NZ Tech Rally 2027 Schedule
8:00AM to 8:45AM
Registration
Level 1 entrance @ Tākina
9:00AM to 9:15AM
Opening notes
Stuart Whitehead, Engineering Leader & NZ Tech Rally crew
9:15AM to 9:55AM
Keynote 1: Software has a human interface
Elise Wei, Senior Engineer, Educator & Team Lead
10:00AM to 10:40AM
Keynote 2: A journey to the core of human-centred design
Ramya Ravishankar, Lead UI/UX Designer @ Ministry of Education NZ
10:45AM to 11:30AM
Morning tea break and exhibitions
Mentor-mentee speed matching sessions
Mindfulness sessions
Exhibition booths display
11:30AM to 12:00PM
Multi-track talks: Round 1
Engineering & Platforms: I debugged software better than my life
Zanda Zvidrina, Senior Software Developer & ADHD Coach
Room: A
Product, Design & UX: 10,000 data points a second, and nobody cared
Jamie Dawson, Product Lead @ Basis
Room: C
Testing & Quality: Testing is not a phase: Building quality into a transformation programme
Siobhan Cotter, Head of Technology Delivery @ MAS
Room: Mākaro
AI, Data & Ethics: Lines of code got a better publicist
David Curlewis, Senior Engineering Manager @ Canva
Room: Matiu
Community, Culture & Wellbeing: Beyond the algorithm: Designing technology for trust, safety, and connection
Vivian Chandra, Co-Director @ Ally Skills Aotearoa
Room: B
12:05PM to 12:30PM
Multi-track talks: Round 2
Engineering & Platforms: Scope down to scale up: Lessons from agentic AI adoption
Francis Ho, Director of Engineering @ Auror
Room: A
Product, Design & UX: The hidden risk in mobile UX: Designing for interrupted attention
Emma Buckland, Mobile UX Lead Designer
Room: C
Testing & Quality: DIY QA : How to craft your own QA Toolkit
Gabriel Lantin, Senior Test Automation Engineer @ RUSH
Room: Mākaro
AI, Data & Ethics: The ethics review nobody wanted to attend
Indira Bandari, Data Architect @ Inde Technology
Room: Matiu
Community, Culture & Wellbeing: Health tech needs a reset
Luca Zampese, Technology & Innovation Champion @ Tū Ora Compass Health NZ
Room: B
12:30PM to 1:30PM
Lunch break and exhibitions
Mentor-mentee speed matching sessions
Mindfulness sessions
Exhibition booths display
1:30PM to 2:00PM
Multi-track talks: Round 3
Engineering & Platforms: Managing up is not flattery: What I got wrong about executives
Jakub Jurkiewicz, CPTO @ Medtech Global & Founder @ Tech Waka Collective
Room: A
Product, Design & UX: Three startups, no code: Evidence vs encouragement
Sailendhran Paramanandhan, Principal Consultant @ Yantra NZ
Room: C
Testing & Quality: Rocket fuel or AI slop: 25 years of test management meets AI
Sarah Thomas, Principal Consultant @ Planit Testing
Room: Mākaro
AI, Data & Ethics: He ao anō tēnei / A different world
Chris Cormack, Kaihuawaere Matihiko @ Catalyst
Room: Matiu
Community, Culture & Wellbeing: Do human rights exist online?
Thalia Kehoe Rowden, Co-Executive Director @ Human Rights Measurement Initiative
Room: B
2:05PM to 2:30PM
Multi-track talks: Round 4
Engineering & Platforms: Refactoring everything everywhere all at once: Safety A/B testing in single-tenant SaaS
Alix Klingenberg, Lead Software Engineer @ Octopus Deploy
Room: A
Product, Design & UX: Beyond the screen: Accessibility in physical spaces
Julius Charles Serrano, Accessibility Specialist & Co-founder @ Tactile NZ
Room: C
Testing & Quality: The upskilling nobody asked for
Mei Reyes-Tsai, Group CTO @ TTC Global
Room: Mākaro
AI, Data & Ethics: Why AI won't fix your broken IA
Maria McMillan, Information Architect
Room: Matiu
Community, Culture & Wellbeing: Detangling ourselves from Big Tech
Bianca Grizhar, Product Operations Consultant
Room: B
2:30PM to 3:00PM
Afternoon tea break and exhibitions
Mentor-mentee speed matching sessions
Mindfulness sessions
Exhibition booths display
3:00PM to 3:40PM
Keynote 3: Leading beyond the product: Creating pathways, leading communities & shaping technology culture at NZ Police
Khushi Chauhan, Technical Product Owner @ NZ Police
3:45PM to 4:15PM
Group activities & prize giveaway
Stuart Whitehead
4:15PM to 4:30PM
Closing notes
Camy Bhandari, Co-Founder & Director @ NZ Tech Rally
4:30PM to 7:00PM
Post-conference networking mixer
@ Rongamātāne Foyer, Tākina