New Zealand Game Developers Conference – Auckland – 1-3 August 2018

What

The New Zealand Game Developers Conference (NZGDC) is an annual professional game development conference hosted in Auckland, New Zealand. NZGDC18 will be an action-packed three-day conference for professional and indie game developers.

This year’s conference will span three days with one day dedicated to hands-on workshops (1st August), and two days full of a mix of presentations and panels (2nd-3rd August). Sessions will cover a variety of topics, from Art & Game Design to Production & Marketing and everything in between.

When and Where

Level 4,
SKYCITY Convention Centre,
Federal Street,
Auckland

Wednesday 1 August 2018 – Workshops
Thurs 2/Friday 3 August – Main conference
Plus Evening events

How Much

NZGA Member – Full Pass  $280
NZGA Member – Thurs Pass (+ Free Wed Workshop pass) $180
NZGA Member – Thurs Pass (+ Free Wed Workshop pass) $180
Student single day tickets $50

If you’re a New Zealand based game developer, make sure you’ve registered as an NZGDA member for a 15% discount on your NZGDC ticket! Register at http://nzgda.com/about-us/join-now/

More

Conference Website

Auckland Science Fiction Book Club: Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar – Auckland – 10 July 2018

What

What we’re about

This is for all lovers of books – in particular science fiction and fantasy. We’ll meet once a month, on the second Tuesday of the month at a pub so you can have a drink and food if you want to.

We’ll read a variety of books by both male and female authors and try to vary them across different sub-genres eg Dystopian Fiction, Feminist SF, Literary SF, Post-Apocalyptic SF, Short Story Collections, Space Opera, etc.

Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar

Shortlisted for the Arthur C Clark award 2018

An intergalactic odyssey of love, ambition, and self-discovery

Orphaned as a boy, raised in the Czech countryside by his doting grandparents, Jakub Procházka has risen from small-time scientist to become the country’s first astronaut. When a dangerous solo mission to Venus offers him both the chance at heroism he’s dreamt of, and a way to atone for his father’s sins as a Communist informer, he ventures boldly into the vast unknown. But in so doing, he leaves behind his devoted wife, Lenka, whose love, he realizes too late, he has sacrificed on the altar of his ambitions.

Alone in Deep Space, Jakub discovers a possibly imaginary giant alien spider, who becomes his unlikely companion. Over philosophical conversations about the nature of love, life and death, and the deliciousness of bacon, the pair form an intense and emotional bond. Will it be enough to see Jakub through a clash with secret Russian rivals and return him safely to Earth for a second chance with Lenka?

Rich with warmth and suspense and surprise, Spaceman of Bohemia is an exuberant delight from start to finish. Very seldom has a novel this profound taken readers on a journey of such boundless entertainment and sheer fun.

When and Where

The Brew on Quay
Corner of Quay Street and Britomart Place
CBD, Auckland

6:30pm to 9pm
Tuesday, July 10 2018

How Much

Free

More

Event page on meetup.com
Auckland Science Fiction Book Club

Python Pandas Demo – Hamilton – 9 July 2018

What

Gary Buczma will demo Python Pandas to unlock and exploit the potential of unstructured data and open data, as a Data science tool.

Hamilton Python Meetup is a group for professional developers and users of the Python programming language in New Zealand to expand our network of people, opportunities and ideas.

We have monthly meetings with presentations – if you’re interested, please join the group and check out our website for further information.

When and Where

MS4.G.02
University of Waikato
Hamilton
Map

7pm – 9pm
Monday July 7 2018

How Much

Free

More

Meeting Page
Hamilton Python Meetup

Transforming public transport with Auckland’s new network – Auckland – 18 July 2018

What

Auckland has made enormous strides in public transport in the last two decades. Since its foundation in 2010, Auckland Transport has achieved major public transport transformation.

Some highlights include: integrated ticketing and fares, electric trains, making real time information more real, much improved public transport interchanges and more reliable public transport services. But the workhorse of the public transport system is the humble city bus, carrying over 70% of all public transport trips. Even with City Rail Link and Light Rail, the bus will still be the dominant public transport mode into the future.

