Canterbury Tech Summit 2018
Wow what another amazing tech summit, the 16th so far and I think my 8th after coming home from working in the UK.
Canterbury has NZ’s second largest tech sector. It employs 15000 people & contributes $2.4B to New Zealand’s economy so it’s a great thing to celebrate with this epic annual event which has become an annual highlight of the Christchurch tech community.
New faces & old friends, colleagues, old work mates and industry contacts from all around NZ come together to get inspired, learn, network, share ideas and do business.
Do you have Imposter Syndrome as a Leader?
The key note speaker Harold Hillman told an extremely brave & heartfelt story about being yourself, about not being afraid to be who you are which caught the attention of everyone in that room, what a way to start!
Some key leadership messages to take away from there were:
Learning the importance of bringing your voice & standing out otherwise your conscience will wake you up (literally at night)
Change happens every 18 months or so for a company, with associated uncertainty.
EQ is important - inspire and invigorate your team to be themselves.
Another highlight was hearing about a real AI product from Victor Yuen (Product Manager & UC Alumni) from Faceme who are creating digital humans to enable better customer service.
Digital Humans are in beta for the market!
Faceme have helped UBS in Switzerland to replicate their Chief Investment Officer who can be present in a meeting with an investment advisor & the customer. The advisor can ask the digital human complex investment questions on the fly & can cut down on heavy processes by instantly ordering & processing a new credit card for example which saves the advisor from doing tedious paperwork.
Please check out a video on AI company Faceme here:
‘The future of digital humans will work alongside humans’
I did have to think though until the human doesn’t turn up for work because they’re sick right…what happens then!?!?
Thanks to the Canterbury Tech Summit committee, all the fantastic speakers & awesome people for giving their time to be involved in what's become an epic annual event for the Christchurch tech sector!
I'm Paul, Founder & Principal Consultant of Sunstone, an IT Recruitment & HR company specialising in recruiting IT roles within software, web, mobile, blockchain, big data, infrastructure, security & networks in Christchurch & South Island of New Zealand.