<p>Recognised since 1909, International Women's Day is a day of celebrating just how much women contribute to society, economy and communities. But it's also a rallying cry to recognise the work that is left to be done to achieve true gender equality. We take a look at how brands reacted to the annual celebration of womanhood.</p>
<p>In response to school strikes by students planned across the country, Secondary Principals Association president and Pakuranga College principal Michael Williams <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/111013724/students-who-strike-for-climate-change-will-be-marked-as-truants-principals-say">has said</a> the students' impact on climate change would be "probably zero" and the students are "wasting good learning time" and will be marked as truant if they don't have their parents' permission to take the day off to strike. Pakuranga College student and 14-year-old Holly Rowsell shares the letter she sent him regarding his reaction to the climate change school strikes, and outlines why being marked as truant is wrong as her and other students aren't doing it to wag class, they're doing it to give power to the youth's voice on an issue that impacts most on them. </p>
<p>With International Women's Day acting as the annual reminder of both how much has been achieved for women's rights and how far there is to go, workplaces are being called on to take a hard look at unconscious gender bias in a new campaign for Champions for Change. </p>
<p>In an era where large-scale action is needed to address the looming environmental, social and economic challenges, business represents the single most potent, organised force for change on earth. This is the belief of Tickled Pink's Jerry Beale, who is a former social and cultural strategist at agency True and spearheads a business that helps to boost New Zealand companies' bottom line performance and staff engagement by helping them increase employee happiness, find their purpose and strengthen their workplace culture. Here, he has a chat about why we will see more brands like Patagonia that donate US$10 million to fight climate change, why business has become a forceful movement for change and how New Zealand businesses are doing when it comes to embracing audacious change.</p>
<p>Design Work is a new podcast hosted by New Zealand designer Kate Darby that interviews trailblazing creatives from all over the globe about how they design and how they embrace new modes of working. In the third episode, Darby speaks to Deroy Peraza, founding partner and creative director at Hyperakt, a social impact studio based in Brooklyn. Hyperakt has worked with everyone from Spotify to Amnesty International all through the lens of creating meaningful design for the common good. Deroy fills us in on what it means to be a social impact agency, the influence of baseball cards on his design career and what makes a good side project.</p>
<p>New Zealand’s first blockchain accelerator programme, Centrality, acts as a launchpad for global opportunities for New Zealand businesses. Blockchain is often misunderstood to be synonymous with Bitcoin. As a result, the recent hacking of New Zealand cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia, means general opinions about the blockchain industry have taken a blow – but cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are merely one application of blockchain.</p>
<p>Combining data, technology and content into measurable business outcomes, independent digital marketing agency krunch.co holds a unique spot in the market. Managing director, Darren Kirkland, says the team of 35 people help its clients through a journey of transformation so they can thrive in today's challenging and increasingly complex marketplace.</p>
<p>New Zealand’s tech scene has long leaned heavily on angel funding to get companies off the ground, but what happens in the glaring gap between angel investment and venture capital? New Zealand law firm Simmonds Stewart, which has about 300 active tech companies on its books, has crunched the numbers on VC funding in New Zealand versus in its Southeast Asia market in 2018, and its partner Andrew Simmonds shares a few insights on the issue – and how we could think about tackling it. </p>
<p>Cassie Roma is the head of content marketing at The Warehouse Group. Here's how she gets through the day, how she organises her time and how she handles the madness of business.</p>
<p>In 2019, more so than ever before, consumers expect companies to take a stand when it comes to social issues. After all, this is the era of the activist businesses that make it their company's mission to create social change – from Nike's <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2018/09/13/colin-kaepernicks-nike-ad-campaign-gets-more-yeahs-than-nays-from-young-people/?utm_term=.af9ab853aab7">controversia</a>l Colin Kaepernick campaign, to Patagonia <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-28/patagonia-donates-10-million-trump-tax-savings-to-green-groups">donating</a> the US$10 million it saved from the Trump administration's tax cuts to environmental organisations. Closer to home, New Zealand CEOs are increasingly vocal about issues like mental health, poverty and climate change. We reached out to the bosses of Beca, Pead PR, DB Breweries, Kiwibank, Xero and Tech Futures Lab and asked what they'd be focusing on for this year, and why it has influenced their business' mission. </p>
<p></p> <p>The mighty East Cape Region is an untouched wonder in the North Island. While it represents one of the first regions discovered by Captain Cook, it’s one of the least influenced by the throes of colonisation. Still today, the vast coastline is defined by the heart of its local iwi (Ng?ti Porou) and is largely hinged on agriculture, with few alternative avenues of business. The area has a rich heritage: referenced in the famous M?ori myth M?ui and the sun, and more recently, it was the setting for acclaimed New Zealand films Boy and Whale Rider. Now, a new tourism organisation - Maunga Hikurangi - plans to tell its story in a bid to attract tourists, boost commerce, and invite distant Ng?ti Porou back into the community. We chat with creative director Timothy Livingston to discuss the possible tension between tourism growth and cultural preservation on the East Cape.</p>
<p>The gig economy is still an unknown concept to many New Zealand companies, and yet the number of people engaging in it continues to rise. Master's candidate at Tech Futures Lab and people and culture director at Simpson Grierson Paula Williams explores what the rise of flexibility in working and the gig economy means for businesses, and how they can be curious, make way for the skills and motivations of the gig worker and have a plan. </p>