For City Rail Link and light rail to do their thing, they need a great bus network to support and feed them. This is where the new network comes in, as a first-principles review of the entire bus system that had been only incrementally changed since the late 1970s. This is being implemented in stages, with delivery to be complete in September this year.

Anthony Cross, the Manager Network Development under the new Auckland public transport brand AT Metro, has been the architect, champion and spearhead of the new network. Anthony will share Auckland’s journey from public transport backwater, to a bus system redesign widely regarded internationally as being best in class.

This Street Talks event is brought to you by the Auckland Design Office at Auckland Council and MRCagney Ltd.

When and Where

5:30 – 8pm
Wednesday, 18 July 2018
Doors open 5:30pm with light refreshments and networking in the atrium area adjacent to the Whare Wānanga. The event itself kicks off at 6pm

Central City Library
44-46 Lorne St
Auckland

How Much

Free

More

Event on Library Website

NZ Success story on a microservice platform – Palmerston North – 28 June 2018

What

The Palmerston North Software Development Meetup is a group for anyone interested in developing software/web stuff and (more or less) related tech

This month we are lucky enough to have Max Dietrich speaking to us about his experiences in building a Fly Buys micro-service platform.

Max was a developer on the Fly Buys redevelopment, moving the platform to a cloud-based micro-service architecture. The platform is based on Alchemy and Advanced Message Queuing Protocol frameworks. Alchemy is a framework for creating highly available systems that are built from micro-services. Alchemy includes service discovery, easy deployment, smart load balancing and is a polyglot, so you can use the best languages to solve all your problems.

Max graduated from Massey University in 2013 and has recently returned home to the Manawatu.

As usual there will be pizza sponsored by Objective and for those who are keen, a trip to Brew Union afterwards.

When and Where

Objective
114 The Square
Palmerston North
We are Upstairs. Look for the Meetup sign on the door

5:30pm – 8:30pm
Thursday June 28 2018

How Much

Free

More

Meetup page for this meetup
The Palmerston North Software Development Meetup

Canterbury Tech Cluster meeting: With Vivienne Ming – Christchurch – 3 July 2018

What

Our monthly Canterbury Tech Cluster events provide a great opportunity to network and listen to speakers present on a wide range of topics.

Feature Speaker: Dr. Vivienne Ming, Theoretical Neuroscientist Co-Founder, Socos Founder

Named one of 10 Women to Watch in Tech in 2013 by Inc. Magazine, Vivienne Ming is a theoretical neuroscientist, technologist and entrepreneur. She co-founded Socos, where machine learning and cognitive neuroscience combine to maximize students’ life outcomes.

Schedule:

5.30pm Networking, drinks and nibbles
6.00pm Canterbury Tech (David Carter), industry news & quick pitches (15 minutes)
6.15pm Joanna Norris (10 minutes)
6.25pm Dr. Vivienne Ming (20 minutes)
6.45pm Two Stream Presentations
Stream A ~ Phil Garing (30 minutes)
Stream B ~ Sarah Trevethick & Mary Martin (30 minutes)
7.15pm Networking and drinks until 7.45pm

When and Where

Ara – Engineering and Architectural Studies building
Corner Moorhouse St & Madras St
Christchurch, 8041

5:30pm – 7:45pm
Tuesday, 3 July 2018

How Much

Canterbury Tech members – Free
Students – Free
Non Members – $25

More

Event webpage
Canterbury Tech Website

Wāhine in Tech Wellington Happy Hour – 28 June 2018

What

First Wāhine in Tech Wellington networking event!

Please join us for drinks and nibbles (and maybe even a speech!) in a yet-to-be-confirmed inner city location and get your networking on! This is a great to meet some other great women and non-binary folk in Wellington, share some stories and laughs and do it in a low-stakes and casual environment.
Please consider bringing someone who is new to the industry, or who may not usually come along to meetup events – we’d love to see some new faces and help people feel really comfy within this group going forward.

