WORD Christchurch – Writers & Readers festival – 29 August-2 September 2018

What

ADVENTUROUS

Whether you’re into extreme sports or more of an armchair traveller, invite a bit of adventure into your lives by checking out our adventurous-themed events, with whale lover Philip Hoare, intrepid traveller Robyn Davidson, extreme sportsters Nathan Fa’avae and John Hellemans, adventurous woman Hollie Woodhouse and Laurence Fearnley on mountain writing. Kids can even get adventurous with science, with Nanogirl herself, Michelle Dickinson.

SCOTLAND

This year, we celebrate all thing Scottish, with six writers from that bonnie land: poets Hollie McNish, Robin Robertson and Michael Pedersen; Shaun Bythell, author of Diary of a Bookseller; crime writer Denise Mina, and megastar novelist Irvine Welsh, who will revisit the Trainspotting crew. If you love a dram, don’t miss our tasting event, Whisky Galore!

Supported by the British Council and Creative Scotland.

SUFFRAGE 125

This September we commemorate and celebrate 125 years of women’s suffrage in New Zealand. Events include a look at how far we’ve really come (125 Years: Are We There Yet?, chaired by Kim Hill), readings and discussions on women’s bodies (The Body Issue, Sonya Renee Taylor: The Body is Not an Apology), an Adventurous Women event, and the Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture from Barbara Else, author of Go Girl.

When and Where

Various venues in and around Christchurch

29 August – 2 September 2018

How Much

Tickets to most events $20 ( or $19 concession)

Some events more.

Dash Ticket for most events
Ticketek for Irvine Walsh and Starry, Starry Night.

More

Festival Website

Robots Under Antarctica’s Ice..and One Day in Space? – Dunedin – 21 August 2018

What

Robotic Vehicles Under Antarctica’s Ice… and One Day in Space?

In 2021 NASA will launch the Europa Clipper mission to explore Jupiter’s moon, Europa. One of the most enticing targets in the search for life beyond Earth, Europa’s icy outer shell hides a global ocean, powered by immense tides. If its interior is active today, this ocean may provide the energy to help sustain a biosphere.

In this talk Dr Britney Schmidt from the Georgia Institute of Technology will outline how researchers are using the autonomous underwater vehicle Icefin, to explore the harsh environments beneath the Antarctic ice shelves as a test bed for developing vehicles that may one day explore below the surface of Europa.

Come and hear about our own cosmic backyard. In partnership with the University of Otago and Antarctica New Zealand, learn about the exciting Ross Ice Shelf Programme and how it’s using this new robotic capability to better understand both climate and planetary science.

When and Where

5:30pm
Tuesday 21 August 2018

Hutton Theatre
Otago Museum
419 Great King St
Dunedin

How Much

Free

More

Talk page at Otago Museum website
Eventfinda Page

Ansible Windows Automation: Myth or Truth? + Ansible Vault Integration – Wellington – 16 August 2018

What

Have you thought about how to automate both Linux and Windows infrastructure using a Centralized tool for ease of management?
If you have, then let’s talk about it.

Mike Calizo will share his interesting journey and how to use Ansible for Windows Automation.

In addition, Tom Eastman will talk about how to incorporate
Hashicorp Vault in Ansible for dynamic secret generation.”

Ansible is a New Zealand Group for bring together people building out automation stacks using Ansible and share learnings, provide training and networking.

When and Where

5:30pm to 7:30pm
Thursday 16 August 2018

Location TBA
Wellington CBD

How Much

Free

More

Webpage for this Meetup event
Ansible New Zealand meetup group (Wellington)

Postgres window functions in Rails, Thor gem & Android + Turbolinks – Auckland – 23 August 2018

What

Auckland Ruby meetup is a monthly group that explores the use of Ruby. We welcome anyone interested in the language!

We have 3 talks this meetup:

  • Rebecca Pinheiro from Nectar will talk about Postgres window functions in Rails
  • Ricky Hurtado from Trineo will show us how to use the Thor gem
  • James Scott Tayler will build a real world Android app using the Turbolinks Android wrapper with a Rails backend

When and Where

Thursday 23 August 2018
6:30pm to 9:30pm

MYOB Office
Level 5
12 Normanby Rd
Mt Eden
Auckland

How Much

Free

More

Meetup Page for the event
Ruby Nights: The Auckland Ruby Group

Spark Festival – Hamilton – 6-9 August 2018

What

Get inspired while you learn, share and connect face-to-face with creative visionaries who hail from the USA, Australia and New Zealand at Spark’s 20th Festival. This week long series of talks, workshops, exhibitions and performances will be held on Wintec’s city campus with other events happening in the heart of Hamilton city.

Speakers will share their knowledge in talks and workshops on everything from being a social influencer, to making it as a freelancer, finding creative people-centred solutions to difficult brand problems, and building collaborative creative and inclusive communities in an increasingly connected world.

Step out from behind your screen and be part of this two-way exchange at these critical, and intimate, conversations. Share knowledge and fuel your curiosity at this week-long, creative experience.

The festival is free to attend and open to all, though there are limited places at each event. For entry, students bring your Wintec ID and for anyone else get your Eventbrite Ticket at no cost here. To sign up for workshops click the register link on the website and find out all you need to know.

When and Where

Monday 6 – Thursday 9 August 2018
8am to 8pm each day

Wintec Campus
Gate 5
Tristram St
Hamilton

How Much

Free

More

Website – www.spark.net.nz

 

Hawkes Bay Con 2018 – Napier – 25-26 August 2018

What

The board games are coming back to Hawke’s Bay in the last weekend of August!

