Scott Adams

Scott Adams is a Principal Consultant at Effectus. In the last 25 years he has been fortunate to have been in roles that lead to significant positive changes for organisations in Australia and New Zealand. He has a diverse industry background including Agribusiness, Manufacturing, Tourism, Local Government, Tertiary and Telecommunications and has established himself as a proven facilitator of change with a keen interest in the areas of Business and IT Strategy, Information Management, Shared Services and Major Systems. 

Chris Ben

Chris Ben, the man with two first names, hails from Nintex – an organisation dedicated to improving the way their customers work through process management and automation.  He works as a Senior Solutions Engineer for them. He’s always seeking better, more efficient ways of working and making this available to the people that count – the ones at the coalface.  You will almost certainly hear Chris advocating for an exceptional user experience because he believes there is no point in delivering something that people will struggle to use. Chris is excited to take you on the journey with him to find better ways of working.

Bonita Bigham

Bonita is an uri of Ngāruahine and Te Atiawa iwi and has lived most of her life in Taranaki. A former three-term South Taranaki District councillor and current community board member, Bonita also chairs Te Maruata, the national collective of Māori elected or appointed to governance roles within the local government sector.

She sits on Local Government New Zealand’s National Council and other LGNZ committees. Bonita is an accredited RMA commissioner, has completed her Masters in Fine Arts, finished a Masters in Māori Visual Arts in 2020 and intends to go on to doctoral study. She is also an appointee to the Oranga Marae Committee and was a trustee for Ngāruahine through their settlement process. Bonita has been a trustee on school boards, community organisations, marae and hapū committees and currently works for Ngāruahine within iwi relationships. She is a weaver, painter, sculptor and instillation artist and has a general passion for the visual arts. Bonita is on the National Geographic Board.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield

Dr Ashley Bloomfield is the Director-General of Health and Chief Executive at the Ministry of Health.  

He trained as a medical doctor at the University of Auckland, and later completed a Master’s in Public Health. Dr Bloomfield has held several positions of leadership including Chief Executive at Hutt Valley District Health Board from 2015 to 2018, Director of Public Health, and a stint at the World Health Organization.  

His interests in public health are in the prevention of non-communicable diseases, however recently, Dr Bloomfield’s influential leadership has been on display as part of New Zealand’s Covid-19 pandemic response. 

Paul Brislen 

Paul has been a technology commentator and journalist for 20 years, working for a number of specialist IT publications, television and radio. He's worked in corporate public relations and as a lobbyist for the telco users and today he runs his own consultancy, working with clients such as the Institute of IT Professionals, Datacom, Paymark and many others.

He is Chief Executive of the New Zealand Telecommunications Forum.

Shelley Campbell

Shelley is Manager, Business Connect for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. She has worked in the UK and NZ as a stakeholder engagement specialist for the last 15 years.  She's been championing Business Connect since its' launch in 2019, and working with councils around the country to ensure the platform delivers for them and their business partners.

Vic Crone 

Vic has significant executive and governance experience in technology and innovation. She brings a strong customer focus, and a track record of leading and implementing strategy, and building organisational culture.

Vic was previously the Managing Director of Xero NZ and New Markets, following executive roles at Chorus and Telecom New Zealand.

Vic is Chair of the Stats NZ Advisory Board and Figure NZ Board. She has also been an independent director on the boards of a number of companies and organisations in the technology sector, including RedShield, Creative HQ and the Hi-Tech Trust.

Wayne Dellow

Wayne has over 30 years extensive expertise working in business development. He has a genuine passion for what he does and has the ability to understand and meet people right where they are.

Michael Dreyer

Michael Dreyer is the General Manager of National Digital Services and Chief Technology Officer at the Ministry of Health. The team provide shared national health IT Services such as the National Health Index, Payments, Screening and Registers (Cancer, Immunisation, etc). During the Covid response Michael established and ran the Contact Tracing Service and has lead the delivery of technology for the response. This includes the new National Contact Tracing Solution, the Border Management systems and the COVID-19 Vaccine and Immunisation Programme. 

