Tech for Good: Empowering the Future of Aotearoa

We are delighted to invite you to our upcoming event, "Tech for Good: Empowering the Future of Aotearoa," scheduled for September 27th, 2024, at Amazon Web Services, Commercial Bay Level 13, 15 Customs Street West, Auckland.** This exclusive forum will bring together thought leaders, innovators, and industry experts to explore how technology can drive positive social and economic outcomes for New Zealand.

Supporting a Greater Cause:

Join us in making a difference! All proceeds from sponsorships, ticket donations, and our exclusive charity dinner will go directly towards fostering young entrepreneurship and innovation through Young Enterprise and Auckland Foundation.

This event, featuring keynote sessions on AI innovation, entrepreneurship, and education technology, along with a panel discussion on integrating technology, policy, and social impact, aims to bring together thought leaders, industry experts, and innovators. By participating, you are not only contributing to crucial conversations about the future of Aotearoa but also empowering the next generation of leaders. Your support helps create sustainable business models that benefit society, address AI talent shortages, and promote ethical practices within the tech industry.

Event Details:

Date: September 27th, 2024

Location: Amazon Web Services, Commercial Bay Level 13, 15 Customs Street West, Auckland

Time: 16:00 - 18:45

Run Sheet (draft):

16:00 - 16:30 | Registration & Networking

Guests arrive and check-in.

Light refreshments served.

Networking opportunities for attendees.

16:30 - 16:35 | Welcome Address

MC: Molly Yang, Head of Portfolio Management at New Zealand Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP)

Brief overview of the forum’s objectives and the importance of technology and policy for good in New Zealand.

16:35 - 16:40 | Opening Remarks

Speaker: Chris Wang, Territory Sales Lead at AWS

Introduction to AWS’s role in supporting technology and policy initiatives for good.

16:40 - 17:00 | Keynote 1: AI Innovation, Global Impact, and NZ Talent Development

Speaker: Yonggang Wang, Executive Dean of AI Institution, Sinovation Ventures, Founder of Mootion.com, and MIEA Member

Topic: The role of AI in driving global innovation, and the NZ AI Talent Development initiatives that aim to foster the next generation of AI leaders. The keynote will also highlight DeeCamp, one of China’s largest and most prestigious AI training programs, launched by Sinovation Ventures in 2017.

17:00 - 17:15 | Keynote 2: Entrepreneurship, AI Talent Demand, and Technology for Social Good

Speaker: Sam Yin, Founder of Hougarden and MIEA Member

Topic: The growing demand for AI talent from the SME perspective, and how technology and entrepreneurship can create sustainable business models that benefit society.

17:15 - 17:45 | Panel Discussion: Integrating Technology, Policy, and Social Impact

Moderator: Nina Le Lievre, CEO of Enterprise Angels

Panelists:

Yonggang Wang, Executive Dean of AI Institution, Sinovation Ventures, Founder of Mootion.com, and MIEA Member

Greg Simmonds, General Manager of Priority One Tauranga Moana

Alexandra Bullot, CEO of Young Enterprise

Albert Bifet, Director of the Te Ipu o te Mahara AI Institute at the University of Waikato and Co-chair of the Artificial Intelligence Researchers Association (AIRA)

Discussion Points:

How can tech entrepreneurs and policy work together to address societal challenges like AI talent shortage and young people leaving New Zealand?

The role of academia, industry, and responsible investors in shaping ethical AI practices.

Practical examples of how technology is being used for good in New Zealand.

Opportunities for collaboration between tech entrepreneurs, policymakers, migrant investors, educators, regional economic development leaders, and youth-focused social enterprises.

17:45 - 17:50 | Closing Remarks & Next Steps

MC: Molly Yang, Head of Portfolio Management at New Zealand Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP)

Summary of key takeaways from the forum.

Announcement of upcoming events and opportunities for further collaboration.

17:50 - 18:45 | Networking Session

Opportunity for sponsors to place banners outside the exhibition area and engage in in-depth exchanges with attendees.

Networking, drinking, and refreshments provided.

This event promises to be a thought-provoking and valuable experience, providing insights into how we can collectively shape the future of Aotearoa through technology and policy. Your participation would be greatly appreciated.

MIEA team

Keynote speakers and panellists short bio,

Yonggang Wang

Founder & CEO of Mootion.com Executive Dean of AI Institute, Sinovation Ventures Short bio: Yonggang is a serial entrepreneur, an investor, and a senior engineering manager focusing on cutting-edge AI technologies. He founded Mootion.com to explore the next-generation applications that spark human creativity with multimodal AI. He is also the Executive Dean of AI Institute, Sinovation Ventures. Yonggang co-founded AInnovation, a rapidly growing AI + manufacturing solution provider, and the DeeCamp program, which focused on cultivating high-end AI talents. He served as Staff Engineer and Senior Tech Manager at Google for over ten years. His involvement in Google included Desktop Search, Input Method, Product Search, Knowledge Graph, and Google Homepage Doodles.

