Conference Speakers and Presentations

Please see the Programme page for the detailed programme or Keynotes page for keynote presenters.

Thursday 16 September 2010

8:40am – 9:40am (Opening Addresses)

Conference Opening and Ministerial Address Steven JoyceMinisterial Opening Address by Hon Steven Joyce (Minister of ICT)
 
The Minister will formally open proceedings, plus give his view on the innovative landscape and future direction of the ICT sector in New Zealand.
 
This will be followed by a welcome from Elizabeth Eastwood (Conference Chair) and NZCS CEO Paul Matthews
 

9:40am – 10:20am (Keynote/Plenary)

Opening Keynote Presentation Sam Morgan (Founder, Trade Me)
 Sam Morgan founded online auction site Trade Me, later sold to Fairfax for $750M in 2006, and is now an angel investor in software startups. Sam will be opening the conference by speaking about the potential for innovative ICT in New Zealand, the steps necessary to turn a small company into a commercial success, and life after Trade Me.
Click for More Information

10:50am – 11:20am (4 Streams)

From Videotex to Web 2.0: The History of ICT Innovation in New Zealand Janet Toland (Senior Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington)
MNZCSThis presentation follows the story of ICT innovation from 1985 (shortly after the sweeping economic changes known as “Rogernomics”) to 2005 (when New Zealand became the first country in the world to launch a Digital Strategy).
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Professional Development and Efficient Resourcing – 2 into 1 does go Rob SewellRob Sewell (Consultant, ICDI NZ)
MNZCS ITCPThis presentation explores the traditional challenges for both Professional Development (PD) and resource management (RM) and shows how, by the adoption of a skills and competency framework (such as SFIA), the two can complement each other and provide significant efficiencies and improvement in the development of staff.Click for More Information

Advanced Robotics: The Future of Aged Care Services Dr Gillian Reid (Deputy Chair, Selwyn Foundation)
FNZCS ITCPNew Zealand, along with the rest of the world, will shortly be facing some major challenges in the area of aged care services due to a significant aging of the population. This presentation outlines the latest New Zealand research and development in the field of robotics to help deal with this issue over the coming years. Click for More Information

The Digitisation of New Zealand’s Research, Heritage and Culture Dr Nigel Stanger (Lecturer, University of Otago)
MNZCSOver the last 25 years it has become possible to digitise and store an ever-increasing amount and variety of material. New Zealand has been responsible for much of the development in this area, and this presentation will examine the how’s, who’s and why’s of digitisation in NZ.Click for More Information

11:30am – 12:00pm (4 Streams)

New Zealand’s 3D Heritage from All Angles Gavin Lennox (CEO, NextSpace)
 New Zealand has long been a world leader in 3D technology, and this talk will outline the experiences of a selection of the many kiwi companies who have applied 3D in industries from manufacturing to healthcare, and supported diverse organisations from Boeing’s engineering department to local plumbers
Click for More Information

Wellington Summer of Code – Engaging the ICT Talent Pipeline Dr Peter Komisarczuk (Professor of Computing, Thames Valley Uni, UK)
FNZCS ITCPIn 2005 the Summer of Code was brought to life engaging ICT undergraduates with innovative Wellington employers. This presentation will outline the development of the programme from early beginnings, thus providing a template for engagement that can be used in other areas and disciplines to rapidly implement successful internship programmesClick for More Information

Total Recall or Digital Amnesia? Evelyn WarehamEvelyn Wareham (Programme Manager, Archives NZ)
 Can you access your digital information from 50 years ago? How accessible will your current information be in 2060? This presentation delves into both the history and future of ICT and digital continuity, and will outline a vision for how to maintain significant digital information so that it’s useable for future generations.Click for More Information

Preserving our IT Heritage – Computers Designed and Assembled in NZ Prof Bob Doran (Emeritus Professor, Auckland University)
HFNZCSAndrew Trotman (Senior Lecturer, Otago University)
 This presentation will outline some of the history of New Zealand-built computers, focusing primarily on the MDL and Poly-1 and Poly-2 (from Progeni), plus projects established to preserve this history in Auckland and Dunedin.Click for More Information

