Sell out Summit to lead the future for New Zealand

Sell out Summit to lead the future for New Zealand

10 November 2016

Leaders and futurists from Silicon Valley and New Zealand are touching down in Christchurch for the first exponential technology event of its kind in New Zealand that starts this Monday - the SingularityU New Zealand Summit. The Summit aims to begin a conversation on how we see the world and to be a turning point in how we plan for the future of New Zealand.

The sell-out event of over 1300 attendees has proved popular across a diverse range of groups, including corporates, not for profits, students and local government. Lianne Dalziel, Mayor of Christchurch says "I’ve been looking forward to SingularityU coming to Christchurch ever since I heard we were to host their first ever Australasian summit. What an amazing opportunity to be both stimulated and challenged as we turn our thoughts to a 21st century future. This summit will enable us to embrace the realm of possibility that sits at the cusp of singularity."

With a focus on the global grand challenges our planet faces and life changing evolutions in the future of food, medicine, disaster resilience, energy, security, climate change,
learning, manufacturing, transport and of course jobs, the Summit offers an opportunity for attendees to learn, network and spread the word on how to respond to the speed of change. Over three days, more than 20 different speakers on exponential technology, including some big name international experts, will present on stage at Horncastle Arena. The line-up includes:

Academy award winner Dr Mark Sagar on artificial intelligence
New York Times Best-Selling author, Marc Goodman on the future of crime
Consultant on Google’s self-driving cars programme, Brad Templeton
CNN Top 7 Tech heroes to watch in 2015, Kathryn Myronuk
Technical Consultant to NASA, Ford and the US Airforce, Neil Jacobstein
Ex Microsoft Director of Programme Management, Ramez Naam
Ex Director of Microsoft Healthcare Innovation Lab, Michael Gillam
Former NASA astronaut, Dan Barry
World expert on Disruptive Innovation, David Roberts
Renowned Scientist and Engineer at the forefront of Biotech, Raymond McCauley
Live technology demonstrations will feature some of New Zealand’s leading developments, including Thought-Wired, leaders in the development of thought-controlled software which allows the severely disabled to communicate using their mind, University of Canterbury’s resident robot, Baxter, as well as Data 61’s Hexapod robots that are designed to have a positive impact by completing real life missions.

Local SingularityU New Zealand Summit organiser, Kaila Colbin says “By coming to this, the first SingularityU Summit in Australasia, our attendees have chosen to be part of this conversation. By the end of it I don’t think they’ll be able to look at the world quite the same way ever again”.

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