<p>AUT design lecturer and chapter founder of Creative Mornings AKL Jade Tang-Taylor shares her views on the year that was, and the years that could be.</p>
<p>Accenture Interactive lead in New Zealand Ben Morgan shares his views on the year that was, and the years that could be.</p>
<p>While diversity can seemingly pose a big challenge to businesses, it is also a wonderful catalyst for growth, creativity, innovation and allows for genuine competitive advantage, says Sarah Pearce. Here's how to make the most of it in your workplace.</p>
<p></p> <p>Earlier this month, the World Indigenous Business Forum took place in Rotorua. Aroha Armstrong, group manager for M?ori economy at Callaghan Innovation, discusses the importance of empowering rangatahi – and how M?ori cultural values match the growing social enterprise/business for good movement.</p>
<p>New Zealand is facing a quiet revolution. Its tech sector is transforming the economy and society in remarkable ways as the globalisation of capital, communication and commerce invert the pyramid of advantage in our favour. So, how can we take our tech sector to even greater heights? Alongside the release of the 2018 TIN Report, here's TIN managing director Greg Shanahan with his state of the sector address.</p>
<p>The Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Jacinda Ardern, makes a case for why the creative sectors should be for the many in New Zealand, and not just for the privileged few. </p>
<p>The world’s biggest companies are on a quest to make their artificial intelligence assistants empathise with the human condition, from Google’s AI assistant, to Apple’s Siri, to Microsoft’s Cortana. But the woman at forefront of Google’s Empathy Lab, Nike and Apple design alumni Danielle Krettek, doesn’t want to give AI a literal human face. She says the technology industry is chasing a false grail if it thinks creating ‘humanoids’ is the best way forward for humanity. Instead, her work is focused on researching the quirks that make us human and designing intuitive technology that complements us, rather than imitating us. On a trip to Vivid Sydney, Elly Strang had a chat to Krettek about bringing emotions to the fore of design and tech, whether machines will ever feel empathy, and more.</p>
<p>Following on from a protest on gender equality at the 2018 Best Awards, the organisers have created <a href="https://designersspeakup.nz/2018/10/09/directory-of-women-designers/">a directory</a> that aims to showcase a diverse range of women designers from Aotearoa living anywhere in the world, of all social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. As well as this, a series of workshops on diversity in design being hosted by DINZ and Design Assembly are about to kick off around the country. We talk with the Designers Speak (Up) founders about the movement to make New Zealand’s design community more inclusive. </p>
<p>The world of work is changing, and the thought of a robot-filled future can be intimidating at best, and downright panic-inducing at worst. Thankfully, a bunch of New Zealand business leaders have shared their tips for surviving and thriving in our fast-paced world. In this extract from<em> <a href="https://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/dont-worry-about-the-robots/27804254">Don't Worry About the Robots</a></em> by Dr Jo Cribb and David Glover, Dr Michelle Dickinson shares how she stays ahead of the game through networking.</p>
<p>Bron Thomson is the founder and CEO of Springload, a Wellington-based digital agency. She discusses the gender equality protest that happened at the 2018 Best Awards on Saturday night, and what can be done to encourage more equality in the design industry. </p>
<p>From a calming, machine-learning led interactive experience at Starship Children’s Hospital, to the story of a goat that acts as anti-bullying initiative and teaches children the effect their actions can have, the best in New Zealand design was crowned at the 2018 Best Awards on the weekend – and a discussion about gender equality in design has been brought to the industry's attention. Here are the supreme winners, and a statement from the Designers Institute of New Zealand (DINZ) CEO Cathy Veninga on the protests that took place. </p>
<p>Following a long and convoluted process, Derek Handley has today announced in <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/role-new-zealand-cto-derek-handley">a LinkedIn post</a> the government will no longer be hiring him to be New Zealand's next chief technology officer. We reached out to a few industry players and asked what their reaction was to the strange twist in this saga, as well as what they think should happen next.</p>
<p></p> <p><a href="https://www.wsp-futurecities.com/auckland/">In an international benchmark of 24 global cities</a> carried out by global infrastructure consultancy firm WSP, Auckland came an impressive #13 – ahead of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane Calgary, and even megacity Beijing. David Kidd, WSP Opus (NZ) general manager client solutions, takes a look at what makes Auckland stand out from the crowd – and where there’s room for improvement. </p> <p></p>
<p>There has been a lot of speculation and controversy surrounding the appointment process for New Zealand's first chief technology officer, which has been a relatively hush hush process so far. Startup Weekend NZ, Lightning Lab and ZeroPoint Ventures co-founder Dan Khan put himself forward for the role, but did not make it through. Here, he reflects on why he applied to take on the role, what the process was like and what he thinks the country needs from its CTO.</p> <p></p> <div></div>
<p>Is it still possible to survive as a retailer in regional New Zealand? Catherine Murray talks to a selection of retailers outside our main centres and finds the answer is 'hell yeah!'. </p>
<p></p> <p>Greer O’Donnell, Kerry Jackson and Kristen Lunman are all Women of Influence Awards finalists. And they all say diversity is a key driver for disruption – and is more important now than ever as the pace of disruption increases exponentially.</p>
<p>Keep your work boots and car keys at home, because Nearmap, an Australian company that has just launched in this market, says its new tech will let users access high-res aerial imagery from the office on-demand.</p>
<p>A new distributed public ledger system faster and more secure than blockchain? That would be Hedera Hashgraph, an idea compelling enough to attract both Stolen Rum alumni and US$100m in future token sales.</p>