Global talent coming to town to talk tech, AI and the future of digital transformation

AUCKLAND, Tuesday: Some of the world’s top innovators and business minds are making their way to Auckland for the Spark Lab & Semi Permanent ‘s Future State, a keynote speaker event which aims to explore the driving forces behind the next era of technological innovation.

Presented by Spark Lab and Semi Permanent, the event will be hosted at Spark Arena on Thursday 11 May with around 1300 people expected to attend.

Aimed at attracting people from emerging small businesses right through to large enterprises, the event promises to be a regular fixture on the New Zealand business calendar with an speakers from innovative and successful companies, including adidas, Google, and Vice Media.

Spark marketing director Matt Bain said: “The one-day event will deliver a series of high-impact business briefings from amazing leaders who have pushed the boundaries and found themselves at the edge of innovation.

“We are seeing the possibilities for digital technology to enable cross-sector transformation explode – and the speakers we’ve assembled will speak to the newest trends, offer practical advice and renewed approaches to innovation to drive commercial success through technological and creative development.”

“The first edition of the event has been curated to the theme of ‘New Realities’, which will explore the driving forces behind the next era of the internet and unpack the challenges and opportunities of developments such as the metaverse, data sovereignty, AI, VR, gamification and tokenisation, and UX and UI design.

“This will be the first Future State event with Spark Lab and Semi Permanent committing to host them annually with a smaller event also taking place in the second half of the year.”

“This will be the first Future State event with Spark Lab and Semi Permanent committing to host them annually with a smaller event also taking place in the second half of the year.

“Unlike other business conferences, the event will offer more than just actionable insights into new technologies, with insights into how they apply to, and respect, people, and the planet.

“Additional topics will include diversity in digital representation, accessibility, AI biases, digital human rights, low-impact, and climate-positive technology, and building mental and creative resilience.”

Semi Permanent global CD Mitchell Oakley Smith said: “Future State has always been a hugely popular part of every Semi Permanent festival programme, one that’s provided a multitude of benefits to attendees.

“We’re excited to be collaborating with Spark Lab to create a standalone platform for Future State that will strongly position New Zealand business leaders for long-term success.”

Confirmed speakers include …

• Indigital ceo Mikaela Jade: Indigital is Australia’s first Indigenous edu-tech company.
• Vice Media vice-president Mark Adams.
• Sam Conniff, founder, The Uncertainty Experts
• Danielle Krettek, founder, Google Empathy Lab
• Husband and wife duo Constantine Gavryrok, global director of digital experience design, and Alexandra Popova, senior director of digital production personalisation, adidas
• Dr Jonnie Penn, Professor of AI Ethics and Society, Cambridge University

Semi-Permanent is the biggest and longest-running creativity and design festival in the southern hemisphere. Over the past 20 years it has hosted 50 events in 13 cities, featuring 800 speakers and attracting 300,000 attendees.

• Buy tickets here: future-state.live
• More here: semipermanent.com