12:10pm – 12:50pm (Keynote/Plenary)

International Keynote Presentation Craig Nevill-Manning (Engineering Director, Google)
 Following a successful academic career Craig joined Google in 2001 as a Senior Research Scientist. Craig went on to found Google’s first remote engineering center, located in midtown Manhattan, where he is currently the Engineering Director. Craig’s story is a fascinating one – how a young chap from Blenheim headed out into the world stage and ended up at the forefront of ICT innovation at one of technology’s most successful global companies. Click for More Information

1:40pm – 2:20pm (Keynote/Plenary)

Keynote Presentation Rod Drury (Founder, Xero)
HFNZCSRod Drury has often been described as a "serial entrepreneur", having founded a number of highly successful ICT companies in New Zealand and abroad. This includes companies such as Glazier (now Intergen), and AfterMail, sold for $US65M in 2006. Rod then went on to create Xero, an online SaaS Accounting package currently revolutionising small business accounting in New Zealand and around the world. Rod will talk about his passion for removing barriers to innovation in New Zealand.Click for More Information

2:30pm – 3:00pm (4 Streams)

35 Years of Open Source: From the University lab to the Enterprise Francois Marier (Software Developer, Catalyst IT)
MNZCS ITCPThis talk will take attendees on a journey through the last 35 years of computing, back to the mid seventies when programming editors appeared on the expensive hardware of the time and the practice of writing source code and sharing it with colleagues became widespread. Using portraits of notable personalities, the basic tenets of Open Source will be explained through the events that defined this movement from its humble roots in the early computer clubs to the global industry it has spawned.Click for More Information

Organisational Culture – Enabling Innovation Dominic Stow (Director, Adept Group)
MNZCSAs we emerge from recession, the demand for innovative IT solutions to enable business strategy will grow. However with the recession came a change in culture and more pervasive governance, and the questions remain: can organisations still innovate, and how do we change our culture to enable this innovation? Click for More Information

The Skycouch: A lesson in User Centred Design Trent MankelowTrent Mankelow (Co-founder and CEO, Optimal Usability)
 In this presentation usability expert Optimal Usability’s Trent Mankelow will outline the successfully focussed approach taken by innovative engineers with Air New Zealand’s new lie-flat Skycouch, plus other user-centred products and services. In doing so Trent will outline some of the essential usability secrets in the context of software.Click for More Information

Cloud Computing: Beyond the Hype Phil SheehanPhil Sheehan (ISV Alliance Manager)
MNZCSThis session will focus on answering in simple terms the key questions many are asking in their quest to understand why there is so much hype around Cloud – what are the key ingredients of Cloud Computing? What is different about it, what are the deployment types and what workloads are suitable for Cloud deployment?Click for More Information

3:05pm – 3:35pm (4 Streams)

The Opportunity for New Zealand ICT in Asia Gabe Rijpma (APAC head of Health and Human Services, Microsoft)
 With two thirds of the world’s population and rapidly growing economies, what opportunities does this present for New Zealand ICT companies, and how can we capitalise on the opportunity that exists for New Zealand in Asia? Click for More Information

Lessons from Progeni – 1968 to 1989 Perce Harpham (Founder, Progeni)
FNZCSProgeni Systems Ltd was New Zealand’s first software company, founded in 1968 by Perce Harpham and enjoying significant worldwide success. Perce, one of the computing industry’s first genuine entrepreneurs, will share some of the war stories from the establishment, growth and eventual demise of this great company, many of which are just as relevent now as they were during the years Progeni and offshoots such as Polycorp took the world by storm. Click for More Information

Great idea, but how do I grow it into a successful business? Bruce Chamberlin (GM Asia-Pacific, Activate)
 There is no simple recipe to turn a good idea into a successful business venture, however there are many lessons to be learnt from the successes and otherwise of other organisations. This talk will focus on the good and bad ideas that have been observed at Activate Technologies as it has grown into a successful Deloitte Fast 50 software company.Click for More Information

