Tag: IT

AI: the future is here – adapt and embrace or move aside – Wellington – 11 October 2018

What

AI: the future is here – adapt and embrace or move aside

Panel discussion about the implications of artificial intelligence for New Zealand organisations.

Panel member bios

Will Browne has been developing artificial intelligence algorithms to learn through their experiences for 24 years in the UK and New Zealand. This includes disembodied tasks, such as data mining, and embodied systems, such as robot navigation. His passion is developing artificial cognitive systems that perceive, represent, reason, learn and act in their problem domain. How these agents can learn from small problems and apply their learnt knowledge to larger-scale and related problems is particularly fascinating. He has presented invited talks on advanced machine learning in MIT, Boston and Microsoft Research, Seattle as well as on machine consciousness in Nokia, Europe. Will is a co-leader of a national science challenge developing intelligent robots for the workplace.
***
Neil Dodgson was, for twenty years, head of the Graphics & Interaction Research Group at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. In 2016, he returned to New Zealand to be Programme Director of Victoria’s Computer Graphics Programme and to bring skills that complemented the already strong computer graphics research group in Victoria’s School of Engineering & Computer Science. He chairs Victoria’s pan-university Digital Futures research theme, which considers how technology will affect society in all its aspects.
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Akash Jattan has more than 10 years’ experience in leadership, technology and portfolio management in Cloud and Big Data. Taking multiple products from conception to delivery with five products currently in market. He built Australia’s first security focused ‘Big Data Platform as a Service’ product in Telstra. In Qrious as Head of Products/platforms, he successfully implemented the ingestion of 3BN events per day from Sparks mobile networks into a big data stack to service people movement insights and launched a Hadoop-as-a-service product to market. Currently works for Revera helping leverage Big Data technology and helping customers understand and adopt big data solutions in the cloud. He is passionate about technology and product management by delivery value through data.
***
Torrance Mayberry is an Information Technology, science and data engineering professional with more than 20 years of experience. He has developed enterprise software for Business Analytics, Data Warehousing, and Enterprise Resource Planning for PeopleSoft and Informatica Corporation in Silicon Valley. He has developed software with firms like Dynamic Research Corporation, Metis Associates and Annie E Casey Foundation. He has run business intelligence and data warehouse units at InterContinental Hotels Group, General Electric, Westpac Bank New Zealand Limited, and led the data engineering and data scientist pursuits at start-up Antuit, a Goldman Sachs portfolio company. More recently, he has been Data and AI Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft innovating and driving solutions with partners to generate repeatable customer value and profitability.
***

Moderator bio:

Abinesh is currently the Client Strategy Director at leading technology talent recruitment firm Potentia Limited, following a successful stint as the Commercial Manager at Health Benefits Limited where he was the Lead Negotiator for the National Infrastructure Platform Programme. This strategic initiative drew upon Abinesh’s significant knowledge, experience and network across the technology domain and the health sector gained through over seven years of senior leadership tenure at healthAlliance (a shared services organisation serving the four northern region District Health Boards’s and one of the largest ICT operations in the country).

When and Where

Rutherford House
23 Lambton Quay, Wellington

Schedule:

5:30 – 6:00 networking, drinks and nibbles
6:00 – 7:00 panel
7:00 – 7:30 networking, drinks and nibbles

How Much

Free

More

Meetup event.

IT Conversations Meetup.

Sponsors: Potentia Limited (http://potentia.co.nz) and Victoria Business School (https://www.victoria.ac.nz/vbs)

Infrastructure at an Emerging Company – Auckland – 8 October 2018

What

Our presenter is Thomas Yang – Software Developer at AskNicely, and a bit of a server wrangler at work and for play.

He will share with us “Infrastructure at an Emerging Company”: A talk about how we have our Infrastructure set up at AskNicely, and the lessons and experiences from the perspective of someone new to DevOps.

