Confessions of a TechSummit MC
Did you poop today?
This is just one of the thought-provoking questions we asked in the Crew Networking and Innovation stage that I was lucky enough to MC at Tech Summit and I tell you what, we had a blast.
So, some context first… I’m a board member of Canterbury Tech and a Business Analyst at Deloitte. If you came to my stage you can probably rattle my bio off better than I can. This was my first time emceeing at Tech Summit and when I told people what a big deal it is they inevitably asked if I was nervous and my answer was always no, I was PUMPED! As a BA spending time standing at the front of a room (be that virtual or IRL) is part of the gig, I’m the one that needs to ask all the questions to dig into the why (ahhhh the good old five why’s) so having all eyes on me doesn’t really worry me. In fact, and don’t judge me here, I quite like it.
Louisa had a really clear vision for this stage and I seemed perfect for the job (refer to above peacocking). She wanted to give people an opportunity to tūhono (connect), kōrero (chat), and ki te ako (learn) so I was given a list of speakers and sent off on my merry way to make it happen.
Before our speakers took to the stage we had ‘networking for newbies’ with the fantastic Kelsey and Michelle (Publica). They had us playing networking bingo which was won by a very mic-shy but happy-with-his-bubbles Alex. The before, during, and after tips and tricks were great reminders of how to show up when you’re meeting people in a professional context. Oof what a start!
The next session saw Casey Orr (AWS) and Rik Roberts (Inde) talk about agentic AI and we decided to turn it into an ethical debate with the room divided into ‘for’ and ‘against’ by me so people weren’t guaranteed to be defending their own beliefs (insert evil laugh). Casey and Rik provided some great context around agentic AI (which, BTW, is an AI that has a degree of autonomy to take actions) and then we were off! I heard some eloquent arguments, some not so eloquent ones, there were bows and raucous applause happening as everyone got into the swing of it. Nailed it (*self-five).
Up next were Sam Kivi (Gradshare) and Harmaan Raj Madon (Alimentary), both experts in the field of sustainable tech, but first- a poo quiz! I got everyone voting on whether some weird and wonderful uses of human waste were true or false. Spoiler: they were all true. Then we heard from ChristchurchNZ on their regenerative economic ambition to lay up Sam and Harmaan to give the lowdown on existing tech that could quite literally change our world. Then it was over to the audience to kōrero about some of the opportunities or challenges they saw with this ambition. Session in the (poop) bag (*double self-five).
After lunch we headed into a session with Tasneem Gould (GSD Alliance) and Matt Duffy (Caterpillar Trimble Control Technologies) who wanted to showcase the journey they’d been on that cemented the need to always have your customers front of mind. We started with a quick “why do you Uber” kōrero before Tas and Matt walked us through some interesting exercises that got everyone thinking about why their customers should use them over their competitors. Someone even use their parenting as an example which was kind of genius. Session doneskies (*backflip).
And finally, we had Reuben Bijl (Smudge) and his team get everyone on their feet to build teams with a balance of technical, business, and UX experts so we could go through some “what does awful look like” exercises. I love me some reverse brainstorming…. thinking of ways to make something really terrible is SO much more fun than making it good. People got real creative. And weird. My kinda people. Final session of the day smashed out of the park (*Simone Biles-esk 360 deg flip twist).
The room was packed all day and it seemed like this concept was exactly what people wanted. I know what its like going to a conference and having to switch from your normal doing mode into listening mode. It can be hard. But having an opportunity to not just connect but discuss the topics the speakers were there to educate us on felt fantastic.
As far as my day goes, I regretted wearing heals almost immediately but damn did I have fun.
