Identifying fake news, robots replacing teachers and advancing cancer detection and treatment are just three topics on the agenda at this year’s AI Day, New Zealand’s premier AI event on March 27–28th at the ASB Waterfront Theatre, Auckland.

Presented by the AI Forum NZ and NewZealand.AI, AI Day will have over 20 leading industry experts, international speakers and panelists from New Zealand, Australia, China and the US, discussing how the technology is impacting business, people and society.

Headline speakers include physicist, TED fellow and entrepreneur Sean Gourley, a US based Kiwi and founder of machine intelligence company Primer, who will discuss AI and fake versus real news, algorithm manipulation and the challenge this places on democracy.

Others include Brandon Hutcheson co-founder of leading Kiwi AI firm Aware Group who will present on the economic value of automating attendance records at school and university, and AUT’s Dr Mahsa Mohaghegh who will pose the question, will robots replace teachers?

Advances in AI and the management of cancer will be the topic of leading CIO, Glen Willoughby, who is also Senior Research fellow at Victoria University focusing on AI and emerging technologies in health.

Ben Reid, Executive Director of the AI Forum of New Zealand, says this year’s event will demonstrate how AI is everywhere and is already part of life in New Zealand while also showing what the future holds.

“There’s been a huge increase in momentum in the last year and while we can celebrate success, AI Day aims to inspire Kiwi innovators and leaders to understand we are only at the beginning of this technology curve and we can achieve so much more.

“The sector is growing rapidly shown by the 500% growth in AI Forum membership over the last year — organisations are actively engaging with the technology, researching, raising capital, investing and developing new products or applications.

“There will be many case studies about how AI is being used, mixed with discussion about the significant challenges it presents. We want people to come and learn, take part in the debate and leave with a greater understanding of how AI can be managed to create value.”

AI Day Conference Partners include trail blazing local pioneers, FaceMe and Aware Group, Kiwi tech innovators including Spark and Jade, and large international leaders such as Microsoft and IBM. The two day conference at the 600-seat ASB Waterfront Theatre starts at 6.00pm on 27th March and runs through to the finale networking party at 5.30pm on the 28th.

Some big topics to be presented, discussed in panels and debated with the audience, include:

• The importance of protecting data and privacy in a rapidly developing AI world
• The growth of AI superpowers, the US, China and Europe, and how will this affect New Zealand?
• Lifelong learning, constant upskilling and running to keep up with AI-driven job changes
• The future of conversational interfaces and using AI to deliver authentic augmented reality experiences — how soon will chatbots resemble real people?
• How can AI be used to radically improve government services?
• How can AI help you buy a house?

The conference will be followed by six workshops at AUT on 3rd and 4th April, giving attendees the chance to dive deep into demonstrations, case studies and detailed discussion, and a hackfest on 6–7th April where 25 teams will develop and pitch “AI for Earth” concepts.

Producer of AI Day Justin Flitter says the event is an opportunity to take one more step towards understanding and adopting a fundamental technology for our future:

“We are no longer staring into the headlights of this tech but embracing it and using it to bring new ways of working, efficiencies in business and government, and improvements to people’s lives.

“But like all disruptive changes there are issues to debate and we are encouraging anyone with an interest in how we will advance as a country to come along and be part of an important discussion.

“New Zealand’s mainstream AI conversation only really began in 2017, and we now have real traction and momentum. But we need to continue to build as many countries are moving faster than us and we can’t afford to be left behind.”

Tickets for AI-Day are on sale at https://www.ai-day.com

AI Day 2019 to showcase the prolific developments in AI impacting Business, People and Society. was originally published in NewZealand.AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Writen by Savannah Peterson for @BlockworksNZ

I had a real Silicon Valley ‘wake up’ moment this week. I was in Portland, at an excellent conference for Community Builders, speaking about building blockchain communities. Normally as a nerd, this is a conversation I have on the technology stage, but this was Portland, and a bunch of super smart people who empower others for a living. I knew I needed to… be conscious of my audience. Thankfully, I spoke on the second day of the event, so I had 36 hours to get the pulse of where the rest of the online world is at with their understanding of this new technology.

