Speakers
Meet some of the speakers we have locked in for 2026 - more to be announced soon!
Bio
Ezel Kokcu is a New Zealand technology entrepreneur and passionate advocate for innovation and women in STEM.
At just 18 years old, Ezel left her Computer Science degree at Victoria University of Wellington to found STQRY, a mobile app platform for museums and cultural institutions. Within three years, STQRY became a leading global technology provider to museums, raising $7 million in funding, growing to a team of 60 staff, and supporting more than 500 customers worldwide, with offices across New Zealand, the United States, France, and Singapore.
Following the success of STQRY, Ezel founded Non-Stop Tix in 2016 — a ticketing platform designed to address growing frustration around high booking fees and poor customer experiences in the ticketing industry. The platform achieved rapid success and was sold to a local promoter within its first year.
Ezel is currently the founder of Passphere, launched in 2019, specialising in bespoke ticketing management and analytics solutions. Developed over a two-year research and development period, Passphere now supports a growing local and international customer base, with expansion focused across Sydney, Auckland, the United States, Amsterdam, and Singapore.
Alongside her entrepreneurial work, Ezel is a sought-after speaker who has presented at conferences, expos, and festivals throughout New Zealand, Australia, and the United States, sharing her experiences in technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
Following the success of STQRY, Ezel founded Non-Stop Tix, a ticketing platform focused on improving customer experience within the ticketing industry, before launching her current venture, Passphere, in 2019. Passphere specialises in bespoke ticketing management and analytics solutions, supporting a growing customer base across New Zealand and internationally.
Ezel is also a sought-after speaker, regularly presenting at conferences and events throughout New Zealand, Australia, and the United States on technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and innovation.
Bio
Emma Gilmour's path from Dunedin equestrian hopeful to McLaren Racing’s first female factory driver is a story defined by determination, adaptability, and relentless resilience. Originally focused on competitive equestrian sport, she stepped away from riding in 2000 and turned her attention to motorsport, a passion first sparked by time spent in her father’s mechanic workshop and early rides on the back of his motorbike.
Her competitive instincts transferred quickly. In her debut rally event, with her father co-driving, she won her class and finished sixth overall in a field of 100. The result cemented her commitment to the sport and began a career marked by consistent, ground-breaking achievements. In 2006, Emma won a scholarship to compete in Europe, launching her international career. She went on to become the first woman to achieve a top three finish in the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, reach the X Games Global Rallycross semi-finals in America, and win the FIA Women in Motorsport Cross Country Selection in Qatar.
In 2022, Emma reached a historic milestone when McLaren Racing named her their first-ever female factory driver, representing the team in its inaugural Extreme E season. The announcement, made during the COP26 United Nations Climate Conference, highlighted both her driving credentials and her alignment with the sport’s shift towards sustainability.
Away from the rally stages, Emma is a respected business owner and leader. She has operated Gilmour Motors Suzuki in Dunedin for more than a decade and has since expanded the dealership with the JAC brand. Her business success has been earned the hard way, navigating a challenging ownership separation, carrying the financial burden that came with it, and steering the dealership through its rebuild while maintaining her motorsport career. She has also overcome the physical and psychological impact of serious motorsport accidents, demonstrating the same resilience in recovery that she shows in competition.
Today, Emma balances her racing commitments with business leadership and an emerging speaking career. She shares insights on resilience, high-performance decision-making, preparation under pressure, and leading through uncertainty, drawing on experiences forged across global motorsport and business ownership.
Emma stands as a role model for women in motorsport and a powerful example of perseverance for any audience. Her story underscores that achievement is rarely linear; it is built on grit, adaptability, and unwavering self-belief.
Bio
Kaiwhakahaere Matua | Managing Director | Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Pakahi, Ngatia Rehia
Steven Renata, born in the small township of Kawakawa in the far northern region of Aotearoa | New Zealand and raised in Milton in the deep south, takes pride in his diverse heritage of Māori and Pākehā (Scottish and Irish). Among the first Māori graduates of the University of Otago, Steven earned his master’s degree in marketing in 1994. His career began in Māori tourism at AUT, eventually leading him to co-found the global fitness company Les Mills International.
