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
Join us for the next Wāhine in Tech Wellington event for an engaging discussion about careers in tech.
We have gathered a group of kick ass women for the discussion panel, all of whom have had really interesting journeys in the tech industry. Come armed with your own questions or discussion points, and let’s get the conversation started.
Is the tech industry a welcoming place for women? What kind of treatment should be expected? What does success look like? How do we make it a better space in which to progress and flourish? How do we make it more inclusive for underrepresented people?
About our panellists:
aurynn shaw
aurynn is the founder of Eiara, a DevOps consultancy based out of Wellington, New Zealand, focussing on helping clients develop technical DevOps capability, and the cultural knowledge to use it.
With over a decade as a professional software developer, aurynn’s expertise ranges from modern cloud deployments to massively parallel supercomputer environments.
As the defining voice of the ideas of “contempt culture”, aurynn is working to change the very nature of how we create new technologies, and the questions that we must answer as we do.
Hiria Te Rangi
Hiria loves her community and loves technology, so Kaiwhakahaere (CEO) for WhareHauora was a natural role for her.
With 15 years in tech with numerous technical and business roles in open data, open source, digital technologies and infrastructure, Hiria relishes the middle ground that Whare Hauora holds for Aotearoa.
Whare Hauora’s ability to go into a Marae, Community centres or schools to teach low income families about Whare Sensors, how to build them and how they can help whānau make informed decisions about how their home affects their health, brilliantly marries Hiria’s two loves and she is very happy to talk to you about them.
Tamara Buckland
Tamara is a passionate people and culture consultant in the tech industry with a background in entrepreneurship, service design and delivery, and people leadership. She balances consulting with working part time for CoLiberate, a local business delivering Mental Health First Aid training. Tamara brings a mental health and wellbeing focus to her work in the tech industry, and is particularly interested in how we can support people in marginalised groups
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.
I’m looking at you buddy! Yes, Big Brother is everywhere
Who Andrew Chen (Engineering) Where Snickle When 6.30pm
We are comfortable with police, traffic and public safety CCTV cameras, right? Now surveillance systems run for commercial interests collect data about our everyday lives: from tracking pedestrian traffic, biometric scanning at ATMs, and facial recognition software in supermarkets and sports events, and much more. Technological advancements in computer vision are pushing the boundaries of how machines understand videos and images.
This talk focuses on privacy implications of modern and advancing surveillance systems, our perceptions of privacy and ways to protect those being observed. That’s you. I’m looking at you. Now.
Lasers, Milk and Sperm
Who Cather Simpson (Science) Where MezzeBar When 6.30pm
Cather’s endlessly-fascinating lasers at the Photon Lab were once thought to be rather useless, possibly indulgent pieces of academic kit.
A few years on those lasers (and clever researchers) have given rise to two award-winning companies: Engender Technologies (a sex-sorting business to accelerate genetic gain and cost efficiencies in large animal reproduction) and Orbis Diagnostics (providing revolutionary in-line milking measurement for the dairy industry, using microfluidics technology for protein, fat, somatic cell and progesterone).
Simple Questions With (Some) Simple Answers: Big Bangs and Black Holes
Who Richar Easther (Science) Where Vodka Room When 8pm
Primary school children and scientists often ponder the same questions about space. Was there more than one Big Bang? What happens when you fall into a black hole? Will the universe expand forever?
In this talk Richard outlines the ways that Einstein changed our ideas about space and time and how this leads to deep ideas about the expanding universe and black holes. Now tested with observations and experiments, Richard will share the answers we are finding to some of those questions – and which questions we’re still trying to crack.
Humanity and the machine: Is technology going to make our lives better?
Who Suranga Nanayakkara (Auckland Bioengineering Institute) Where Birdcage When 6.30pm
Does dealing with multiple smart devices leave you feeling discombobulated? Suranga says we either spend time figuring out smart technologies, otherwise the way we use them will disconnect us from the actual physical world around us.
So, how can we create devices which extend what we do and how we do it in a way that feels natural? The need for intuitive technology that adapts to us is increasingly apparent.
In this conversation Suranga will highlight human-machine interfaces which break down the barriers between humans and technology, creating seamless human-computer integration blurring where human input ends and technology begins.
Saving the planet – at 400 km/h!
Who Eva Hakansson (Engineering) Where Birdcage When 8pm
Eva Hakansson will take you on a high-speed adventure at the famous Bonneville Salt Flats. She readily admits that her 400+ km/h, red, sexy, bullet-shaped electric motorcycle “KillaJoule” is really just “eco-activism in disguise”.
Did we mention that she built it in her backyard shed, in her spare time? With the same dedication as a Greenpeace activist, she uses the unusual channel of high speed racing to open people’s eyes and minds for sustainable technology. Meet a modern version of famous kiwi racer Burt Munro.
Raising the Bar is a worldwide initiative aimed at making education a part of a city’s popular culture. We create one of a kind, knowledge-driven events in unusual locations. Our goal is to raise the bar on the content people consume in their everyday lives.
When and Where
Tuesday 28 August 2018
Lectures start at 6:30pm or 8pm
10 Auckland bars
Talulah, Britomart
Snickel Lane, 23 Customs St East, CBD
Everybody’s, 7 Fort Lane, CBD
Mezze Bar, 9 Durham St East, CBD
The Oakroom, 17 Drake St, CBD
The Birdcage Tavern, 133 Franklin Rd, Freemans Bay
If you’re going to 2 talks in 2 different venues, please make sure they are close enough to easily walk from one to another. If you’ve booked but can’t make it, please let them know so someone else can take your seat.
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!
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
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
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
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.
2018 NZ Rutherford Lecture
The Life and Times of Supervolcanoes
There is no denying that as New Zealand sits astride the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates our land is subject to tremendous natural forces. We may commonly experience this as a gentle but sometimes a severe shuddering of earthquakes. Yet with Aotearoa dotted with cones and calderas, Kiwis should also keep in mind that the Taupō Eruption was actually the world’s most violent volcanic eruption in the last 5000 years!
Colin Wilson has gathered many accolades for studying volcanoes, and in particular, those giant examples known as supervolcanoes. He likens his work to that of a crime scene investigator, where he travels the world piecing together the dual puzzle of why such cataclysmic explosions occur and why they are joined by much smaller eruptions. He aims to forecast volcanic phenomena with enough warning so that communities can respond. But although Colin is digging deep in the Earth’s crust to find the triggering mechanisms, volcanic systems are not letting their secrets go easily…
Royal Society Te Apārangi is proud to partner with GNS Science, EQC and Victoria University of Wellington in presenting the 2018 New Zealand Rutherford Lecture. Strong support from these organisations comes from the belief that New Zealanders will greatly benefit both from learning about and gaining a better awareness of this ‘sleeping’ giant in our midst. From late July to early September, Professor Wilson will head to 22 towns and cities to explain the nature of supervolcanoes, the ways in which such volcanoes operate and can be studied, and whether the next eruption is still likely to take us by surprise.
In 2017, geologist Professor Colin Wilson was awarded Royal Society Te Apārangi’s highest honour, the Rutherford Medal, for his research into understanding large, explosive supervolcanoes and the dangers they pose. Yet although significant eruptions are still rare, threats from volcanic activity are considered a very serious natural hazard for Aotearoa New Zealand.