** Please note the new venue and this meetup runs on the later schedule **

Doors will open at 17:30, and the presentation will run from 18:00 to 19:00, and we’ll leave at 19:30.

Catalyst IT have kindly offered us the use of their training space in the heart of downtown. Come to 2 Commerce Street, and someone will help you unlock the door and come up the lift.

Please observe our code of conduct (https://www.meetup.com/DevOps-Auckland/pages/Code_of_Conduct/) while participating in the group.

When and Where

8 October 2018
5:30pm – 7:30pm

Catalyst IT
Level 4, 2 Commerce Street,Auckland

How Much

Free.

More

Meetup event.

DevOps Auckland Meetup Group.

Backporting to the Future, Surfacing Composition, Lightning Talks – Auckland – 26 September 2018

What

This month we have two mini-talks previewing content to be presented at Pacific++ next month and a continuation of lightning talks left over from last month if time permits.

## “Backporting to the Future” – Andrew Paxie

Andrew will give a very draft version of the presentation he plans to give at Pacific++ next month. You will hear why he added C++11 support to Trompeloeil, a mocking framework that is top-to-bottom a C++14 library. After a brief introduction of its top-level features, Andrew will highlight the techniques he used to provide equivalent functionality in C++11. Compromises, limitations, and open issues will be discussed.

## “Surfacing Composition” – Toby Allsopp

Toby will also give an early version of part of his Pacific++ talk. He will talk about composition in software in general and C++ in particular

## “Lightning Talks”

If time permits:

* “Your C++ build system in 2020” – Nick Sarten
* “Naming Things” – Richard Maxwell
* “Finding stuff with the SQL…” – Paul Leslie

When and Where

26 September 2018
6pm – 8pm

WhereScape
12-16 Tapora Street, Quay Park, Auckland

## Rough Agenda

18:00 Arrive
18:15 Backporting to the Future
18:45 Lightning Talks
19:00 Pizza
19:15 Surfacing Composition
19:45 Lightning Talks

How Much

Free

More

Meetup event

Meetings are held approximately monthly and run under the Berlin Code of Conduct (http://berlincodeofconduct.org/).

Sharing, opening, and using data … Creative Commons licenses 101 – Christchurch – 27 September 2018

What

Are you:
• Confused about what ‘open’ means
• Ready to open your data but need to know more about copyright
• Wanting to use someone else’s data?

If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, sign up for our entertaining and educational Meetup where Tohatoha Aotearoa Commons CE Mandy Henk will break it all down for you.

Mandy will take you through the ins and outs of the Creative Commons licenses – what they do, how they work, and how you can use them to move your business forward.

She’ll talk you through the six Creative Commons licences, explain why you might want to openly license your data, and how to find and use openly licensed material.

There’ll also be networking over light snacks and drinks.

Open Data in NZ Meetups are for sharing the passion and success around the release of open data with like-minded people. These Meetups will consist of sharing innovative ideas and information, success stories and an open forum to discuss hot topics happening within your region and the wider global community.

When and Where

Greenhouse
146a Lichfield St
Christchurch

6pm – 7:30pm
Thursday 27 September 2018

How Much

Free

More

Meetup page and Signup for this event
Christchurch Open Data Meetup Group

 

PHP Doctrine: from skeptic to convert – Wellington – 24 September 2018

What

“Doctrine: from skeptic to convert” by Eric Jacolin

Michael Coleman’s 5min paddle will be about “zsnips – text snippets for your command line”.

Please note that we have moved our meetups to BizDojo Market Lane and this meetup is on the last Monday (not Tuesday) of the month!

The Wellington PHP UserGroup provides a safe community and opportunity to meet smart, fun, and diverse people on the last Tuesday of every month. Attendance is free, caters to all skill levels and is open to anyone with an interest in web development and emergent and Open Source technologies. Whilst PHP is an extremely popular scripting language we regularly invite guest speakers from front end communities, accessibility and legal experts, as well as alternative and complementary .