Newsflash: folks outside of the Silicon Valley, and a few select major metropolitan areas have yet to hear of or, are understandably, somewhat afraid of Blockchain. I hope to dispel any FOMO, fear or indifference.

It has become clear to me that the crypto-crazed hype about Bitcoin pushed the average early-adopter of technology out of a dialogue they would have historically owned. The digital asset revolution is an exciting one, but it is not the core value blockchain technology will provide forever. Contrary to the media hype, the Bitcoin millionaires are few and far between, and the technological paradigm shift will take awhile to achieve mass-adoption. You’re not too late. It’s important that us enthusiasts make this clear early and often before we lose the interest of smart people who can drive future innovation forward. Innovation I believe catches fire faster in smaller, tighter-knit communities, like New Zealand. Take this New York Times list of smaller nations as examples.

The cryptocurrency community is currently the loudest in the blockchain dialogue, but they are not the most important. The most important voices to seek in this buzzword bingo are the developers, the computer scientists and cryptographers, the lawyers, the policy makers, the thought leaders and the community builders trying to create something tangible and sustainable from all of this hype.

We’ve moved beyond the lambo-driven crypto-craze of pump’n’dumpers seeking the moon. We’re now in the technical trough of realization where we’ll see how this technology will actually benefit us. Which means if you’re just learning about blockchain for the first time today, or at Blockworks NZ later this week, you’re perfectly on-time.

To wet your whistle, here are seven nibbles to serve as food for thought:

• Crypto comes from cryptography. It’s the cryptographic ‘handshake’ between two blocks that allow for the secure transfer of information. It’s nerdy more than anything else and it will be a complicated paradigm shift. It is okay if you don’t understand exactly how smart contracts literally work, all you need to know is that they are fast and secure transfers of data.
• Blockchain will be felt more than it will be heard. Yes, us tech nerds are raving about it now, but blockchain will likely be the “intel inside” the systems of the future. It’s a platform that will power greater synergy that our current systems do, especially across borders. This will translate in the secure transmission of the data most important to you and your business.
• Bitcoin is the preface in what will be a long blockchain novel. Just because it has been in the media and a very small number of people made some big bucks, cryptocurrency is still an extremely high-risk asset in a volatile market.
• Impending regulation is a good thing. The crypto market and blockchain conversation have been so “wild-west” because very few rules exist. These ever-morphing global regulations stress the market now, but will calm the seas soon. The financial world alone is not representative of the capabilities of blockchain.
• Blockchain is about optimizing two things: security and transparency. It will reduce fraud, optimize systems, and hopefully make the boring parts of your business and life, more efficient. The best thing you can do is keep learning. The best book for this is Blockchain Revolution. The best activity is learning more about Blockworks.
• Blockchain will impact healthcare, medical records, voting, the academic exchange of information, artificial intelligence, banking, robotics, agriculture, the distribution of goods, and commerce in ways we haven’t even thought of yet.
• The tipping point has yet to come. We don’t have a clear industry “leader.” Blockchain will have reached mass adoption when we stop calling it out. It’s a thrilling time to join the conversation.

Now what? Here are a few questions to get you thinking:

• What process is ridiculously slow in our organization?
• What do I wish was faster?
• What data am I missing real-time?
• Where are the inefficiencies in my life?
• What organizations in your life do you wish better communicated?

I hope this helped ease any fears you have about blockchain, and perhaps enticed you to join us at Blockworks this week. Reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter if your team needs a VIP Savvy discount code.

Seven Reasons You’re Not Too Late to the Blockchain Party was originally published in NewZealand.AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Blockworks will showcase the practical applications of Blockchain Technology transforming Business, Government and Society.

We really want to help business and technology leaders learn how Blockchain technology can solve their key business problems.

See the Speaker line-up here https://blockworks.co.nz/conference/

Dene Green is leading the iTrack Blockchain in Supply Chain project at NZ Post and one of the local Industry Leaders presenting at the conference.

You’ll also hear from Aaron McDonald, Co-Founder and CEO of Centrality and winner of the Technology and Emerging Industries’ category for the 2018 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award, University of Auckland’s Associate Professor Alex Sims and Michael Williams from Microsoft Australia who’ll be presenting use cases and examples of Enterprise scale business problems being solved with Blockchain.