When and Where

28 June 2018 from 5:30pm

Venue: Yet-to-be-confirmed inner city location

How Much

No mention of cost.

More

 

https://www.meetup.com/Wahine-in-Tech-Wellington/events/251103033/

Code of Conduct

Contemporary Comics Panel Discussion – Wellington – 21 June 2018

What

Come and listen to 3 Wellington-based comics artists talk about their work and contemporary practice.

Giselle Clarkson, Jem Yoshioka, and Tara Black are accomplished artists with diverse styles and fascinating perspectives on the contemporary comics scene.

About the speakers:

Jem Yoshioka is an award winning comic artist and illustrator from Wellington, New Zealand.

Giselle Clarkson is a freelance illustrator and cartoonist based in Wellington. She has a comic strip about children’s books published monthly on The Sapling and has created non-fiction comics about science and conservation for Auckland Zoo, Forest & Bird, The NZ School Journal and others.

Her first picture book Secret World of Butterflies, a collaboration with author Courtney Sina Meredith and Auckland Museum, was released in May 2018.

Tara Black makes comics. Tara aims to wear at least three types of pattern in an outfit and can recite Pi to an underwhelming, 10 decimal places. She live illustrates book events for Booksellers NZ as well as making comics about otter-dogs, dead literary heroes who haunt teachers, and book dragons. You can find these things on her website, ablackart.com, but not Pi.

When and Where

5:30pm -6:30pm
Thursday 21 June 2018

Te Ahumairangi
Ground Floor, National Library
cnr Molesworth & Aitken Streets
Thorndon, Wellington

How Much

Free

More

Eventfinda Page
National Library Events page

 

Wellington Gopher Meetup – Wellington – 21 June 2018

What

We will be having two awesome speakers that will be gracing us with their knowledge and experience!

What to bring?

  • A wifi-capable laptop with Docker installed (if you are using windows you must enable linux docker containers)
  • Your awesome self

Whats happening?

cgo – binding to C/C++ libraries
Justin Israel, Weta Digitial will be providing a talk on cgo, which is a bridge allowing calls between Go and C. Justin will take a high-level look at when it might be appropriate to reach for a cgo solution, and some examples of interfacing with C/C++ code. Be afraid; The stabilisers are coming off.

Building Terraform Providers in Golang
Alex McNeill, Xero will be coordinating a workshop around how to build your own Terraform providers in Go. This lab should give attendees a good idea of how Terraform Providers work behind the scenes.

When and Where

Thursday 21 June 2018
5:30pm – 7pm

Level 3 Xero House
19-23 Taranaki St
Wellington

How Much

Free

More

Event Meetup Page
Wellington Golang Meetup Group

Automation with Selenium Webdriver – Auckland – 25 June 2018

What

The presentation will focus on test automation technologies specifically focus on Selenium WebDriver. Selenium is one of the most popular test automation technologies worldwide.

Will speak on below points:
– What is Selenium
– Libraries and tools developed based on Selenium
– Simplify the usage of Selenium WebDriver by explaining the major packages and classes in this library
– Clarify the high-level picture of Java/Maven projects, TestNG, Cucumber, etc.
– Programming skills required to use Selenium
– Required skill set for Automation Framework Developer/Architect
– Good practices in test automation
– Explanation of the demo project

About Automated Testing Auckland Meetup

We are bringing together a community of automated testing enthusiasts to share new ideas, war stories, best practices, and build a testing culture with each other. Want to share your expert test automation skills? Want to learn more about automated testing? We all share the common goal of delivering high-quality software, faster. Come join us for our casual and friendly discussions on automated testing, continuous integration & delivery, TDD and more! Follow us @AutoTestAuckland

When and Where

Monday, June 25, 2018
6pm to 9pm

Xero
Level 2, Textile Centre,
125 St George Bay Road,
Parnell, Auckland

How Much

Free

More

Automation with Selenium Webdriver meeting
Automated Testing Auckland Meetup Group