2026 Programme Sessions
730am Registration Open
815am Summit Commences
5pm Summit Concludes
5-7pm Post-Summit Cocktail Function
00
David Downs brings grit, resilience, and a sharp sense of humour to the stage. A cancer survivor and seasoned businessman, he knows how to hold a room, keep the energy moving, and find the humanity in the hard conversations. He'll make sure the day flows - and that you're laughing as much as you're thinking.
Opening
MC: David Downs
01
Technology is evolving faster than society and business can respond. AI is presenting new ways of working. But the people at the frontier are outpacing the slow adopters at a factor of ten - and New Zealand is falling behind.
Frances Valintine sets the stakes: What future are we engineering - and is it the same one we're imagining? Because the future isn't something that happens to us. It's something we choose to build.
You'll explore: The acceleration curve. The societal consequences. New Zealand's unique advantages - and what happens if we don't act.
Which Future Do We Choose?
Speaker: Frances Valintine
02
Silicon Valley rewards speed, output, ambition, and building for scale. New Zealand's unique edge is our care for humans. But our productivity, tech adoption, and decision-making speed are lagging critically behind.
This session reframes the conversation: How do we design a uniquely Kiwi way of leading, one where we move from stagnation to high-velocity execution while retaining a human-first way of life?
Maya provides the mechanics of high-velocity cultures and shows how New Zealand can close the gap without losing what makes us special. She addresses the individual decision-making challenges and the structural barriers slowing us down.
You'll explore: The decision speed gap: Why New Zealand companies take weeks to make decisions that global competitors make in hours - and what it's costing us. The structural barriers slowing us down: Corporate layers, approval hierarchies, and outdated structures - and what empowered, high-velocity leadership looks like. How to make high-stakes decisions at speed without sacrificing quality or humanity. The Kiwi edge: How to unlock New Zealand's ability to move as one.
Moving At The Speed Of Relevance:
The Decision Speed Gap
Speaker: Maya Pan
03
Nicola Taylor argues that we're leaving our boldest opportunities on the table. The four-minute mile was impossible, until Roger Bannister ran it. Then suddenly, it was attainable.
Every leader has a strategy. Most will underperform. Not because the strategy is wrong, but because of the pervasive stories running underneath it.
Nicola is the co-founder of two globally award-winning fintech companies, Tax Traders and TAXI. She's spent over a decade proving that it's not the strategies you write but the stories you believe that make the difference.
In this session, Nicola makes a provocative case: the narratives we tell ourselves - as individuals, as organisations, as a country - shape what we believe is possible. Right now, New Zealand is telling itself a limiting story: we're too far away, too slow, too small to compete.
What if the story we've been telling ourselves is the thing holding us back?
You'll explore: How self-limiting beliefs shape who you are and how you lead. Why it's not your strategy that determines your outcomes, but the stories you believe, and how to rewrite the narrative - for yourself, your team, and New Zealand.
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
Speaker: Nicola Taylor
04
What does engineering change look like when you're responsible for thousands of jobs and the infrastructure an entire country depends on?
Jason Paris and Nikhil Ravishankar are navigating the same tensions every leader in this room faces - speed vs. stability, technology vs. humanity, global competition vs. local values. The difference? They're doing it at scale and the whole country is watching.
Joining them is Naomi Ballantyne - founder, builder, and one of New Zealand's most significant business leaders of the last four decades. She's challenged the norms of large, conservative industries, built businesses that went the distance, and never once compromised on the values that got her there.
This isn't a structured panel. It's three leaders talking honestly about the realities of modern leadership - the decisions that keep them up at night, the pressures they're navigating, and their vision for their businesses, their industries, and New Zealand.
You'll hear: What it actually takes to lead transformation at scale, how AI is reshaping their organisations right now and what that means for the thousands of people within them, where they've had to hold the line - on values, on people, and on the kind of leaders they want to be.