International speakers include Boyd Cohen from Barcelona and Executive Director of the Blockchain Cities Alliance speaking about Blockchain Cities and Smart Mobility, Natasha Blycha from Law firm Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and IBM’s Paul Hutchison will share how the Australian National Blockchain Project will enable companies to use digitised contracts, exchange data and confirm the authenticity and status of legal contracts, and why it will represent a significant new piece of infrastructure in Australia’s digital economy.

In addition to the talks are two panel discussions facilitated by New Zealand Journalist Russell Brown on Smart Cities and Digital Identity.

Blockworks begins on October 6th and 7th with a two day Hackfest at AUT, produced by Centrality.AI, Lightning Lab and the Enspiral Dev Academy. There are five workshops being hosted at the ASB Waterfront Theatre on October 11th and the Conference on October 12th concludes the programme.

For the full programme, speakers, topics and tickets please visit Blockworks.co.nz to secure your tickets.

What Business Problems can Blockchain solve? was originally published in NewZealand.AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A hackfest will reveal the versatility of blockchain technology on the weekend of 6–7th October as part of the week-long Blockworks conference, New Zealand’s premier blockchain event.

The free hackfest will be held at Auckland University of Technology and hosted by leading blockchain venture studio Centrality, with support from web development school Enspiral Dev Academy and business accelerator Lightning Labs.

The big prize is a wild card entry to the Centrality Accelerator, worth over $100,000. The Centrality Accelerator provides a physical space where developers, businesses and entrepreneurs can work in close collaboration with Centrality. In it they enter an intensive programme and receive support to scale their idea within a blockchain ecosystem to become commercially successful.

There are also $2,000 of Centrality (CENNZ) tokens up for grabs and spot prizes on the day.

Entries are open to individuals, entrepreneurs, businesses, and teams from universities and schools.

General Manager of Strategic Partnerships at Centrality, Andy Higgs says the hackfest is the ideal opportunity for people to test and develop in the blockchain environment and demonstrate the potential of their ideas.

“We’re looking for ideas that harness the power of blockchain technology. Hackfests are a proven means to bring great minds together to get the most out of emerging tech like decentralised ledgers.

“We’re keen to see what the Kiwi IT community can create — and we want to reward that creativity with prizes beyond monetary value. We’re want to provide the support, the encouragement and the help bright minds need make successful blockchain technologies.”

The hackfest will have two streams of activity.

The first is an “open hack” where a team brings an existing project for the onsite Centrality team to enhance with blockchain technology. The winner of the open hack will be eligible for the Centrality Accelerator $100,000 prize.

There is also the “take the challenge” stream where a blockchain task is set for small teams to work together to solve a current business problem. People can either come as a team or join one on the day. This will empower individuals or businesses to achieve more from an idea using blockchain. Prizes in this section include Centrality tokens worth $2,000 as well as spot prizes.

Justin Flitter, founder of Blockworks says the hackfest will suit a wide range of people, from those who have worked with blockchain for a while to those keen to learn.

“You can be a technical professional with a good understanding about blockchain, an entrepreneur with great ideas, a software developer, technologist or a student who wants more exposure to this fast growing industry.

“This is a great opportunity to validate an idea, work on your problem statement and blockchain use case, or just take part, learn, experiment and improve your skills.

“And best of all it’s free — we’re all looking forward to a fun weekend where we all learn a lot.”

To register for the Blockworks hackfest, click here.

Blockworks is New Zealand’s premier blockchain event and includes the hackfest on 6th and 7th October, workshops on 11th and a full-day conference on Friday 12th. It’s aim is to give people a practical insight on the potential for blockchain to benefit Kiwis, bring prosperity and support New Zealand. It features an international line of speakers presenting how the technology will transform New Zealand business, Government and society.

Over $100k in prizes up for grabs at the Blockworks Hackfest. was originally published in NewZealand.AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Festival for the future — 2018 was originally published in NewZealand.AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Watch the Videos Interviews from AIMCON was originally published in NewZealand.AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Artificial intelligence will be revealed as marketing’s new best friend this week at the AIMCON conference in Auckland, New Zealand’s premier AI conference for marketers and digital professionals.

