Events

There’s always a lot going on in Auckland.  Check back here to keep up-to-date on the latest events in the business environment.

Upcoming Events

Inspire Day 2012

Be Inspired by World Class New Zealanders this month.

This half day event features short, sharp presentations from some of New Zealand’s leading business thinkers who know what it takes to succeed internationally. Their presentations are sure to provide insights, ideas and inspiration for entrepreneurs, corporate managers, business owners and students.

Date: Wednesday 30 May, 2012
Time: 9am – 1pm
Venue: Viaduct Events Centre, Wynyard Quarter
Tickets: $60 per person

Register now

Speakers:

Geoff Ross: Creating culture and building international brands

Geoff Ross is part of The Bakery, a company that invests in high growth New Zealand businesses, including body care and home fragrance company Ecoya and Marlborough beer maker Moa.

Prior to The Bakery, Geoff was the founder and CEO of 42 Below Limited, one of New Zealand’s most successful brands globally and a listed company for three years prior to its sale to Bacardi in late 2006. Geoff is also a board member of the Melanoma Foundation and adviser to Air New Zealand’s ‘Grab a Seat’ initiative. He is also a Trustee of Pure Advantage, a campaign to assist New Zealand to become a leading exporter of high-value produce, renewable energy and clean technology, with a top-tier in-bound tourism industry.
Geoff will share his insights on creating culture and building international brands plus his views on how New Zealand companies can create more wealth using their pure advantage.

 

Sir Stephen Tindall: Investing in New Zealand and the green growth agenda

Sir Stephen needs little introduction as he has long been recognised as one of New Zealand’s leading business thinkers. He is currently the chair of the Government’s Growth and Innovation Advisory Board and is also a co-founder and director of KEA.

As a passionate and committed supporter of New Zealand enterprises Sir Stephen will talk about and give examples of the massive opportunities available in investing in knowledge here in New Zealand.  He will also discuss the Green Growth race happening globally and how this country could benefit from this on a grand scale if we invest wisely and attract the right partners.

 

 

Dr The Hon. Peter Watson: The World in 2050 -- Where is New Zealand?

Peter Watson is President and CEO of the Dwight Group, a Washington D.C.-based investment bank. He has previously served in the White House reporting directly to the President of the United States of America.

His presentation focuses on a survey of a range of international economic, trade, demographic/population and income trends and scenarios going out to 2050. New Zealand business and policy-makers quite properly focus on immediate and near-term sets of data to deal with present and near-term challenges and opportunities. What projections of future data and trends would be of value to these decision-makers? What does this data mean for New Zealand? Who will be trading with whom? Where will the largest portion of the global middle and rich class reside? What goods and services will they be buying? What are the long-term risks to growth in markets that New Zealand cares about?

 

 

Ian Taylor: What it takes to be a World Class New Zealander: key lessons learned from experience

Ian Taylor is well known in New Zealand and world renowned for his innovations in computer graphics with his company Animation Research Ltd which is at the forefront of real time 3-D graphics for global sports including sailing, golf, cricket, tennis and Formula One motor racing.

At a time when Auckland is waking up to the importance of innovation if we are to make our mark globally, Ian will talk about what it takes to do exactly that – taking on the best in the world, doing things differently and doing it from here.

 

 

 

Bridget Liddell: Creating Opportunity through Diversity

Bridget Liddell is currently a General Partner in the Fahrenheit Wellness Fund, a $150m growth capital fund, based in New York and Boston. She is also a director of BRAC USA, a global economic development agency operating in the world's poorest countries with holistic programmes encompassing healthcare, education, microfinance and other support.

Bridget believes there is a war for talent globally – yet our New Zealand businesses are often not opening their eyes to the extraordinary talent right in front of them, talent we can ill afford to waste. Building a more diverse leadership group is a huge opportunity for our country. Drawing from broader talent pools will help boost our economic performance, improve the quality of our decision-making and create a New Zealand where the brightest and best will want to live, work and contribute. 
 

 

Tony Falkenstein: New thinking is the key to New Zealand’s future prosperity

One of the country’s leading CEOs for more than 30 years and a member of the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame, Tony Falkenstein is passionate about business and entrepreneurship, while seeing business education as the key to New Zealand’s economic prosperity.

Tony argues that doing the same old thing a little faster is not going to help us move our country forward faster than other countries in this era of rapid technological change.  New thinking will. By taking off the blinkers, New Zealand can lead the way in this “new thinking” era – we have the people, we just need to put a “new thinking” hat on them. Do we need to think differently about education – is there a better way for our children to learn than how their parents learned?  How do we get people trained for jobs – the Germans think that is old thinking – for New Zealand it might be new thinking.  Do we need to be more creative about our tourism? – It’s new thinking all around, in everything we do.

 

 

MC – David Slack

David Slack is an author, radio and TV commentator, and speechwriter. He was speechwriter for Prime Ministers Geoffrey Palmer and Jim Bolger, and subsequently established the website speeches.com, which generates speeches for a worldwide market. His book Bullshit, Backlash and Bleeding Hearts - A Confused Person's Guide to the Great Race Row explored Treaty of Waitangi and race relations issues and its sequel, Civil War ...and Other Optimistic Predictions, considers various doomsday scenarios in New Zealand politics.

He has blogged at Publicaddress.net, has been a regular contributor to Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon programme, TV One's Breakfast programme, Radio New Zealand's Panel and has been an occasional host on Radio Live. He is a columnist for Metro and Unlimited magazines, and was business columnist of the year at the 2011 Magazine Publishers Association awards.
 

CoreNet Global Symposium - 7 June 2012

CoreNet Global is the premier association for corporate real estate professionals, with nearly 7,000 members around the world from leading multinational companies from the Fortune and Global 1000. Members manage over $1.2 trillion in real estate and workplace assets in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, New Zealand and North America.

The theme for the New Zealand Chapter 2012 Symposium is “Corporate Real Estate (CRE) and Business - Working in Partnership”, reflecting the critical role corporate real estate plays in delivering businesses strategic goals.

The organisers will bring top international speakers from London, France and Shanghai to present best practice in this space. Local case studies feature heavily, including Tainui Group Holdings, whose story canvases the CRE spectrum from retail and commercial to education and an inland port.

The CoreNet Global Symposium event will take place in Auckland 7 June, at the Viaduct Events Centre. Read more here.

Previous events

Sea Edge

Sea Edge – the first ever international symposium specifically designed for dialogue between waterfront development leaders came to Auckland last month.

Waterfront Auckland hosted the event in association with Auckland Council and ANZ Bank at the Viaduct Events Centre in Wynyard Quarter, 28 and 29 March 2012.
It was attended by Mayors, Chief Urban planners, CEOs, General Managers and Government Secretary Generals from waterfront cities around the world.

With delegations from Cape Town, Hamburg, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore, Busan and Taichung attending, Sea Edge proved to be an extremely valuable working discussion on how best to grow the Auckland waterfront in an integrated way.
For more information on Sea Edge, visit the Waterfront Auckland website.