Currently, Steven serves as Kaiwhakahaere Matua | Managing Director and co-owner of KIWA Digital, a world-renowned Māori-led creative cultural agency. KIWA Digital leverages technology to authentically amplify global voices, utilizing its pioneering software, VoiceQ, for dubbing acclaimed hits such as Netflix’s Squid Game, Amazon Prime’s My Fault / ‘Culpa mia’, Disney’s Moana, The Lion King, Frozen and Encanto in reo Māori; HULU’s Prey in Comanche, Marvel's The Avengers in Lakota, A-Grade games such as The Witcher: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077, PlayStation 5 titles such as Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, Lego Star Wars and Horizon Forbidden West. Its sister software, QutPro, has significantly enhanced cultural capability across New Zealand’s public and private sectors.
Steven is dedicated to steering KIWA Digital’s strategic direction and success. He is advocate of tribal leadership values, focusing on language and relationships to drive sustainable performance. This approach ensures the delivery of high-quality content amidst an industry experiencing significant digital disruption and technology advancements. Under his leadership, KIWA has shifted from traditional physical distribution to specializing in creative cultural services and post-production.
Recognized for his influence, Steven was voted one of the top 10 most influential people in the global localization sector by the Entertainment Globalization Association in 2021. In 2022, KIWA received the prestigious He Kai Kei Aku Ringa Award for Māori Excellence in Export, and Steven was honoured with the Minister of Defence Award of Excellence Special Award Kotahitanga (Unity). In 2023, he was awarded the Matahiko Totara Award for his decade-long service to New Zealand’s public sector.
Steven currently resides in Auckland, New Zealand, with his whānau where he enjoys cycling, music, food, viticulture, and travel.
Bio
Paul is an experienced technology executive and industry commentator, with an extensive background in the telecommunications sector.
He has almost three decades of executive experience in the telecommunications and technology sectors. Between 2011 and 2014, he was CEO of users group TUANZ (previously the Telecommunications Users Association of NZ, now the Technology Users Association of NZ). During that time, he was also a Board Member of TCF and served as a Council Member of TDR, New Zealand’s independent Telecommunications Dispute Resolution service.
Paul has also worked at One New Zealand (formerly Vodafone) as well as for a number of news media organisations, including as editor of Computerworld. His most recent role has been leading the corporate communications team at Datacom.
Bio
Amber McEwen is a leader with over 20 years' experience in B2B service industries. She has a proven track record in generating revenues and creating brand differentiation through the development, implementation and management of services over networks ranging from telecoms to energy.Driving collaboration at many levels (globally, cross-sector and with customers) is a strength of Amber's and is key to the success she has delivered. Throughout her career this has been evidenced at a global level while at Vodafone, and at a cross-sector level while at ESR. She says it is building these relationships and delivering outcomes that make a material difference that she finds most personally and professionally rewarding.
Bio
Professor Stephen Marshall (PFHEA) is Director at the Victoria University of Wellington Centre for Academic Development. Stephen leads Victoria University learning and teaching initiatives and researches in the areas of organisational change in higher education, quality, benchmarking, plagiarism and academic integrity, extended reality, artificial intelligence, and the development of policy and strategy supporting and encouraging the effective use of technology for learning and teaching. He is co-editor and special issues editor for the top ranked journal Higher Education Research and Development and he is a faculty member of the biennial ACODE Learning Technologies Leadership Institute. He is co-creator of the internationally recognised and applied e-learning maturity model (eMM, e-learning.geek.nz/emm/) and author of the 2018 Springer book: Shaping the University of the Future: Using Technology to Catalyse Change in University Learning and Teaching. Singapore: Springer Singapore. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-7620-6.
Bio
Bio
To come...