Prior to his current role he worked for ten years at Contact Energy, finishing as Acting General Manager ICT where he lead a migration to cloud services. He has a Master’s Degree in Forestry Science (Cant.). He spent his early career running digital transformations in London and also driving superyachts in the Mediterranean.

Michael Dugina 

Michael Dugina, Executive Director Customer and Corporate Services, City of Greater Geelong has over 20 years’ experience in finance and technology, in particular supporting and delivering major organisational change programs across the education, health, not for profit and government sectors. Michael is currently Executive Director Customer and Corporate Services for the City of Greater Geelong and is responsible for the delivery of the City’s digital modernisation and civic accommodation projects the outcome of which is to transform both customer and employee experience.

April George

Senior Solutions Engineer for Okta, April is an identity and access management specialist with over 12 years experience across both the public and private sector. She has helped businesses of all sizes achieve their IAM goals, from strategy and architecture to deployment and support.

Adrian Hall

Adrian is the co-owner of Citrus Consulting Group, which is a New Zealand based company providing specialist consultancy, sales and professional services around data management and the move to private, hybrid and public cloud. Citrus Consulting deliver solutions, alongside their partners, which help businesses reduce the risk, cost and complexity of moving to the Cloud. They help speed up ROI, and assist them with a roadmap to digital transformation. 

His days in IT started when a PC with a 40MB hard disk was considered excessive. When cloud was a bureau, when big data was measured in GB and DR was just two guys swapping floppy disks in a motorway service station. Things are very different now but his passion for technology has not waivered. 

Wendy Hamilton

Wendy Hamilton is General Manager Data System Capability at StatsNZ and part of the Government Chief Data Steward function, aiming to provide system leadership to central government and uplift the data maturity of the government data system. In New Zealand Wendy has had roles in large government agencies such as Chief Data Steward at Education and Director Data & Information at Justice. Her professional background includes the adoption of new technologies to enable business change at leading global technology organisations in Britain, Europe and the United States and delivering data warehouse and insight services for a large British telecommunications provider.

In these roles she has been responsible for the safe, appropriate and ethical collection, management and use of data for informed decision making at all levels to support operational practice and policy setting. This has involved setting strategic direction of enterprise information and data management, obtaining insight from data by building solid data and analytics foundations and capability. 

Her current focus is building partnerships across New Zealand’s central government data system and leading responses to cross system challenges.

Sarah Heal

Sarah is an enthusiastic advocate for the power of information. She is Director and Co-founder of Information Leadership.

In her 10+ years at Information Leadership she has enjoyed how their three person alliance, with the same number of clients, has turned into something much bigger.

Now acknowledged as thought leaders in the information and knowledge management spaces, more than 200 customers provide great opportunities to understand how actionable information transforms the lives of people and the organisations they serve.

Stephen Ponsford

As CEO for Qrious, Stephen is passionate about transforming Kiwi businesses through the power of data, analytics and AI. He has a career spanning over 22 years, with close to 10 years at Qrious, starting in his former role as the firm’s Chief Technology Officer. 

Stephen particularly values leading an organisation that is purpose-led and value-driven, with a strong focus on projects of

national significance. His extensive experience in implementing cutting-edge technology helps NZ organisations win big on a global stage and improve domestic outcomes in both private and public sectors.  

Stephen helps to explore, inspire and evangelise the new world of data and analytics for NZ organisations who are increasingly placing a greater value on the opportunities to use data, analytics and AI.  

Kevin Rapson

Kevin is the co-owner of Citrus Consulting Group, which is a New Zealand based company providing specialist consultancy, sales and professional services around data management and the move to private, hybrid and public cloud. 