When and Where

BizDojo Market Lane
3 Market Lane
Wellington

6pm – 8pm
Monday 24 September 2018

How Much

Free

More

Meetup Page for the meeting
PHP Usergroup Wellington Meetup page

 

WOSSAT – Wellington – 20 September 2018

What

Wellington Open Source Show And Tell (WOSSAT)

Ellie Coyle — A junior’s tale of building and productionising machine learning models

Ellie will be talking about work she did as an intern around Xero’s account suggestion feature

Ellie is a graduate developer at Xero currently working on Reporting. She enjoys romanticising maths and computer science, playing with her newly adopted Cat called Evie and going out to live music gigs.

Matthew Holloway — An Intro to Pattern Libraries

Pattern Libraries are a componentised approach to front-end development; like lego blocks that you compose together to build websites and webapps. Matthew will talk about addressing inefficiences in the way we work, and using pattern libraries to make development go Blazingly Fast™.

Matthew is Front-end Director with Springload.

Hamish Rae-Hodgson — Collision detection in a 48hr game jam

A tight deadline focuses the mind. Hamish will be talking about his experience taking part in a 48hr game jam. In particular he’ll be focussing on how he implemented collision detection in his game (spoiler alert: corners were cut) and he’ll follow up with a live demo of the game.

When and Where

6pm Tuesday, 20th September 2018

Catalyst IT
Level 3, Catalyst House,
150 Willis Street, Wellington

How Much

Free

More

wossat.nz

Meetup event

Future Meetings Schedule:

Monthly meetings alternate between the 3rd Tuesday and the 3rd Thursday of each month.

CHCon (Christchurch Hacker Conference) – Christchurch – 25-27 October 2018

What

CHCon is a conference for security professionals and hackers in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is for anyone interested in software, hardware, and physical security in tech.

  • Training will be run on Thursday 25th October
  • Presentations on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th.
  • Badge and locksport challenges will be run throughout the main event

When and Where

UCSA Events Centre,
90 Ilam Rd,
Riccarton,
Christchurch

Training Day
Thursday 25 October 2018
8am – 5pm

Main Event
Friday 26 and Saturday 27 October 2018
9am – 6pm

How Much

For the Main event

General Admission  $70
Students/Unwaged  $35

Tickets for Training sold separately, prices to be confirmed.

More

Chcon Website
Chcon Main Event Schedule
Tickets

Running things in Go / Go modules fishbowl conversation – Auckland – 18 September 2018

What

GO AKL is a Auckland based meetup 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.

This month we will be having one speaker followed by a ‘fishbowl conversation’.

Dmitry will be speaking to us about ‘running things in Go’ – lessons and advice for running Go apps in production.

Then we will have a fishbowl conversation on [at least one of] the following topics:
* Go modules and dependency management
* Go2 and Generics

Fishbowls are a fun format to conduct a group conversation, and you’re welcome to participate or spectate as you feel. Both these topics are hotly debated in the Go world, and this feels like an interesting time to discuss each one. We’ll vote on a topic and see how far it takes us – we don’t necessarily have to cover both.

This will be our first meetup with this kind of format – naturally we’ll keep things friendly and inclusive, and agree on some ground rules to ensure that everyone feels comfortable.

In the meantime feel free to connect via the Gophers slack community, on the #auckland channel (sign up via https://invite.slack.golangbridge.org/ ).

When and Where

Tuesday 18 September 2018
6pm – 8pm

Movio
2.4 / 30 St Benedicts St
Eden Tce
Auckland

How Much

Free

More

Meetup page for this week’s event
Meetup page for Go AKL

NetHui Southland – Invercargill – 16 October 2018

What

NetHui is a collection of New Zealand’s most diverse and interactive Internet community events. InternetNZ has helped bring the NetHui experience to New Zealanders interested in the future of the Internet since 2011 – they have been held in cities, towns and at your house via live streaming.