Leading At Scale
Speakers: Jason Paris, Nikhil Ravishankar & Naomi Ballantyne
05
The world we were raised for no longer exists. The roles we once recognised are being redefined in real time. And the only certainty is uncertainty.
Alia Bojilova brings the SAS performance system: the same framework used by elite operators who lead teams into the unknown and make high-stakes decisions in rapidly changing landscapes. This is about building the mental and physiological capacity to lead with clarity when the landscape is shifting beneath you.
You'll explore: How to train your nervous system to adapt. How to lead without answers. And how to be the anchor for your team when everything around you is shifting.
The SAS Blueprint:
Leading Through Uncertainty
Speaker: Alia Bojilova
06
These are the businesses that aren't waiting for permission, government direction, or certainty. They're engineering change right now - building for a better future while solving real problems.
This session showcases New Zealand companies building world-class businesses with community, sustainability, education, and social good at their core. They prove you can be profitable and purposeful. That you can scale globally and stay grounded locally. New Zealand's size, values, and resourcefulness are competitive advantages, not limitations. This is the proof.
Format:
Quick-fire keynotes from 4-5 changemakers. Each gets 8-10 minutes to share:
· What future are you engineering - what's the world you're building toward?
· What was the moment you knew you had to build this?
· What's been your biggest roadblock, and what did you learn from it?
· What's one principle or decision that's guided everything else?
Mike Casey opens with a progress update on his commitments from Revved 2025: his zero-emissions electric orchard, the profitability gains from sustainability, and the proof that what gets committed to at Revved gets done.
The Changemakers
Speakers: Mike Casey + Changemakers
07
Excellence isn't accidental. It's engineered.
Gilbert Enoka has spent decades building the invisible infrastructure of excellence: the standards, the mindset, the rituals, and the culture that allow teams to perform under relentless pressure. This isn't motivational, it's mechanical. It's the playbook for building organisations that don't just survive change, but thrive in it.
You'll explore: Pressure = Privilege. Blue Head vs. Red Head. No Dickheads. Sweep the Sheds. And why under pressure, you don't rise to the occasion - you sink to the level of your mental skills.
The All Blacks Mental Code:
Engineering Sustained Excellence
Speaker: Gilbert Enoka
08
There has never been more opportunity for New Zealand. Our moment is now. But without unified action, our people, environment and economy will suffer. This is a robust, unscripted discussion about collective responsibility. Not party politics. Not theory. The decisions that will determine whether New Zealand becomes more prosperous and united - or poorer and more divided.
Business is the connecting force. It sits at the intersection of our economy, our communities, and our environment, and our values and in a country as small and interconnected as ours, it has the unique power to unify and drive change at speed. But these conversations can no longer be had in silos. True change requires all of us, working together, with a shared sense of responsibility for what we're building.
The room has spent the day diagnosing the forces reshaping our world, learning the tools to lead through uncertainty, and seeing proof that change is possible. Now we face the hardest question: What decisions can we not afford to avoid - and who leads when the system moves too slowly?
Sir Ian Taylor closes with a call to arms: what happens next, who's responsible, and why this room has the capability and the obligation to engineer a better future.
The Collective Blueprint:
What We're Building Together
Moderator: Sir Ian Taylor
Speakers: Anna Mowbray, Renata Blair, an economist
In partnership with organisations backing New Zealand’s future
Venue
Viaduct Events Centre
171 Halsey Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Located in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter, the Viaduct Events Centre sits at the centre of the waterfront precinct, with public transport connections, secure parking facilities, and premium accommodation all within immediate walking distance.
Public Transport
8–10 minute walk from Britomart Transport Centre (rail and bus).
10 minute walk from the Downtown Ferry Terminal.
Airport Access
Approximately 25–35 minutes by car from Auckland Airport (traffic dependent).
Parking
Paid public parking is available within short walking distance, including Downtown Car Park and Viaduct Car Park. Availability and rates are managed by the respective operators.
Ride Share & Taxis
Direct drop-off and pick-up is available at the venue entrance on Halsey Street.