Smales Farm hosting NZ’s Silicon Valley for Techweek’18

Auckland North has the potential to be the ‘Silicon Valley’ of New Zealand, something that has led to Grow North and the B:HIVE at Smales Farm jointly hosting one of the premier events of Techweek’18 – Grow North: Powering World Leading Innovation, on Thursday 24 May at Smales Farm, Takapuna from 12pm – 6pm.

Auckland’s Northern District is home to 20% of New Zealand’s highest revenue-generating technology export businesses developing and delivering world leading innovation, according to an inaugural regional report published by Technology Innovation Network (TIN). 
It’s this collection of businesses that has led to the Grow North Innovation District movement; a not for profit initiative driven by experienced front-line leaders from the industry with the purpose of encouraging and launching more innovation, more research and development, and speeding up the garage-to-global journey.

Speakers at the event will represent a broad cross section of these businesses; from startups like Curiat and Flowbox, accelerators like FaceMe and Teknique through to established tech giants such as E-Road, Invenco and Snapcomms. The afternoon will also include an Unfiltered Live interview with Tim Norton from 90 Seconds by Rawdon Christie. 

Marketing Manager Mark Kelly says as New Zealand’s largest and smartest co-working building, it was natural to host North Shore businesses who have embraced innovation to achieve rapid growth.

“The North Shore offers an impressive talent pool of innovative businesses with leaders that are not afraid to push the envelope or take risks for the greater good.”

“There is an incredible focus on business and this shows no signs of abating which is good news for New Zealand’s economic development. The B:HIVE is the ideal venue to host events such as this as innovation and business growth is at the heart of what the building is all about.” Kelly says. 
 
There will be a series of innovation displays that attendees can engage with to demonstrate some of the ideas and tech that is powering the Grow North Innovation District including AI, AR, robotics and bionics.

Techweek is a nationwide event which includes hundreds of lectures, seminars and workshops – including a robot workshop – aiming to demystify the latest tech trends which span across industries, from manufacturing, design, creative to sports innovation. 

Highlight events include Unfiltered Live (5 Ideas in 20 Minutes is a new form of business event), GrowPlenty (an ‘ecosystem-in-action’ event with examples of some of the leading-edge technologies shaping our world) and the Land and Water Innovation Showcase (how Te Tai Tokerau Northland is leading the way in land and water innovation across the globe) just to name three. 
 
For more info and to register see here