More

The Great Kererū CountWebsite

Auckland Hobbies Fair – Auckland – 15 September 2018

What

The Auckland Hobbies fair is New Zealand’s largest collectors fair for Diecast models, model trains, collectible toys, model train layouts, working models, sci-fi collectibles, and much more. It is held twice a year at Freemans Bay Community Centre.

Including:
Dinky, Corgi, Lledo, Matchbox, Solido, Minichamps, Spot-On, Fun-Ho, Hot-Wheels, Ixo, Diecast models, old tin plate toys, Meccano, model trains and accessories, model boats, toy soldiers, Meccano, kitsets, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Batman, TV themes, McDonalds toys, dolls & bears, miniatures, postcards, DVDs, books, magazines, records, plastic models, planes, vintage tools, military memorabilia, motor racing, and more.

There will be a LEGO display present and Lego for sale, Lego for the kids to play with also.

Free entry after 2pm. Eftpos and cash out facilities available. Drinks and food are available on site to purchase. Sausage sizzle, and ice cream available on site.

When and Where

11am – 3pm
Saturday 15 September 2018

Freeman’s Bay Community Hall,
52 Hepburn Rd,
Freemans Bay,
Auckland

How Much

$5 per person (primary school children free if accompanied by adult)
Free entry after 2pm

More

Auckland Hobbies Fair Website
EventFinda Page

Overload Manga and Comic Convention – Auckland – 29 September 2018

What

Overload NZ Comic Manga Convention is a community-focused annual event where local indie comic and manga artists can exhibit and sell their work. With food stalls and a range of anime and manga themed stalls, there is something for everyone.

This year Overload will host more than 250 indie artists from all over New Zealand. We are running lots of fun events for attendees to join in, such as a Cosplay Competition, a Character Design Competition and J-POP Karaoke Competition, all with excellent prizes donated by our sponsors. Not only that, Japanese Voice Actress Hiromi Igarashi from ‘THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS’, Anime Director Seiji Izushima from ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’ and Cosplay Artist KANAME will attend as our international special guests.

Join this entertaining, fun event to help encourage, promote and support young local comic/manga artists. Overload is a non-profit venture, and we greatly rely on our amazing sponsors, so throughout the whole day at our sponsor booths, the dedicated staff from NZ local art and hobby businesses will sell manga, anime DVDs, and genuine collectible goodies.

When and Where

The CLOUD
89 Quay St
Auckland CBD

10am – 6pm
Saturday 29 September 2018

How Much

Adult $10.25
under-13 $5.12
under 5  free
Family $27.10

More

Overload Website
Overload EventFinda Page

TEDxRuakura 2018 – Hamilton – 2 September 2018

What

Get ready to be inspired and challenged by local people changing the world around them with their unique ideas, creations and impact activities. In the session breaks get chatting to the equally incredible local attendees around you! Make social and business connections during the day to keep your TEDxRuakura experience going.

The day will be broken into four sessions of roughly 1 hour. Food and drink during the event is included in your General Admission ticket.

VIP ticket holders will receive a voucher to redeem a barista made hot beverage at the start of the event only, from 9:00 am.

On Sunday evening, once the talks are done, an exclusive experience awaits VIP ticket holders at our after party, held at a mystery location in central Hamilton.

When and Where

Sunday 2 September 2018
10am – 5pm

Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts
Knighton Road
Hamilton, Waikato 3216

How Much

General Admission  $95
VIP Admission  $120

More

TedxRuakura Website

 

Gitting Good with Git – Auckland – 23 August 2018

What

North Shore .NET User Group regularly meets every 3rd or 4th Thursday each month at Massey University Albany Campus.

Regular tech talks focused on Microsoft Technologies and skills relevant to developers working with Microsoft .NET.

Marcus Bristol (a Senior Engineer at Pushpay) will peek under the hood and give us all an idea of how git works under the covers.

This understanding will help us be better equipped to recover when things go wrong.

When and Where

5:45pm – 7:30pm
23 August 2018

MBS 2.15 Flexible Learning Room
Massey University
Albany
Auckland

How Much

Free

More

North Shore .NET User Group
Gitting Good with Git Meetup

PechaKucha Night ChCh 37 – Women, Science and Conservation – Christchurch – 19 September 2018

What

PechaKucha Night Christchurch is teaming up with Christchurch City Council to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Women’s Suffrage and Conservation Week with a night of quick-fire talks by some amazing women!

We are proud to bring you a collection of local women including a marine biologist working with the world’s rarest and smallest dolphins, an adventurer who returned from a 29-day expedition across the Greenland Icecap, a young musician speaking on the power of rest and creativity, an entrepreneur starting a podcast focused on women change-makers, a writer working on a book about women and World II and more.

Line-up include:

María Jesús Valdés Hernández // Marine Biologist // Working with the world’s rarest and smallest dolphins

Amy Johnston Bray // Interpretation and Exhibition Designer // Conversation is about conservation-engaging the public to act

Victoria Metcalf // Scientist // Celebrating the unlovable and the unseen

Jo Bailey // Writer, Author and Editor // Writing, Women and World II

Rebecca(Bek) Tavete// Founder ARGO beach Co-working Limited // A Contribution to Sustainability

Hollie Woodhouse // Adventurer, Designer + Daydreamer // Be your own Movement Maker and more.

