Digital Inclusion CONNECT Forum 2019

Department of Internal Affairs, Digital Inclusion Team

Digital Inclusion CONNECT Forum 2019, a free one-day event in Wellington connecting community, private sector and government.

National Library Wellington

<h2>Kia ora!</h2><p>On Tuesday 29 October, the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) is hosting a one-day forum at the National Library in Wellington to continue the national discussion on digital inclusion and give community, private sector and government a chance to connect. </p><h2>Our MC</h2><h3>Ryan ‘The Lion’ Ashton </h3><p>"It is not until the unaffected are as outraged as the affected that change will happen." MC Ryan 'The Lion' Ashton is an outspoken leader from the technology industry who is very active in the diversity and inclusion space. Ryan has a firm belief that we all should enjoy equal opportunity throughout life and sees the digital divide is an area that requires the full support of the New Zealand Technology Industry to support the required change. </p><h2>Our speakers</h2><h3>Dr Michelle Dickinson (Nano girl)</h3><p>Speaker Dr Michelle Dickinson is a passionate researcher and teacher with a love of science and engineering. Michelle has made it her life mission to make science and engineering fun and accessible for all. Michelle thinks that science should be open, transparent and a topic of conversation over the dinner table, not just the lab bench. Her vision is to create positive role models in the world that our children can aspire to be like and ensuring that everyone has access to learning about science and how things work, no-matter what your age or education level. Michelle appears by arrangement with Johnson &amp; Laird Management.</p><h3>Hīria Te Rangi  </h3><p>Speaker Hīria Te Rangi (Ngāti Porou, Tūwharetoa) leads a social enterprise initiative that empowers families to use Manawa: a smart home sensor kit and data platform that creates healthy homes. Hīria has almost 20 years in tech with numerous technical and business roles in open data, open source, digital technologies, pattern recognition, open banking and infrastructure. Using her technical expertise and the power of the open-source community, Hīria helped create Whare Hauora. The love of her grandmother and the trust of her people made her determined that Whare Hauora would be kaitiaki of the data collected by the sensors, that whānau would own their data, that consent be sought and whānau compensated if their data is used elsewhere.</p><h3>Jolie Hodson  </h3><p>Speaker Jolie Hodson is the chief executive of Spark New Zealand, a communications, entertainment and IT company. It’s her job to ensure New Zealanders and New Zealand businesses thrive and can adapt to the fast-changing world of digital services. Jolie has played a pivotal part in transforming Spark from a legacy telco to a growing digital service company.</p><h2>Our panellists</h2><h3>Eteroa Lafaele</h3><p>Eteroa Lafaele is a proud Samoan woman born and bred in Cannons Creek, Porirua. She is a STEM ambassador for Māori and Pasifika people in tech and made shock waves when she appeared on TVNZ and Seven sharp “showing them who was boss” when she danced across the stage at graduation. She is currently a Graduate Developer and Community Manager for Voluntarily, a platform that connects corporate volunteer time with classrooms to teach science, technology, engineering, entrepreneurship, arts and design with the help of engaging content supplied by New Zealand’s leading innovators in educational content.</p><h3>Mike O'Donnell</h3><p>Panellist Mike O'Donnell (known as MOD) is a professional director and advisor, specialising in the intersection of consumers, the internet and business. MOD is chair of online booking company Timely, a director of Kiwibank, Radio NZ, KiwiWealth, Tourism NZ, Raygun.com and Serato.com ; as well as an advisory board member at NZTE. Previously MOD was COO of Trade Me, CEO of vWork.com, COO at InvestorNet, CEO at G2G and Head of Distribution for AMP Capital.  He writes the Saturday digital consumer column for Stuff Media and hosts TVNZ television show Start Up.  </p><h3>Hīria Te Rangi </h3><p>(See above).</p><h3>Jolie Hodson</h3><p>(See above).</p><h2>Digital Inclusion Blueprint</h2><p>This year the New Zealand Government launched a strategy and action plan for digital inclusion called <em>The Digital Inclusion Blueprint, Te Mahere mo te Whakaurunga Matihiko </em>(the Blueprint). DIA is leading this work. </p><p>The vision of the Blueprint is: all of us have what we need to participate in, contribute to, and benefit from the digital world.</p><p>To read the Blueprint, go to: <a href="http://www.digital.govt.nz" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.digital.govt.nz</a></p>

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Digital Inclusion CONNECT Forum 2019

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