Our goal is to encourage people of all ages and skill levels to come and enjoy a wide range of board games – Mars colonization, space cowboys, trading, social deception, puzzle solving, and war gaming – we’ve got it all.

A large gaming library will be available at the venue, alongside several casual and competitive tournaments, spot prizes, raffles and stalls. And if you like escape rooms, we’ve got a special surprise for you! Keep an eye on the event and the newsfeed – we will keep you posted with the coming up agenda.

Our friendly volunteers will be there to talk you through the games you haven’t played before and make sure you meet like-minded people and have a great time.

When and Where

Saturday 25 August 2018 10am-10pm
Sunday 26 August 2018 1-am-4pm

Taradale Intermediate,
6 Murphy Road,
Taradale,
Napier,
Hawke’s Bay

How Much

Adults: $10.00 per day pass, or $15 for two days.
Under 16s: free with accompanying adults.

More

Facebook Page
Eventfinda Page
Registration

Visual Analytics Meetup: GapMaps, Making Data Meaningful – Auckland – 2 August 2018

What

This Visual Analytics Monthly Meetup is on the 1st Thursday of every month to discuss all things data, and using Visual Analytic tools like Tableau and others to help people understand data.

Its all about spatial, geolocation, seeing your data answer questions with a spatial reference! We’ll have our traditional introduction and a question for you – – then bring on our presentation for the night!

GapMaps – Making Data Meaningful – https://gapmaps.com

We make data meaningful. Using demographic, government and industry data, viewed through a simple to use mapping platform, we impart powerful, cost-effective insights to our clients. We enable them to create revealing market intelligence for fact-based decision-making.

I’m Alex Wardle – a banking professional most of my career, I was accountable for BNZs network investment, customer experience and change programmes for the branch and ATM network. Now I help people in roles like my old one to make sense of big data, to get the competitive edge and de-risk decisions regarding their investment. In NZ we work with great businesses from Briscoes to BP, McDonalds to Hirepool and Childcare to auto servicing.

When and Where

5pm – 7:30pm
Thursday 2 August 2018

Sweat Shop Brew Bar
7 Sale Street
Freeman’s Bay
Auckland

How Much

Free

More

August 2018 Meetup
Visual Analytics Meetup Page

New Zealand Chess Festival – Palmerston North – 1-11 October 2018

What

Ten Chess tournaments, including North Island, NZ Senior and NZ Junior championships for all three disciplines (classical, rapid and blitz).

Each tournaments are 6-8 rounds/games long.

When and Where

Cophorne Hotel Palmerston North
110 Fitzherbert Ave
Palmerston North

The individual tournaments are;
New Zealand Junior Chess Championship. 1st – 4th October 2018 vega
New Zealand Senior Chess Championship. 2nd – 4th October 2018 vega
New Zealand Junior Blitz Chess Championship. 4th October 2018 vega
New Zealand Senior Blitz Chess Championship. 4th October 2018 vega
New Zealand Junior Rapid Chess Championship. 5th October 2018 vega
New Zealand Senior Rapid Chess Championship. 5th October 2018 vega
Feilding Rapid. 6th October 2018 vega
North Island Blitz Chess Championship. 6th October 2018 vega
North Island Rapid Chess Championship. 7th October 2018 vega
North Island Chess Championship. 8th – 11th October 2018 vega

How Much

$50 per tournament for Standard and Rapids
$30 per tournament for Biltz

More

Entry form with details of tournaments

 

Code Craft Dunedin: August Meetup – Dunedin – 7 August 2018

What

We are a group of people interested in software development, learning and getting together. The group consists of members of the local IT development and educational community.

The August meeting will be held at the Polytech and we currently have two speakers lined up:

Matt Kraemer: A crash course introduction to machine learning

Matt works with AI and machine learning on a day to day basis and is going to introduce some of the tools and techniques to the group. There has been a lot of interest in these topics within the group so please let anyone you think may be interested know about Matt’s talk.

Thomi Richards: Zapier: What we do, what I do specifically, and how we hire people. Thomi has recently moved virtual companies… something I think is only going to become more common in the IT field and it will be interesting to hear from him on his experiences working for a completely remote organisation.

When and Where

5:30pm to 7pm
Tuesday 7 August 2018

D102
D Block
Otago Polytechnic
Forth Street
Dunedin

How Much

Free

More

Meetup page for the event
Code Craft Dunedin Meetup Page

EVworld NZ: Electric Vehicle Public Expo – Auckland – 22 August 2018

What

EVworld NZ is the electric vehicle expo to experience all sorts of e-vehicles. Ride and drive cars, e-bikes, e-scooters and attend seminars to answer your questions. Free and held at ASB Showgrounds on Saturday 11 August.

Thousands of EV curious turned up to New Zealand’s first EV showcase in 2017. This is your opportunity to experience the future of transport.

There will be Ride/Drive experiences for the public in a carefully managed environment.
Ride/Drives in EV’s.
Free Public Seminars.
Free exhibition of EV’s, E-Bikes, E-Scooters and the Suppliers.
E-Bike experience track and much more including prizes and giveaways.

Sat 11th ‘public day’ follows industry trade days on 9th & 10th August. If you want to meet, experience or do business with prospective buyers and promoters of electric & hybrid cars-bikes-scooters; charging & infrastructure then see the website for the Industry Forums and Industry B2B Conference.

When and Where

ASB Showgrounds,
217 Greenlane West,
Epsom, Auckland

9am – 5pm
Saturday 11 Auguest 2018

How Much

Free

More

Evworld Website
EventFinda Page