Aerospace Project Management Meets Number 8 Wire John RuskJohn Rusk (Software Architect, Optimation Ltd)
 Earned Value Management (EVM) is a powerful technique for tracking and predicting the progress of projects. It has been used for many years in the American defence and aerospace industries, but has not yet become common practice in New Zealand. This presentation will show how EVM can be simplified to suit New Zealand conditions, with a particular emphasis on agile software development projects.Click for More Information

3:55pm – 4:35pm (Keynote/Plenary)

Plenary Session Ian McCrae (Founder, Orion Health)
 McCrae founded Orion Health in 1993 with a five-person staff in Auckland. Under his stewardship the company has grown rapidly to become New Zealand’s largest software exporter. Now operating on four continents, Orion Health has introduced its health integration software to every major market in the world. Ian will outline some of the key drivers to export success.
Click for More Information

4:35pm – 5:30pm (Panel)

Panel: Catalysing Innovation in New Zealand How do we bring about positive change and innovation in New Zealand? This panel will explore what steps we can collectively take to bring about greater innovation in New Zealand.
 
Rod DruryIan McCraeClare CurranCraig Nevill-Manning
 
Panelists: NZCS Fellow and Designertech CEO Ray Delany (Chair), Xero Founder Rod Drury, Orion Founder Ian McCrae, Opposition ICT Spokesperson Clare Curran, and Google’s Engineering Director Craig Nevill-Manning.
 

Friday 17 September 2010

8:30am – 9:10am (Keynote/Plenary)

IT Professionalism on the International Stage Greg Lane (National Director, CCITP)
 Greg is the National Director of the Canadian Council of IT Professionals, as well as Chair of IP3, the international body that accredits national ICT certification programmes. Greg spent several years in New Zealand as one of the initial team that set up Clear Communications. Greg will outline and discuss the evolution of IT into ICT, and the importance of the establishment of the ICT Profession on the world stage.Click for More Information

9:10am – 10:10am (Panel)

Panel: Future of ICT
The last 50 years have brought significant evolution and innovation within ICT, but what does the future have in store? This panel of recognised experts will discuss possible future directions of technology and ICT over the next 50 years.
Paul MatthewsNat TorkingtonAlison YoungErnie Newman
 
Panelists: NZCS Chief Executive Paul Matthews (Chair), Web Guru Nat Torkington, CPIT Head of School Alison Young, TUANZ Chief Executive Ernie Newman, and one other.
 

10:30am – 11:00am (4 Streams)

Performance Testing in the Cloud – Conquering the new challenges Ian Mortimer (Test Services Manager, Gen-I)
Gareth Shackel (Performance Test Manager, Gen-I)
AMNZCSThe emergence of cloud computing has presented new opportunities and challenges. One of these is the requirement to perform scalability testing at levels that were previously not possible or feasible. This presentation will focus on how these challenges have been and are being addressed, and recent innovations in performance testing.Click for More Information

Developing Internet Security: The Honeyclient Dr Peter Komisarczuk (Professor of Computing, Thames Valley Uni, UK)
FNZCS ITCPDrive-by-downloads have developed from a relatively rare occurrence in 2005 to a serious Internet security risk in 2010. One weapon in the war against malicious software are honeypots, clients configured to automatically detect malicious activity online and report on their findings. This presentation will outline the latest developments in this area.Click for More Information

The Evolution of Assistive Technology into Everyday Products Nicolas Steenhout (Principal, Accessibility NZ)
 Many universal design features in the physical world were first designed for people with disabilities, but now benefit everyone. This presentation will explore some of the hacks often developed by people with disabilities to handle the physical world as well as changes in the physical world intended for people with disabilities, and how these hacks and changes have gone on to greatly benefit the general public.Click for More Information

11:10am – 11:40pm (4 Streams)

GBH in the Cloud? Rick Shera (Partner, Lowndes Jordan)
MNZCSWe are moving our lives to the cloud, whether we choose to or not or even whether we realise it or not. These days, the internet has become the place in which we have vested our personality. This has significant and very serious ramifications – If your online personality suffers Grievous Bodily Harm in the cloud, who ya gunna call?Click for More Information

