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, 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.

Innovation

This PwC Herald Talks event is focused on providing you with insights to help you diversify and grow your business in our evolving marketplace. 

Innovation. A word that is hot on the lips of many evolving businesses in New Zealand. The need is stronger than ever to stay ahead of competitors, diversify revenue streams, communicate to clients and customers in new ways and build foundations for further growth. Innovation within your businesses is key to staying current in your market. Join our keynote speaker and expert panel to find out ways to make innovation a reality or a stronger driver of value in your business.

Don’t miss this unique chance to discover how to keep your business ahead, connected, engaged, growing and developing.

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Keynote

Savannah Peterson – Founder, Savvy Millennial

Savannah Peterson is a 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Consumer Technology and known voice in the startup space. Savannah is the Founder of Savvy Millennial where she helps the people, products and brands she loves grow. She develops go-to-market strategies and builds community with companies and entrepreneurs. She thrives on product development and launch journey and is a super-connector of people, resources and audiences. Prior to Savvy Millennial, Savannah was the Director of Innovation Strategy at Massive Labs & Speck Design where she helped create new consumer electronics. In her New York City life, Savannah was the Director of Global Community at Shapeways, the world's largest 3D Printing community, where she empowered and enabled over 25,000 3D Printing businesses. 

A true hardware nerd, Savannah has helped friends, clients, and fellow creatives raise over $4.5M through crowdfunding. Before diving head first into design, Savannah worked at Fox Sports Northwest, the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement at the University of Washington, and founded her own Social Media Marketing Agency, Savvy Marketing Seattle. She travels the world as a public speaker, most recently featured at the Air New Zealand Inspiring Voices series, Kiwi Landing Pad Sales and Marketing Jam, South by Southwest, the Silicon Beached Festival, the Ford Research and Innovation Lab, Gasparilla Interactive, Social Fresh and more. An avid mentor for women and men in tech, she mentors and teaches at Stanford, NYU, and PACE University. She has been featured in/on Forbes, the BBC, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, CNET, The Verge, and others. When not geeking out, she’s tasting wine and romping through the wild blue yonder with her rescue mutt, Martini. She encourages you to say hi on twitter @SavIsSavvy.

Panellists

Claudia Batten – Entrepreneur, Speaker and Change Agent

US-based Kiwi Claudia Batten will openly admit she is digitally obsessed. From her roots in commercial law, she has been a founding member of two highly successful entrepreneurial ventures. As part of the founding team of Massive Incorporated, a network for advertising in video games, she helped pioneer “digital” as a media buy. Massive was sold to Microsoft in 2006, where Claudia then spent 3 years scaling the in-game network. In 2009 she co-founded Victors & Spoils, the first advertising agency built on the principles of crowdsourcing. After two years in market, V&S was majority acquired by French holding company Havas Worldwide. In 2014 Claudia cofounded Broadli with Ale Lariu and Mary Abraham to redefine how we use digital connectivity to power networking. Broadli can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/broadli

Claudia was most recently appointed to run North American operations for NZTE, supporting New Zealand business as they grow internationally into that market.

In 2013, she was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award from Victoria University in recognition of her commitment to New Zealand and her achievements in tech. In 2014 she was the youngest ever recipient of the prestigious “World Class New Zealand Supreme Award”, in recognition for her achievements and her work inspiring the entrepreneurial ecosystem in New Zealand.

Andy Symons - Innovation Partner, PwC

Andy Symons, Innovation Partner at PwC New Zealand, is also the firm’s Financial Services Sector Leader. Andy is focused on innovation strategy, digital strategy, customer and the development of technology. He brings significant executive leadership and Financial Services advisory experience.

Andy has a background in innovation, technology development, loyalty marketing, credit scoring and has recently led a major New Zealand bank's retail banking division. He has also advised CEOs and boards on developing the cultural and structural environment required to increase organisational innovation. Andy has previously served as the CEO of New Zealand's largest loyalty marketing programme, a director of Bank of New Zealand Insurance and Loyalty New Zealand. As an advocate for New Zealand technology startup company 'ecosystem', Andy has experience working with Fintech start-ups in New Zealand and further afield.  

His specialties include banking, insurance, strategy & culture, and his areas of interest cover digital disruption, innovation, customer loyalty & customer centred design.

Dr Rebecca Gill – Lead Researcher, Massey University ‘Grow North’ project

Dr Rebecca Gill (PhD, University of Utah, United States) is a senior lecturer in the School of Management at Massey University. Dr Gill researches the way that industry, culture, and place come together in regional innovation and entrepreneurship, including how innovative sites reproduce best (and sometimes worst) practices of notable global innovation corridors. She was most recently the lead researcher for Grow North, an initiative supported by Massey University and ATEED, which focuses on enhancing the innovation ecosystem in Auckland, particularly north of the Harbour Bridge. She teaches papers in innovation and entrepreneurship at Massey and coordinates the Go Innovate! innovative ideas competition. She has published in several top tier journals, including Human Relations, Management Communication Quarterly, Organisation, and the Journal of Applied Communication Research.

Rohit Shukla – CEO, Larta

Rohit Shukla, CEO of Larta, is an established thought leader and respected practitioner on innovation, commercialization, and enterprise and technology-led economic development. He has advised governments, multilateral organizations, communities and enterprises throughout the world, creating initiatives that expand entrepreneurship, promote commercialization and enhance the competitiveness of regions across many parts of the globe. In founding and growing Larta Institute to institutionalize the work he has pioneered, he has developed a reputation and expertise in the commercialization of innovations emerging from government-funded initiatives, research institutes, universities and larger companies in the private sector.

Rohit's role in authoring and creating the commercialization assistance program initiatives at major U.S. federal agencies has led to a well-documented increase in sustainable, market-based innovations in the U.S. and has led to his being sought after as an adviser and confidant of governments and private institutions. These include most recently, Malaysia, in addition to Israel, the Middle East, New Zealand, Australia and other countries scattered in Europe and Asia.

Adjudicator

Fran O'Sullivan - Editorial Director Business, NZME

Fran O'Sullivan has written a weekly column for the Business Herald since its inception in April 1997. In her early journalistic career she was a political journalist in Wellington and subsequently an investigative journalist who broke many major business stories including the first articles that led to the Winebox Inquiry in both NBR and the Sydney Morning Herald. 

She has specific expertise in relation to China where she has been a frequent visitor since the late 1990s. She is a former Editor of the National Business Review; has twice been awarded Qantas Journalist of the Year and is a multiple winner of the Westpac Financial Journalism Supreme Award.

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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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