By The Techweek Team
20 May 2022
From Southland to Te Tai Tokerau Northland, Kiwis joined together to acknowledge and better understand the possibilities that tech and digital innovation offer our people, communities and businesses – Aotearoa's collective economic well-being.
The share number of events put on by schools, universities, community organisations, tech businesses, regional councils, Government ministries and all our hardworking event organisers made choosing a highlights reel very tough. That said, here are a handful of our favourites.
A quick reminder that every one of our 79 TWTV sessions are currently available on-demand at our Stuff channel.
Techweek22 opened with an address from the Hon David Clark, Minister for Digital Economy and Communications, where he spoke to the development of the Digital Strategy for Aotearoa, and the Digital Technologies Industry Transformation Plan (DITP).
During his address, the Minister outlined the Government's plans to invest in the DITP to support two key areas:
Further, the Minister said there's now a domestic opportunity to tell the story of the tech sector to Kiwis. "This is a great opportunity to inspire more young New Zealanders into the sector. The sector needs to speak to and resonate with rangatahi, with young Pacific peoples, girls in education, people with disabilities, and across the regions of New Zealand," he said.
Techweek kicked off with a bang in Tauranga, with the University of Waikato and Priority One celebrating the opening of a new ‘blue and green’ tech lab in Mount Maunganui.
The lab is the region’s first university research and development lab focused wholly on engineering and technology for the primary industries sector. It’s a space for university staff and students to grow capability in Tauranga across cutting edge technology to meet real needs.
University of Waikato Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alister Jones said “Blue/Green represents the way we can take research in the marine environment and in the horticulture environment and build synergies between those two to create a better kind of environment, better economic growth,” Alister said. “This is actually about collaboration.”
History was made at Techweek22 with New Zealand’s first-ever 3D-printed live performance.
Students from Rangi Ruru Girls’ School in Christchurch embraced Techweek22, with a range of activities and initiatives running throughout the school – and an exciting partnership with a national business.
Students have been experiencing VR gaming, creating augmented reality for social media and coding, while the school launched two new programmes to foster students’ entrepreneurial and tech skills.
Some of Māoridom's most inspiring movers and shakers in the Aotearoa tech space (including several finalists in the NZ Hi-Tech Awards) joined TWTV to discuss lessons for success.
Amongst topics of note, the panellists dived into the question of how we might see Māori, whanau Māori, hapū and iwi flourish in technology. On this, key takeaways included:
InvestHer saw nine women-led businesses, pitch to a packed house of investors. Conversations took place between founders and potential investors – and we’re excited to see what comes to fruition! View the journey of last year's speakers and what they have achieved here.
The event not only assisted these founders on their journey to raise growth or expansion capital, but aimed to inspire and support the growth of women-led businesses, address common barriers and leverage opportunities for success.
Hosted at Unitec and drawing a 100+ crowd, this event featured an extensive audience Q&A session with panellists: Victoria Maclennan, Venessa Sorenson, Microsoft NZ MD; Steven Renata, Kiwa Digital MD; and hot Gus Gilmore, CEO of Unitec and MIT.
On the topic of future trends speaker and digital equity advocate Victoria Maclennan predicted that:
From smart city infrastructure and clean logistics, through green energy and precision agriculture – the applications of emerging tech in pursuit of a cleaner, greener future are immense – but at what cost?
Developed by BlockchainNZ in collaboration with Auckland University Business School, this debate-style event saw leading industry figures, thinkers and disrupters join for a timely and far-reaching debate about the role of technology in achieving New Zealand’s emissions targets. View the above video to see key topics covered, including:
Celebrating Techweek22 and technology in the south, Data Download gave an Invercargill audience the intel on Southland's planned $50 Hi-tech data centre.
The centre, New Zealand's first T4 and first carbon-neutral data centre, is a potential game-changer for the region, offering connection to global lines of communication, high-speed stable internet to the region, and something of a "data campus."
The idea is to work with the Southern Institute of Technology to potentially create a "hands-on" programme with the aim to attract more people to the region, as well to create opportunities for younger generations. Students will have the opportunity to learn about this growing industry in a three-year course while putting their knowledge into action at the data centre.
Kicking off a series of talanoa in south Auckland during Techweek, the Ōtara 4.0 group aimed to introduce students to Māori and Pacific people already working in the industry. This first session, held on wednesday, focussed on animation and visual effects, including gaming, graphic design and e-sports.
Graeme Muller, NZTech CEO and Victoria Maclennan IT Professionals CEO joined TWTV to discuss what the $20 m commitment announced by Minister Clark for supporting the Digital Industry Transformation Plan actually means for the tech sector.
View the full breakdown of the announcement, including what it means for New Zealand's SaaS sector and overseas marketing initiatives in the video above.
Disruptors from across the science and technology sector came together with R&D intensive companies in Christchurch to showcase the value of science-based commercial activity to New Zealand’s economic performance.
The event programme featured: a drop in mini expo aimed at school and student audiences for science students to engage directly with companies to discuss a career in science; and a networking & presentations segment with a range of dynamic speakers for quickfire presentations. Talks included:
"I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past" – Alyce Lysaght presented on her kaupapa to raise awareness, encourage engagement and increase representation of Māori in the engineering industry.
For this nationwide digital event, Canterbury Tech invited secondary school students, their whanau, teachers and careers advisors to learn about the industry from three young tech professionals on their own career journeys.
This was a sold-out in-person breakfast networking event at CoundownX featuring key talent speakers from analytics and insights, product, strategy & transformation and engineering practices.
She# and Countdown collaborated to deliver first-hand the real stories of the women who are igniting our passion for careers in Technology. Key takeaways included the importance of networking and how in many cases job opportunities and access to information resources are and unintended consequence of this.
Byte Mawhera digital hub was proud to support Techweek22 – providing free premises and digital support to a range of groups from using coding, and building tech lego for tamariki to advanced business workshops and safe online gaming for kids.
Key highlights included:
Featuring Aotearoa's leading space minds, this event offered the opportunity for the public to meet the experts behind New Zealand’s first government-funded space launch.
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