Some rather interesting observations about technological roadmapping Nicholas Jones (Co-Director, Centre for eResearch, Auckland Uni)
 Technology roadmaps originate from product and technology planning but are also applied to support higher-level strategic and long-range planning. This presentation discusses the role of technology roadmapping (TRM) as a mechanism for better linking product developments to market requirements.
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When two worlds collide – through semantics Penny Anderson (Co-Founder, FeatureIT Ltd)
MNZCS ITCPThe horizon for the business software market is an exciting one. With SaaS and PaaS opportunities for even the smallest of application development providers there is a new focus. With inferencing and pattern matching capabilities and knowledge bases that learn from experience, the digital world as we know it is changing. This presentation will discuss using semantic knowledge bases to derive relationships between the two worlds that won’t exist within the traditional database mining techniques.Click for More Information

ICT Education: Past, Present, and Future Garry Roberton (Programme Manager, Wintec)
Alison Young (HOS Computing, CPIT)
Donald Joyce (Associate Professor, Unitec)
Stephen Corich (HOS Computing, EIT)
All MNZCS (Alison Young FNZCS) ICT education needs to evolve rapidly in order to address the knowledge and skills demanded in the 21st century.
 
This presentation looks at the changes to practical ICT education up until now, and the change in approach necessary to continue to meet the evolving requirements of employers both now and into the future.Click for More Information

11:50pm – 12:30pm (Keynote/Plenary)

Plenary Session Nat Torkington (Web/OSS Guru)
 Nat was deeply involved in the history of the Internet in New Zealand, hosting the country’s first web server. After spending a decade in the US working for O’Riley, Nat returned to New Zealand and established the Kiwi Foo Camp and NZ Open Govt Project as well as building networks of open source innovators, entrepreneurs, and emerging technologists in New Zealand.Click for More Information

1:20pm – 2:00pm (Keynote/Plenary)

Innovation through Technology: The Kiwibank Story Sam Knowles (Founding CEO, KiwiBank)
 Very few CEOs could boast to having created a bank from scratch, and far fewer could speak of profits within the first 5 years in such a price-competitive market, yet that’s what Sam Knowles has achieved with Kiwibank. Sam has a rich history of corporate innovation through embracing ICT, and will discuss the roll technology plays in commercial success.Click for More Information

2:00pm – 3:00pm (Panel)

Panel: The ICT Profession, an International Perspective There’s been much effort recently to help NZ join the “global ICT Profession”, but what does this actually mean? Join this panel of international experts as they discuss global developments in ICT Professionalism and what this means for you.
Don RobertsonBasie von SolmsCharles HughesGreg LaneRoger Johnson
 
Panelists: NZCS President Don Robertson (Chair), IFIP President Basie von Solms, Past President of the British Computer Society and founder of IP3 Charles Hughes, past Chairman of the Canadian Council of IT Professionals and current IP3 Chairman Greg Lane and Honorary Secretary to IFIP and Reader in Computer Science at Birkbeck, University of London, Roger Johnson.
 

3:20pm – 3:50pm (4 Streams)

Privacy and Technology – Innovative Partners Marie Shroff (Privacy Commissioner)
 "Privacy by Design" is about a paradigm shift to incorporating privacy in projects from the outset. It is not about compliance, but about meeting real world expectations. In this presentation Marie Shroff, New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner, outlines the importance of the Privacy by Design approach, and gives practical advice on how IT professionals can implement Privacy by Design in New Zealand.Click for More Information

Open Source and Opportunity for Everyone: A case study in Slovenia
Dr Matej Mertik (Researcher, Faculty of Information Studies, Slovenia)
 The open source model includes the concept of concurrent but different agendas and differing approaches in production. The approach also promises significant opportunity for society, especially in countries without the resources of the developed world. In this presentation Dr Matej Mertik will give a case study in the application of Open Source in Slovenia and throughout the EU. Click for More Information

After 50 years is it time to admit the experiment failed? Alan Moore (Solutions Specialist, Axon)
MNZCS ITCPAfter 50 years of "relentless progress" in corporate IT this talk poses the question "has the experiment failed?". With a review of 50 years of corporate IT and an analysis of the true drivers in the industry he wonders whether what we have left is really what we needed. Should we now start doing things a little differently? Click for More Information