The day long AI showcase and conversations event is set to provide New Zealand organisations with deep insight on how AI will bring enormous value to marketing as an enabler, rather than job thief.

AIMCON will be take place Wednesday 5th September at Generator @GRIDAKL in the Wynyard Quarter Innovation Precinct and is aimed at inspiring people to re-think the way they design and build interactions, manage and utilise data sets, automate and leverage emerging technology.

Keynote speaker Hamish Rumbold, Chief Executive Officer at Clearpoint, will delve into the rise of voice as a tool, one of the main topics of the day, as the number of voice searches is escalating.

“Voice is the new search and the next wave of commerce — it’s also, in my opinion, the first real change we will all experience that will be driven by deep learning,” he says.

“It’s predicted that 50% of search will be made by voice, powered by AI, by 2020. This has massive implications for marketers.

“I’m looking forward to kick-starting this debate at AIMCON and sharing our experience in developing virtual assistants and AI platforms.”

Rapidly growing sales in voice activated tech like Google Home and Amazon Echo are expected to grow from $2bn now to $40bn by 2022 in the US alone. Voice is likely to take over as the new method of search, something marketers should be prepared for.

The question is, will voice-driven tools actually work to humanise our communication and take away the anti-social aspects of constant typing on smartphones and staring at screens?

Artificial intelligence is making significant improvements to human communication in ways that seemed impossible over a decade ago. Innovative tools are able to enhance marketing by uncovering entirely new ways of creating and distributing value to customers.

AI-partnered marketing tools such as biometrics, voice search, and chatbots can provide a more comprehensive view of customer behaviour, predictive analytics, and deeper insights that benefit consumers and marketers alike.

Justin Flitter, founder of AIMCON, says New Zealand is one of the best places to explore uses of AI in marketing:

“A vast majority of businesses in New Zealand start and stay as SMEs, but grow big in confidence and capability. By empowering organisations to leverage Artificial Intelligence within their business structure, we can truly become world leaders in the AI tech space.”

“Marketers are starting to see how things like digital assistants, natural language processing, and automation can be used in the customer experience. I want to focus on what’s accessible in New Zealand to us today that we can use and start implementing.”

“New Zealand is already a leading tech country in the OECD. If we can get marketers to embrace the fact that our communication is going to be altered entirely by emerging technology, we can better prepare for the transition.”

As the future of New Zealand’s tech space is continuing to expand, multiple industries are starting to see a shift. For the marketing profession, innovative tools such as hyper-personalisation will cause dramatic changes to the way the sales process is executed.

AIMCON will help marketers understand how Artificial Intelligence can be used effectively in customer experience, consumer insights, automation, chatbots, on-boarding and more.

Flitter says this event will demonstrate how an open style forum and discussion is the best way to lead change through collaborating on ideas about emerging AI tech for marketing.

“This event will be very personal, practical, and very conversation-centered, so that people can really hash out ideas and ask questions. It’s more of an open discussion with the goal of growing business confidence with AI, to help people prepare, find out what resources are available now and what are the practical implications of AI.”

Key-note speakers and presenters at AIMCON include:

Jodie Sangster — Asia Pacific CMO Liaison Lead for IBM Watson Customer Engagement

Hamish Rumbold — CEO — ClearPoint

Nathalie Morris — CEO — Qrious

Michael Lovegrove — Founder & CEO — JRNY

Alex Bartley Catt — CEO — Spacetime

Anchali Anandanayagam — Partner — HGM

Byron Powell — Head of Mobile — Vodafone

Vince Warnock — Digital Marketing Manager — Cigna NZ

Justin Flitter — Founder NewZealand.AI

Glenn Marvin — Founder — Konnector

AIMCON conference partners include: Clearpoint, IBM, Qrious, JRNY, Spacetime, Generator, Konnector and Storicom.

Tickets for AIMCON are available at aimcon.co.nz/

AIMCON gives new insight to the future of marketing. was originally published in NewZealand.AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A week long blockchain conference is set to put the power of the technology front and centre this October featuring an international line of speakers presenting how the technology will transform New Zealand business, Government and society.

Blockworks will be New Zealand’s premier blockchain event and include a hackfest on 6th and 7th October, workshops on 11th and a full-day conference on Friday 12th — it’s aim is to give people a practical insight on the potential for blockchain to benefit Kiwis, bring prosperity and support New Zealand.

