PwC Herald Talks

Our thought provoking business networking series moves into its second year in 2016. Designed to give you the knowledge, insight and strategies to grow and diversify in the ever-changing landscape of New Zealand business.

PwC Herald Talks breakfast events discuss current trends in business, including cyber security, innovation, generational diversity, big data and sustainability. 

Join us and key thought leaders to connect, share knowledge, and think about how to grow your business and remain relevant.

Big Data

More data has been created in the last 2 years than in the entire previous history of the human race, and within five years there will be over 50 billion smart connected devices in the world, all developed to collect, analyse and share data.

Big data is not just a fad or a buzz word, it’s the new reality of business, and Big Data Analytics can help businesses harness their data and identify insights for immediate decisions. It offers the ability to work faster – and stay agile – giving organisations a competitive edge they didn’t have before.

The use of Big Data — large pools of data that can be brought together and analysed to discern patterns and make better decisions — will become the basis of competition and growth for individual businesses. Using Big Data will enhance productivity and create significant value for the economy by reducing waste and increasing the quality of products and services.

Join our keynote speaker and expert panel to find out ways to put your data to good use and manage it to benefit your business.

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Keynote

Ed Hyde – CEO, Qrious

Ed is currently CEO of Qrious, a Big Data and Analytics business which launched in March 2014 tasked with delivering value to customers through the better use of data. Qrious is part of Spark NZ Ltd – the largest Telecommunications business in NZ.

Prior to this Ed has been reponsible for the development of a number of startups in the data and mobile domain in both the UK and NZ and spent a number of years as GM of Mobile for Spark NZ Ltd.

He has a passion for digital, transformational technologies and disruptive business models and played a key role in the setup of Spark Ventures and new growth unit specifically targeted at driving new revenue in the digital domain.

He is a keen runner and cyclist with his most notable sporting achievement being 10th place in the 2010 Xterra World Trail running championships in Hawaii.

Panelists:

Michael Whitehead – CEO & Co-founder, WhereScape 

WhereScape is a global data warehouse and big data automation software company based out of Auckland, New Zealand. Its software is used by leading organisations including Tesco, Blue Shield Blue Cross, ASB Bank, Fidelity Investments, Nike and VW Group.

Michael is the CEO and co-founder of WhereScape Software and a passionate thought-leader in the data warehouse and big data industry.  

He has almost twenty years’ experience advising and working with organisations to show how they can get value from data. Prior to co-founding WhereScape Michael had Asia Pacific responsibilities for data warehousing for US multinational Sequent Computer Systems (now part of IBM). 

Pieta Brown – Chief Analytics Officer, Lab360

As Chief Analytics Officer for Lab360, Pieta is responsible driving analytics vision, strategy and thought leadership. Pieta has a unique background in Law and Science (Mathematics and Statistics) as well as a Masters in Data Science (Computer Science). Pieta’s career has spanned law, management consulting and specialized technical roles as a statistician and data miner. She has comprehensive knowledge of data-driven solutions across the FMCG, Insurance, Retail and Telecommunications sectors and is passionate about building useful and beautiful data products. She is driven to see analytics work for her clients and focuses on straightforward implementations and ongoing measurement as part of any solution.

Lab360 is the analytics division of Loyalty NZ, the parent company behind New Zealand’s largest and most successful loyalty programme, Fly Buys. We believe that good analytics begins with asking the right questions, informed by your strategy and objectives. We manage analytics projects end-to-end for our clients: product range consolidation; media, range and network optimisation; site selection; acquisition/retention programmes; and cross-sell and up-sell programmes. We’re all about bringing insights to life with some of New Zealand’s leading companies and brands.

Rachel Harrison - Head of Analytics and Modelling, Data Insight

Rachel has been analysing data for nearly 20 years and her commercial experience with large data is demonstrated in her deep understanding of what questions to ask in order to derive value and actionable insight from data. Starting her career after graduating in clinical trial, she has worked as a technical consultant at SAS, a marketing statistician at BNZ where she was part of the NEXUS strategic gold award winning team for data quality. From here Rachel went on to lead analytics teams at both Vodafone and Westpac. Nearly 3 years ago Rachel joined Data Insight as head of Analytics and Modelling where she leads a team of analysts and projects for many of our clients.

Rachel has experience with multiple Data mining and Statistics packages as well as Data Warehouses. She holds a Masters in Statistics and a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from Auckland University, a Certificate in Direct marketing from the Marketing Association and was one of the first to gain the Chartered Marketer status. Rachel is a committee member of the Marketing Association, Data Advisory Group.

Vince Galvin – Chief Methodolgist, Statistics New Zealand

Vince Galvin is Statistics New Zealand’s Chief Methodologist and has spent most of his 30-year career with Statistics NZ alongside stints with other national statistical agencies in London and Australia. 

Vince is passionate about evidence-driven decision-making and the democratisation of data to ensure New Zealand decision-makers at all levels have access to quality information. “I believe the big data opportunity that so many Governments would like to give Statistics Offices has a much better chance of being realised if we are not all separately re-inventing the wheel. I would love to see the mechanisms for international collaboration mature to a stage where we can plug and play each other’s software,” Vince says.

Vince is an active member of the Department of the Prime Ministers Chief Science advisors Network as well as the Pacific Statistics Steering Committee.  Internationally he is a co-Chair of the Modernisation Committee on Production and Methods as part of the High Level Group for the Modernisation of Official Statistics and an active participant at the ISI world statistics congress.

He is a member of the NZ Statistical Association, the NZ Association of Economists, the Executive for the NZ Data Analytics Forum and the Executive of the Research Association of NZ.

In his leisure time Vince nurtures the delusion he can still function as a wicket keeper in his low grade cricket team. Regular communication from ACC suggests that this may not be for too much longer.

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Event Format; 

7:00am Registration & stand-up networking breakfast
7:35am MC Welcome
7:40am Keynote Speaker
8:05am Panel Discussion
8:30am Q&A
8:45am MC Wrap Up
9:00am End

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