ITCP – Background to Professional Certification Erin Connolly (Manager of Professionalism, NZCS)
 In 2009 NZCS released ITCP, the certification for IT Professionals in New Zealand. This presentation covers some of the background reasons for ITCP, implementation of ITCP, and the future focus of the programme. This is a great opportunity for those considering ITCP to find out more about this hugely important programme.Click for More Information

4:00pm – 4:30pm (4 Streams)

Shoe string IT: Growing ICT capability in the not for profit sector Hazel JenningsHazel Jennings (ICT Manager, Royal NZ Foundation of the Blind)
MNZCS ITCPIt would be hard to argue against the notion that ICT is now essential to every organisation in New Zealand. However funding restrictions in the Not For Profit sector historically have meant it’s ICT uptake has been slow, however as Rutherford once pointed out "we haven’t got the money so we’ve got to think!". This presentation describes some of what the sector has been thinking about it’s ICT services, and the innovations this has caused in the Not For Profit sector. Click for More Information

Open Source Software Licences: Exposing the Legal Bogeyman Don HolborowDon Holborow (Partner, Simpson Grierson)
 Lawyers will often advise that open source software is risky. This advice is based on the belief that open source software comes with no guarantees and might expose users to liability, plus intellectual property issues around ownership. This presentation explores the legitimacy of these concerns and considers whether this advice is sound, or excessively cautious and overstated. Click for More Information

Thinking outside the search box Prof Ian H. Witten (Professor, University of Waikato)
David Milne
(Academic, University of Waikato)
 This talk describes ongoing research into using Wikipedia to make other textual information sources easier to search and navigate. We break this down into three key problems: extracting structured knowledge from Wikipedia; connecting it to textual documents; and allowing people to access it and outline tools in each of these areas now freely available. Click for More Information

Hypertext to Web 2.0 – A journey of vision, ridicule and innovation Lesley GardnerDr Lesley Gardner (Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland)
MNZCS ITCPOver the years we’ve observed and marveled at the unfolding revolution of hypertext, hypermedia and World Wide Web. The pioneers and visionaries have been ridiculed, sidelined and finally recognized as the designers of one of the most significant contributions to modern society ever. This presentation explores the future of new innovation emerging in terms of navigation, access to information, trust and visibility.Click for More Information

4:40pm – 5:20pm (Keynote/Plenary)

Closing Keynote Presentation Ian Taylor (Founder, Animation Research Ltd)
 Ian Taylor (Ngati Kahungunu) is recognised as one of New Zealand’s leading Maori innovators. After a 20 year career with Televison New Zealand Ian left in 1988 to establish three successful technology businesses from his base in Dunedin: Taylormade Media – a television and multi media company; Animation Research Ltd (ARL), one of the country’s most celebrated high tech companies and responsible for the Virtual Spectator used around the world; and BookIt, a specialist on line booking company.
Click for More Information

7:00pm – late, late, late! (Conference Dinner)

Conference Gala Dinner

famousfishGala Dinner and Entertainment

Over a sumptuous dinner, join NZCS President Don Robertson as the Society recognises some that have contributed greatly to the ICT profession with awards only NZCS, as the oldest ICT organisation in New Zealand, can give.
 
Following dinner, hugely entertaining speaker, singer and computer geek from way back Keith Lightfoot will talk about a little of the history of computing in New Zealand, followed by NZ’s premier covers band Famous Fish rocking and rolling until the wee small hours. A night to remember.
 
Dinner and Drinks sponsored by Microsoft

 

Saturday 18 September 2010

9:30am – 5:00pm (BarCamp)

BarCamp: Fostering Innovation in ICTNat TorkingtonA BarCamp is a participant-driven conference, often known as an “unConference”.
 
The NZCS Innovation Barcamp will focus on what New Zealand can do to foster innovation and success on the international stage.
 
Facilitated by Nat Torkington, the BarCamp is sponsored by Catalyst IT.