Citrus Consulting deliver solutions, alongside their partners, which help businesses reduce the risk, cost and complexity of moving to the Cloud. They help them speed up ROI, and also assist them with a roadmap to digital transformation. 
 
While working with a diverse range of clients from the largest global technology vendors, and multi-national corporations, to local public & private enterprise as well as the public sector, Kevin is always striving to find new ways for his clients to utilise the power of technology and develop innovative ways to do business. Fundamentally profit growth for his customers is what he strives for and improved efficient data management can assist this goal. He is motivated by seeing the results of providing his customers with reliable technology and excellent solutions which meet their needs. He would rather not make a sale if his best solution does not fit his customer's business requirements. At the end of the day, his customers trust him - that is all the motivation he needs. 
 

Wendy Shaw

Wendy is Secretary of New Zealand Geographic Society, Land Information New Zealand, Toitū Te Whenua Wendy Shaw is the Secretary for the New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aoteraroa, an independent statutory body of government administered by Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand. The Board's role is to make place names official in New Zealand, its continental shelf and the Ross Dependency of Antarctica. 

The Board's role is to make place names official in New Zealand, its continental shelf and the Ross Dependency of Antarctica. Wendy manages a small Secretariat to support the Board's mahi. This includes advising, processing and consulting on place name proposals to help the Board make standardised, consistent and accurate decisions that are informed, robust and enduring, and which benefit all New Zealanders. 

Leon Sheehan

Chief Executive Digital Island, part of the Spark Business Group. With over 20 years’ ICT experience across NZ and the UK Leon has developed a reputation as an expert in client centricity by driving improvements in CX – which he believes is a key enabler for business success. He is passionate about driving business growth and nurturing strong stakeholder relationships with clients and partners. Leon’s thought leadership revolves around how communication and optimisation work in synergy, as key drivers for business growth.  

Leon is hyper-focussed on delivering high-quality, cost-effective solutions that focus on producing exceptional customer value. He has a proven track record in identifying and winning new markets and channels through business innovation and change management.

Leon has a keen understanding around maintaining brand momentum, prudent cost management, and building effective sales and service. 

Donna Smith

Donna is the Team Leader Administration with Nelson City Council.  One of the first tasks she was given was the delegations manual.  She has worked with numerous databases throughout her career and is recognised as a subject matter expert.  Over the years she has worked alongside developers to produce systems for the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Justice.

Nelson City Council were using a Word document to manage their delegations which was cumbersome so Donna was excited to implement Locodelegations in its' place.

Barbara Stuart

Barbara has been in the communications and contact centre industry for over 30 years, and held many different roles from user training and technical writing to product management and marketing. For 15 years Barbara was product manager for the Zeacom contact centre solution, working with customers and partners around the world to understand the needs and drivers for contact centre innovation in the industry. In her current role she closely follows industry developments in all regions, developing content designed to assist contact centre professionals in understanding current and new industry technology.

Dr Leigh Tait

Dr Leigh Tait is a marine ecologist at NIWA and a senior lecturer at the University of Canterbury. Leigh is passionate about the application of emerging technologies to reverse the data deficit we face in managing our coasts and oceans, especially as we confront the uncertain consequences of climate change. At NIWA he currently leads the development and application of drones for managing natural resources on behalf of central and regional government agencies. 

Scott Tansley 

Scott is a geographer at heart but somehow crossed over to the dark side of IT about 15 years ago.  He spent ten years working within Local and Central government in the UK and was a GIS user/developer for eight.  As a technologist, he specialises in Esri technology.  He loves breaking technology down into language that people can relate to through stories, analogies and pictures.

Having lived in NZ for over ten years, he primarily supported Central Government as an employee of various consultancies and has worked for Stats NZ.  His customers included MPI, Stats NZ, NZTA, CERA, LINZ, MfE and others.  Scott previously worked for the North-South GIS, e-Spatial and Eagle.  In each, he spent time on client sites growing capability and relationship.