When and Where

Wednesday 19 September 2018
Doors open 6:30pm, event starts 7:30pm
(Ilex café open for drinks and snacks)

Botanic Garden’s Visitor Centre
Rolleston Ave, Christchurch

How Much

$18

More

Event on pechakucha.org
Event on Eventfinda

“Gopher vs Ferris [Rust]” and “Performance Considerations in Go” – Auckland – 21 August 2018

What

Auckland based group for anyone interested in Go programming language. We will try to organise regular meetups with talks by members and guests. Depending on interest we can also consider organising Go hacking sessions.

Another amazing lineup this month for us eager Gophers [and Rustaceans alike]. Thanks to Movio again for the venue, drinks and pizza.

First up, Jacky Zhen with ‘Gopher vs Ferris’:

“Both Go and Rust are categorised as a systems programming languages, but both approach it in different paradigms. I’m a big fan of Go’s simplicity and pragmatism, but have times found some of the language features to be lacking.
Recently I’ve been playing around with Rust and have discovered many interesting aspects of the language. In this talk I’d like to share what I find awesome about Rust from the perspective of someone who has worked with Go and some functional languages.
As a keen student of both languages I would like compare and contrast the two languages and talk about what I think they could take from one another.”

Jacky is a prolific full stack engineer on Movio’s Numero team. Jacky is super-cool and squeaky-clean. Funnily enough, the only time I’ve heard Jacky swear was 15 hours deep into a hackathon, fighting with the Rust compiler for the first time. Naturally, he’d tamed it before the day was done.

Second up will be Taco de Wolff, with “Performance optimization in Go”:

“I’ll discuss various ways to optimize Go programs and dive into some of the underlying details. I have been giving introductory talks about Go lately, and I’d like to talk about something more in-depth.”

Taco currently works at the University of Auckland within the bio-engineering institute, where he does modelling on lungs. Previously worked for TixTrack, which is a software development company for ticketing software using Go. He’s also known for github.com/tdewolff/minify, which is a high-performance minifier in Go.

When and Where

Tuesday 21 August 2018
6pm – 8pm

Movio
2.4 / 30 St Benedicts St
Auckland

How Much

Free

More

Meetup page for 21 August 2018 meet
Go AKL meetup group

Games and Politics exhibition – Christchurch – 16 August – 23 September 2018

What

An interactive exhibition by the Goethe-Institut, in cooperation with ZKM | Center for Art and Media

Games and Politics has been touring worldwide and features 18 significant politically-ambitious video games, it encourages viewers to examine how they each unfold their unique political potential.

The exhibition offers numerous materials which allow the visitor to explore the connections between computer games and politics. Visitors are encouraged to get first-hand experience and are welcome to play themselves – to slip into the different roles and try their luck in the virtual worlds unfolding in the games.

A game is always more than just a game. Without considering the influence of the society that plays it, it remains just as impossible to understand as without considering its influence on that society. And yet, chants of euphoric praise for the immersive potential of pedagogical propaganda are as inadequate vis-à-vis the diversity of contemporary computer games as are undifferentiated media debates about ego-shooter games that glorify violence and ought to vanish from the bedrooms of young people. Because they aren’t vanishing. The apparent riffraff among the newer media have long since turned into formidable giants, about to create, in their numerous guises, a new leading medium.

This development has come to include the political sphere as well and games are increasingly used as propaganda for various political factions and often express a certain political stance. In contrast to representational media such as painting and photography, computer games conceive of themselves not merely as a (re-) presentation of social conditions and conflicts, but attempt to simulate the processes and rules that give rise to these conflicts.

All of the games in this exhibition share this political approach, which is intended by the games’ designers to set them clearly apart from both the conventional market as well as from computer games as an entertainment medium. They explore a wide range of topics.

Aside from the contingencies of political decision-making (Democracy 3), they grapple with problematic aspects of gender (Perfect Woman), of the surveillance state (TouchTone and Orwell), of drone warfare (Killbox), the treatment of refugees (Escape from Woomera), uprisings against totalitarian political regimes (Yellow Umbrella), the power of the media (The Westport Independent) or historical and current political events (The Cat and the Coup and Madrid).

When and Where

16 August – 23 September, 2018
10am -5pm Weekdays
11am – 4pm Weekends

The Physics Room,
49-59 Worcester Boulevard,
Christchurch

How Much

Free

More

Eventfinda Page
Homepage of Games and Politics Exhibition

 

Week of Engineering: Open Day! – Akl, Wel, Chch – 18 August 2018

What

Get involved with the Week of Engineering!

Tomorrow’s engineers will have jobs that don’t even exist today. The Week of Engineering is an annual event that will inspire young minds to think about those future possibilities. From 13-18 August, Engineering New Zealand will be hosting a variety of events that showcase amazing engineering across the country, feeding children’s natural curiosity about the world and how it works.

Engineering Expos:

As part of the Week of Engineering, there will be three free public expos in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Over 70 exhibitors from around the country will give visitors a hands-on look at what engineers do – perfect for kids and anyone who wants an inside look at how things work. There’ll be virtual reality, robots, rockets and lego, along with interactive activities, competitions and spot prizes.

Last year more than 5,000 people attended the expos and this year Engineering New Zealand are expecting 10,000 people.

Come along and get inspired!

When and Where

10am – 4pm
Saturday 18 August 2018

University of Auckland Science Centre
23 Symonds St, Auckland

Shed 6
4 Queens Wharf, Wellington

Canterbury University’s College of Engineering
69 Creyke Street, Christchurch

How Much

Free

More

Week of Engineering: Engineering Expos
Eventfinda pages: Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch