NZ Tech Rally 2026 Schedule
8:00 am – 8:45 am: Registration
9:00 am – 9:15 am: Opening notes
9:15 am – 9:55 am: Keynote 1
Cognitive diversity in the age of AI: Building teams that out-innovate with a Pasifika lens
Norie Ape - Program Manager @ EROAD
10:00 am – 10:40 am: Keynote 2
Building with AI without losing our values
Lauren Peate - Founder & CEO @ Multitudes
10:45 am – 11:30 am: Morning tea break & activities
Exhibition booths
CV clinic by Find Recruitment
Professional headshot booth by Profile Photos
Sensory reset station by Thriving Away Collective
Mentor-mentee speed matching sessions by Summer of Tech
Focus reset & guided mindfulness sessions with Sana Vishkanta
11:30 am – 11:55 am: Multi-track talks
AI, Data & Ethics
Small voices, big stakes: How children's rights shape AI governance at UNICEF Aotearoa
Ben Chapman - Lead Full Stack Developer @ UNICEF Aotearoa
Community, Culture & Wellbeing
RADical innovation: Circular economy meets digital equity
Kelsey Hallahan- Educational Programme Manager & Digital Equity Champion @ Digital Future Aotearoa
Engineering & Platforms
Manager, leader or engineer? It’s a pendulum and a continuum
Barbara Gruber - Principal Engineer @ Wires Uncrossed
Product, Design & UX
Invisible design: Making data governance work for regulated industries
Sneha Pulapaka - Senior Insights Analyst & Product owner
Testing & Quality
Give an app to 5 different security testers, you'll get 5 different reports
Peter Jakowetz - Managing Director @ PrivSec Consulting
12:00 pm – 12:25 pm: Multi-track talks
AI, Data & Ethics
Strategic AI assessment and deployment for optimal adoption
Tom Pieterse - Principal Trust Analyst @ Atlassian
Community, Culture & Wellbeing
You don’t need permission to lead: A grassroots community blueprint
Greg Ng - Co-founder @ BA Career & Business Analyst @ Transpower New Zealand
Engineering & Platforms
The API product playbook: Managing the full lifecycle for a world-class DevEx and Agent experience
Darshit Pandya - Senior Principal Engineer - Platform @ Serko
Product, Design & UX
Getting "Accessibility Ready" for a design system
Steve Barnett - Digital Accessibility Consultant @ Intopia
Testing & Quality
Can AI really replace testers in the future?
Surya Baskaran - Senior QA Consultant @ TTC Global
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm: Lunch break & activities
Exhibition booths
CV clinic by Find Recruitment
Professional headshot booth by Profile Photos
Sensory reset station by Thriving Away Collective
Mentor-mentee speed matching sessions by Summer of Tech
Focus reset & guided mindfulness sessions with Sana Vishkanta
1:30 pm – 1:55 pm: Multi-track talks
AI, Data & Ethics
Lora Vardarova - Lead Engineering Enablement Specialist @ Culture Amp
Community, Culture & Wellbeing
The dungeon master’s guide to feedback
Tamara Buckland - Founder @ Leadership Treehouse
Engineering & Platforms
Taming chaos: Building a DevOps platform for a multi‑stack enterprise
Chris Jia - Senior Full-Stack Engineer & Automation Expert
Product, Design & UX
Highchairs, toilet training and human-centered design: A parenting parallel to UX design
Ramya Ravishankar - Lead UX/UI Designer @ Ministry of Education
Testing & Quality
Cracking the AI black box: Challenges and solutions in testing generative AI
Deep Pandey - Senior Consultant in AI @ Planit
2:00 pm – 2:25 pm: Multi-track talks
AI, Data & Ethics
AI agents in your Kubernetes cluster: Troubleshooting at scale, 24/7
Dipin Thomas - Lead Engineer @ Xero
Community, Culture & Wellbeing
Your code is fine. Your leadership? …
Rachael Fitzjohn - People Director @ Emerging Engines
Engineering & Platforms
Building the golden path: Unified platforms management across Cloud, On-Premise, and SaaS
Feilong Wang - Principal Engineer @ Kiwibank
Product, Design & UX
The cognitively-kind web: Designing for our diverse brains
Oli Treadwell - Senior Software Engineer
Testing & Quality
Supercharge your test automation with Playwright, MCP, and GitHub Copilot
Allan Munar - Principal Consultant @ TTC Global
2:30 pm – 3:00 pm: Afternoon tea break & activities
Exhibition booths
CV clinic by Find Recruitment
Professional headshot booth by Profile Photos
Sensory reset station by Thriving Away Collective
Mentor-mentee speed matching sessions by Summer of Tech
Focus reset & guided mindfulness sessions with Sana Vishkanta
3:00 pm – 3:40 pm: Keynote 3
The accessibility features of today are the breakthroughs of tomorrow
Maia Miller - Managing Director @ Aleph Accessibility
3:45 pm – 4:15 pm: Group activities & giveaways
4:15 pm – 4:30 pm: Closing notes
Camy Bhandari - Co-Founder & Director @ NZ Tech Rally
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Post-conference networking mixer
TĀKINA Rongamātāne Foyer, Level 1
Sponsored by PrivSec Consulting