Sam Yin

Sam is a visionary entrepreneur who has made significant strides in the property tech industry across New Zealand and Australia. With a background in IT and finance, Sam launched HouGarden.com in 2011, which grew to become New Zealand's leading online property portal for Chinese-speaking buyers. The platform now attracts over 240,000 unique visitors monthly and has expanded to a team of 32 professionals across Auckland and Chengdu.

Building on this success, Sam founded HouGarden Australia, a property portal tailored for the 1.4 million-strong Australian Chinese community. This platform features over 180,000 residential listings and offers unique functionalities designed for its specific user base. Sam's innovative approach led to a strategic partnership with Homely, further enhancing the platform's offerings.

As a hands-on leader, Sam served as the CTO of OneRoof, a joint venture between HouGarden and NZME, where he drove the technological vision crucial to the platform's rapid growth. Even after HouGarden's exit from the joint venture, Sam's company continues to provide IT services to OneRoof.

Sam's expertise in property development, combined with his tech savvy, positions him as a leader in the real estate industry. He is passionate about creating innovative solutions and leading high-performing teams to drive business success in the property tech sector.

[email protected]

Greg Simmonds,

Greg is an advocate for place-based decision-making that lifts people’s living standards through sustainable economic transformation. As General Manager – Workforce & Policy at Tauranga’s economic development agency, he’s focused on ensuring New Zealand’s fastest growing city develops a sustainable economy underpinned by skilled talent, innovation and collaboration. Prior to joining Priority One Greg worked for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise supporting New Zealand’s trade and investment agenda. He has also held roles with Sony Europe, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Carter Holt Harvey. Outside of work, Greg is married with four children and keeps active by playing tennis and making the most of the Bay of Plenty’s plentiful hiking and biking trails

[email protected]

Albert Bifet

Albert Bifet is the Director of the Te Ipu o te Mahara AI Institute at the University of Waikato and Co-chair of the Artificial Intelligence Researchers Association (AIRA). His research focuses on Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Science, and Machine Learning for Data Streams. He is leading the TAIAO Environmental Data Science project and co-leading the open source projects MOA Massive On-line Analysis, StreamDM for Spark Streaming and SAMOA Scalable Advanced Massive Online Analysis. He is the co-author of a book on Machine Learning from Data Streams published at MIT Press. He is one of the winners of the best paper award at the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (ACM FAccT) 2023, and he is the general co-chair of the European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (ECML-PKDD) 2024.

Our MC: Molly Yang

Molly Yang is a seasoned business professional with 16 years of international experience in innovation and technology within the Venture Capital industry. Her expertise spans direct investment, fund of funds, divestment, and portfolio management. Molly has worked with numerous startup companies on fundraising, sales & marketing, international market expansion, strategic partnerships, and corporate governance.

Beyond her professional achievements, Molly is a passionate advocate for women and underrepresented founders. She is deeply committed to community service, actively mentoring through Te Ōhaka Incubation, Electrify Accelerator, Tupu Toa, TechWomen, and the University of Auckland Investment Club. Through these efforts, she helps to empower the next generation of leaders.

[email protected]

Our Panel MC:Nina Le Lievre

Nina comes from a background in Investment Banking, having worked in the European Transactions Group at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in London for seven years and in the Equity Capital Markets team at Craigs Investment Partners in Tauranga for three years.

In 2013 Nina joined Enterprise Angels as Manager and has been immersed in angel investing since then, working with prospective and existing portfolio companies, guiding due diligence teams, negotiating deals, launching, raising and managing the EA Funds and managing the angel network. In July 2019, she was promoted to the CEO role and now leads the team and guides the strategic direction of Enterprise Angels. Nina sits on the Angel Association of NZ Leadership Council.

For Nina, the switch to the angel industry has been really rewarding and she enjoys the personal nature of meeting and supporting founders and connecting them to investors to help them grow their businesses. Nina loves hearing solutions to problems she never knew existed and truly believes that founders and startups are the key to helping our planet survive and thrive – they have the vision, drive and agility to make change happen.

She believes that relationships and people make good stuff happen – nurture those and you can’t go too far wrong.

Outside work you’ll find Nina snowboarding, mountainbiking, bush walking, enjoying a cold corona or spending time with her family on the boat.

[email protected]

Venue Sponsor

Chris Wang is an accomplished cloud sales strategist at Amazon Web Services (AWS), driving customer success through AI-enhanced efficiency and digital innovation. With a strong focus on empowering agility, sparking disruptive innovation, and enabling scalable growth, Chris leverages generative AI, business automation, and AI/ML for computer vision to deliver transformative strategies. Prior to AWS, Chris held account executive roles at Spark New Zealand, LifeSmart, and Telnet Telecommunication. He is an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and brings a unique blend of technical expertise and customer-centric approach to help organisations harness the power of the cloud and AI/ML technologies.

[email protected]

Host or Publisher Migrant Investor & Entrepreneur Association