As June and July have brought the usual cold wintery weather, this year there has been a stronger awareness of a potential shift in mindset thanks to our new public holiday for Matariki; marking a time for reflection and planning ahead.

This week I’m looking forward to attending the 2022 Hi-Tech Awards in Wellington on Friday night.  At last year’s awards, it was a special time for NZTech, being awarded for the best contribution to the New Zealand tech sector. The black-tie gala dinner is always a highlight of the year, celebrating the amazing people and companies of the tech sector.  A special call-out to many of our members who are Hi-Tech Award finalists.

Every month in FinTech land is busy, exciting, and dynamic with this month being no exception. As you will read further below there have been great examples of FinTech innovation reflecting the broad-church, FinTech community hard at work.

Firstly, welcome to new InsurTechNZ members Deloitte and RedBook New Zealand.

It’s been a busy month for us at EdTechNZ. We launched our EdTech Directory, met with members, and hosted our EdTech Export Readiness webinar.

In the lead up to our AI Summit taking place in Auckland on 12 September we are running a hackathon series across New Zealand.  The top teams will be pitching at the Summit to be the overall winners. 

Aotearoa’s first Digital Trust Hui Taumata is taking place on Wednesday. While the event alone is significant enough, this month let’s look at the programme in more detail to consider what it might offer up in terms of the future for digital identity in New Zealand and around the world. To help with context, I offered my perspective on some emerging trends in the form of a Q&A here.

It’s a big week for security, privacy, identity and trust!  

As we shoot past the halfway point of 2022 and  take time for Matariki reflections, I’m excited for the sector growth opportunities ahead. I’m especially grateful for developing relationships in person. In the next few months we will see agritech visitors coming to New Zealand and agritech innovators heading overseas.  This is the time to form and cement new relationships.