Headline speakers include international Smart Cities expert Prof. Boyd Cohen, an urban strategist focused on smart cities and the Internet of Mobility — he will present on creating innovative and entrepreneurial urban environments, of great relevance to New Zealand’s rapidly evolving cities.

Assoc. Prof. Alex Sims from the University of Auckland Business School, will focus on the practical applications of blockchain to transform business and society.

Aaron McDonald, CEO of Centrality.ai and winner of the Technology and Emerging Industries Category at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, 2018, will provide insight on New Zealand’s economic potential as we take back ownership and control of information.

Founder of Blockworks, Justin Flitter, says New Zealand has a huge opportunity to build new prosperity based on local control of data and information:

“Often associated with bitcoin, Blockchain technology is going mainstream and we need to take note as it stakes a claim to impact every aspect of life, for the better.

“It will streamline the way organisations run by unclogging systems and it will change the way we do business and live by giving people control and ownership of their data, instead of giving it away to a third party corporate. It will create opportunities and new ways for Kiwis to prosper.

“Blockchain is so much more than just bitcoin — that’s where it started but we want to change the conversation and get people to understand its potential. In a way, Blockworks will be this technology’s coming out party when it reveals its true identity,” he says.

Blockworks conference partners include: Centrality.ai, Microsoft, IBM, Cryptopia, the Blockchain Association of New Zealand, NZTE and ATEED. The full-day conference will be at the 680-seat ASB Waterfront Theatre in Wynyard Quarter, Auckland.

Blockchain’s attraction as a technology is its ability to deliver trust and security, because each block in a blockchain is a digital, tamper-proof record of information. It’s built using cryptography, a way of storing and transmitting data so it can only be read and processed by the recipient, making it very effective in managing identity, financial information, social and medical records, transport and supply chain, and much more.

Centrality.ai GM Strategic Partnerships Andy Higgs says it’s a critical time to capture the potential and value of blockchain.

“This emerging industry has grown exponentially, thanks to interest from both private and public sectors. We see the importance of momentum and maximising opportunities enabled by blockchain, for the broader tech ecosystem.

“Blockworks, from Centrality’s point of view, is a timely opportunity to showcase the exciting business and govtech applications of blockchain for New Zealand Inc.”

The Blockworks hackfest on the weekend of the 6th and 7th October is sponsored and hosted by Microsoft, and is an open invitation event for developers and industry experts to collaborate and solve significant global problems using blockchain. The workshops on 11th October are for anyone from beginner to expert to learn about blockchain and discover its value.

“Many NZ companies are developing concepts using blockchain — it’s a growing sector that is creating jobs. Blockchain has the potential to bring about prosperity built on fairness and trust,” Justin Flitter says.

“Blockworks will be an event where people will learn the benefits of blockchain technology for themselves, organisations, Government, communities and the country as a whole — it will be really hands on — anyone with an eye on the future needs to come and be part of it.”

Tickets for Blockworks are available at blockworks.co.nz

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Jonathan Tudor

Storicom

021 790 475

Blockchain to flex muscles at Blockworks conference was originally published in NewZealand.AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Justin Flitter from New Zealand.ai caught up with Kimberly Bartkowski from IBM to discuss the impact of AI on Brand and Customer experience ahead of AIMCON — the AI event for Marketers on September 5th.

Kimberly Bartkowski — The Impact of AI on Brand & Customer Experience. was originally published in NewZealand.AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

To feed the appetite for AI material prior to the event, here’s some light reading from JRNY: “A Guide to Automated Conversation for Enterprises”.

In this paper, JRNY attempts to cut through the lingo and explain clearly what automated conversation really is, what the benefits are for your organisation and how this can be implemented in enterprises across several industries.

Just click the text link above and it’ll download straight to your device.

Join us at AIMCON — click the button below to see all the amazing speakers and register.

AIMCON is the Artificial Intelligence marketing event of the year. Helping marketers, brand, communications and digital strategists learn where and how to utilise AI to accelerate their marketing.

Meet Michael Lovegrove from JRNY at AIMCON was originally published in NewZealand.AI on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.