What happens at a NetHui?

A NetHui is about discussions, not presentations – participants set topics and lead conversations amongst all of the attendees. While there are plenary sessions with keynote speakers to bring participants together at the beginning and end of each day, most of a NetHui is dedicated to breakout sessions, often with multiple sessions running concurrently. This format deliberately creates smaller groups so more voices can be heard.

A NetHui feels very different to most events. The collaborative conversations between participants draws in views and expertise that is often overlooked. People share their own experiences as well as their expertise, so it is rare for a NetHui session to end without everyone feeling like they learned something new – even if they were experts in the topic to begin with.

Is NetHui for me?

Of course! NetHui is for everybody who has an interest in the challenges and vast opportunities the Internet presents, the policies and regulations around access and use of the Internet, or anyone that simply wants to talk about the Internet.

A NetHui is empowering for participants because everyone’s views, opinions and contributions are valued equally at NetHui. People of all ages, backgrounds, genders and ethnicities are encouraged to attend. A respectful, open attitude towards others is expected from all participants, speakers, exhibitors and volunteers. Put simply, if you’re looking for a safe, open, inclusive space to engage with your community about the Internet and all that goes with it, then NetHui will be your kind of place.

And if you can’t attend a NetHui in person, you can get involved in the conversation online: Every NetHui session is live-streamed, and we have live-chat so you can participate. We also have people making collaborative online notes of the sessions.

How is the programme for a NetHui decided upon?

To build a NetHui programme, the public are invited to submit ideas for the things they’d like to talk about. People with similar topics are linked up and asked to prepare and facilitate a conversation during a NetHui Breakout Session. The ideas raised by the community also inform the creation of panel discussion topics, and the invitation of panelists and keynote speakers, both of whom lead bigger discussions in NetHui plenaries. The programme development process starts months before a NetHui, to engage widely with the community and allow groups time to flesh out their topics and prepare.

When and Where

9am – 5pm
Tuesday 16 October 2018

Ascot Park Hotel
Corner of Tay Street and Racecourse Rd,
Invercargill

How Much

$30 for standard tickets

More

Nethui Southland Website
Draft Programme
About Nethui

Erlang in Earnest, for Mixed Reality gaming – Auckland – 19 September 2018

What

Using Erlang in earnest – building a Mixed Reality, multiplayer, game engine embodying digital Agents – a beginner’s guide

Description: We have built a Mixed Reality game engine in .Net running in Azure. It works well, but scaling and cost mean it is not tenable as the business grows. We needed to build something that could be massively parallel, and scale without limit. We tried NodeJS. We rethought things, did some more research, and came up with Erlang. It took us a couple of years to find a way into the language, but once we found the right tools, getting started with Erlang took about two weeks. This talk will attempt to help you avoid a similar two-year trial period. With examples.

Short Bio: Dr Roy Davies is a computer scientist who went to the dark side and became interested in the human side of the cursor. Studying cognitive science and psychology prepared him for doing research in Mixed Reality in the 90s when it was still a new and amazing thing. Over the years, he has worked in academia and business, with a stint as a consultant, in both Sweden and New Zealand. His first introduction to ‘interesting’ languages was programming in Prolog, and building hard-wired computers to control robots for people with disabilities. Roy is currently the CTO of Imersia, but still gets his hand dirty by cutting code – leading by example.

Functional Programming Auckland

Come learn, teach, play with all things FP. We’ll see what people are into including some presentations and hack nights to try other cool languages etc. Haskell, Scala, Clojure, Lisp, ML, OCaml, Javascript, Erlang and all the others…

When and Where

Wednesday 19 September 2018
6pm – 8pm

Movio HQ
2.4 – 30 St Benedicts St
Eden Tce
Auckland

How Much

Free

More

Using Erlang in earnest – building a Mixed Reality
Functional Programming Auckland Meetup Group