Inclusive spaces for Aotearoa’s tech community to celebrate, connect and grow together.
NZ Tech Rally unites the whole software delivery team: engineers, testers, product folks, data minds, tech leaders, and founders. We share real stories and practical local solutions for people, organisations, and communities in Aotearoa New Zealand.
We are one of NZ’s most loved grassroots tech events. After our hugely successful 2023 & 2025 conferences, we are back in 2026 to celebrate, connect, and grow alongside our community.
2026 Speaker lineup published. Tickets now available. Call for sponsors also open.
TĀKINA, 50 Cable Street, Wellington, New Zealand
Friday, 15 May 2026
3 keynotes and 20 talks across 5 dedicated tracks
Engineering & Platforms
Product, Design & UX
Testing & Quality
AI, Data & Ethics
Community, Culture & Wellbeing
Keynotes
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Norie Ape
Digital Transformation & Product Leader @ Te Wananga o Aotearoa
Cognitive diversity in the age of AI: Building teams that out-innovate with a Pasifika lens
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Lauren Peate
Founder & CEO @ Multitudes
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Maia Miller
Managing Director @ Aleph Accessibility
The accessibility features of today are the breakthroughs of tomorrow
Product, Design & UX
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Ramya Ravishankar
Lead UX/UI Designer @ Ministry of Education
Highchairs, toilet training and human-centered design: A parenting parallel to UX design
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Steve Barnett
Digital Accessibility Consultant @ Intopia
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Sneha Pulapaka
Senior Insights Analyst & Product owner
Invisible design: Making governance work for regulated industries
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Oli Treadwell
Senior Software Engineer
The cognitively-kind web: Designing for our diverse brains
Engineering & Platforms
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Chris Jia
Senior Full-Stack Engineer & Automation Expert
Taming chaos: Building a DevOps platform for a multi‑stack enterprise
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Darshit Pandya
Senior Principal Engineer - Platform @ Serko
The API product playbook: Managing the full lifecycle for a world-class DevEx
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Feilong Wang
Principal Engineer @ Kiwibank
Building the golden path: Unified platforms management across Cloud, On-Premise, and SaaS
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Barbara Gruber
Principal Engineer @ Totara
Manager, leader or engineer? It’s a pendulum and a continuum
Community, Culture & Wellbeing
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Kelsey Hallahan
Educational Programme Manager & Digital Equity Champion @ Digital Future Aotearoa
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Greg Ng
Co-founder @ BA Career & Business Analyst @ Transpower New Zealand
You don’t need permission to lead: A grassroots community blueprint
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Tamara Buckland
Founder @ Leadership Treehouse
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Rachael Fitzjohn
People Director @ Emerging Engines
Testing & Quality
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Peter Jakowetz
Managing Director @ PrivSec Consulting
Give an app to 5 different security testers, you'll get 5 different reports
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Surya Baskaran
Senior QA Consultant @ TTC Global
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Deep Pandey
Senior Consultant in AI @ Planit
Cracking the AI black box: Challenges and solutions in testing generative AI
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Allan Munar
Principal Consultant @ TTC Global
Supercharge your test automation with Playwright, MCP, and GitHub Copilot
AI, Data & Ethics
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Dipin Thomas
Lead Engineer @ Xero
AI agents in your Kubernetes cluster: Troubleshooting at scale, 24/7
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Lora Vardarova
Lead Engineering Enablement Specialist @ Culture Amp
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Ben Chapman
Lead Full Stack Developer @ UNICEF Aotearoa
Small voices, big stakes: How children's rights shape AI governance at UNICEF Aotearoa
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TBC
Sponsors
Thank you to our amazing 2026 sponsors. We wouldn’t be able to do it without you!
Platinum Sponsor:
Networking mixer sponsor:
Professional headshot partner:
We are onboarding 2026 sponsors now. Please reach out at sponsor@nztechrally.nz.
Missed out on NZ Tech Rally 2025? No worries! Catch all the action on our YouTube channel & official photo album.