Scott formed geoworx in 2019 and has since worked with several Local Government clients.  He uses his past experiences to understand their pain point and find appropriate solutions that empower their GIS operations.  Having managed vendors, technology and upgrade cycles as a customer, Scott strives to help his clients get future-ready and not be burdened by the complexities of upgrades.  As Geoworx, Scott holds the Esri speciality for being release ready.

Matt Taylor

Matt Taylor is currently SVP, Business Development for RedShield, a web application security operational managed services company.

Sir Ian Taylor

Ian’s story is a fascinating journey, from growing up in a house without electricity in the 1950s, to being part of a company recognised globally as being at the leading edge of technology and innovation.

A former television presenter for TVNZ children's programmes like Play School, Spot On, and New Zealand's Funniest Home Videos, his very public life started when he joined the band Kal-Q-Lated Risk in 1967 as lead singer. After a stint in the army in the 1970s Ian went on to complete an LLB degree from the University of Otago before setting up Taylormade Media, a television production company in 1989.

The following year he established Animation Research Limited, which quickly became one of the top computer animation companies in New Zealand and known internationally for its work, particularly in television advertising and sports graphics.

Its' sports division, Virtual Eye, provides award winning graphics globally across a wide range of sports. This year marks almost 30 years since they developed the first graphics for The America’s Cup back in San Diego in 1992. In 2014 they won a prestigious Sports Emmy for Outstanding New Approaches to Sports Coverage, and they have been recognised by the New Zealand Hi Tech Trust with a special Life Time Achievement Award.

At a personal level. Taylor was inducted into the New Zealand Technology Hall of Fame in 2009 and was named North & South Magazines 2010 New Zealander of the Year. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Institute of IT Professionals (HFIITP) in 2010 (under its former name New Zealand Computer Society), the top honour of the tech sector in New Zealand.

In the 2012 New Year Honours, Taylor was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to television and business. In 2013 Taylor was named Outstanding Maori Business Leader of the Year.

On 13 February 2019, Taylor was named Innovator of the Year at the annual New Zealander of the Year Awards. Awards organisers cited Taylor's business intuition and expertise as an exemplar of innovation in New Zealand.

In 2020 Taylor was named the Deloitte 200 Visionary Leader of the Year. What fewer people may know is that it hasn’t all been plain sailing.

Karen Thomas

As the Chief Executive at Taituarā, Karen is a significant player in the debates around 3 Waters Reform. Karen has been Chief Executive since September 2011 and has responsibility for fulfilling the Taituarā vision to promote and support professional excellence in local government. Over this time she has introduced leadership development for the sector, grown the membership and ensured that guidance and practice advice is updated regularly. Karen has established extensive local government networks overseas and regularly utilises these contacts to the benefit of the New Zealand local government sector.

Karen’s previous roles have included Chief Executive at the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and Regional Assistant Commissioner at the State Services Commission where she led the development of the proposal to establish the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG), a world-leading educational institution.

Dr Kimberley Tuapawa

Kimberley is Group Manager Information and Customer Experience at Wairoa District Council.  She is a distinguished academic with over 13 years in higher education and six years leadership and corporate experience in local government. Her research has focused on understanding human experiences using technology in tertiary environments. In 2018 she returned to her hometown to take up the group manager role.

Brent White

Information Services Manager, Business Connect MBIE

Dave Wild

As a Creative Futurist living on the edge of the world in New Zealand, Dave has presented on stages and screens across the globe from South Auckland to Sydney to San Francisco. Unique to his approach is a Futurist focus on the new, which he applies when facilitating strategy sessions and coaching Futurework skills for clients such as Microsoft, Xero, Auckland Council, Wellington City Council, Department of Internal Affairs and ALGIM. 

As a Futurist Dave Wild can show you how to see the future more clearly.

How? First by detecting the signals of the future that are all around you. Then innovating to shift from predicting the future to creating it.