Canterbury Tech
The booming tech sector celebrates its 21st annual Canterbury Tech Summit at Te Pae on the 27th of September.
Established in 2002, riding a wave of new web businesses starting up in Christchurch on the rise of the popularity of the internet, Canterbury Tech is now riding another wave of industry success.
The Tech Summit is the largest industry-led annual conference; every year, up to 800 attendees come from around the country and internationally to hear the latest in technological advancements, inspire professional stories and form vital business connections with others in the industry.
Celebrity MC Jeremy Corbett will bring the party as he introduces speakers like Graham Grant, CEO of Christchurch-headquartered tech powerhouse Seequent, talking about collaboration with gaming giant CerebralFix to develop software at the intersection of gaming and education.
The day is packed with speakers across three stages, covering business and technical topics. This year, the Summit has added a new interactive stage that encourages people to make more valuable business connections while diving into discussions, with speakers like Reuben Bijl from Smudge, who will guide the audience in a discussion to understand what makes good app design and how his employee Devin became the first kiwi to win an Apple design award.
The exhibition space will be a hive of networking with exhibits from local companies to global household names like Amazon Web Services and ASX, who have created a new start-up zone where local start-ups applied and were then chosen to be hosted in the space, to show off their new breakthrough ideas like quitting vaping through VR, and building design software that nudges you to build more sustainable buildings as you design.
This year is a huge milestone for Canterbury Tech, as the 21st Tech Summit rapidly approaches, CEO Louisa Taylor and Board Chair Seku Skandan have been busy looking into the evolution and history of the community.
“We’ve got in contact with all the founding members and board chairs that have served through two decades, even the founders of a tech BBQ in the 90’s that eventually led to the founding of Canterbury Software Incorporated in 2002.”
Skandan, a virtual reality production manager, has been busy filming, even 3D scanning the community founders while they tell their stories – it’s been a fun way to memorialise the incredible volunteer efforts that so many have put into the organisation to get us to where we are today, and for the future generations.”
If you’d like to join the celebrations of the most active tech community in New Zealand, get inspired and look for opportunities for your business to use technology – grab yourself a ticket at www.techsummit.nz