Kaikōrero me akoranga
Speakers and masterclass
siouxsie wiles
Photo © Arvid Eriksson.
Dr Siouxsie Wiles MNZM is an award-winning scientist who has made a career of manipulating microbes.
Dr Wiles is an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland and heads up the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab where she and her team make bacteria glow in the dark to understand how infectious microbes make us sick and to find new antibiotics.
Dr Wiles studied medical microbiology at the University of Edinburgh, followed by a PhD in microbiology at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Oxford and Edinburgh Napier University. She then spent almost a decade at Imperial College London, before relocating to New Zealand as a Health Research Council Hercus Fellow in 2009. Her commitment to the ethical use of animals in research has won her the inaugural UK National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) prize in 2005 and the New Zealand National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee (NAEAC) 3Rs prize in 2011.
Dr Wiles is also passionate about demystifying science, and has won numerous prizes for her efforts, including the Prime Minister’s Science Communication Prize and the and the Royal Society Te Apārangi’s Callaghan Medal in 2013. In 2017 she published her first book, ‘Antibiotic resistance: the end of modern medicine?’ and in 2019 was appointed a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to microbiology and science communication.
During COVID-19 Dr Wiles joined forces with Spinoff cartoonist Toby Morris to make the science of the pandemic clear and understandable. Releasing their work under a Creative Commons licence, their graphics have been translated into multiple languages and have been adapted by various governments and organisations as part of their official pandemic communications.
toby morris
Photo © Sonya Nagels.
Toby Morris is an Auckland based illustrator, comic artist and writer. He is the Creative Director of The Spinoff and the author of the non-fiction comic series The Side Eye.
Toby has published several books including Te Tiriti O Waitangi: a graphic novel explaining the history of the Treaty of Waitangi. He is a three time winner of 'Best Artwork' at the New Zealand media awards, and winner of 'Cartoonist of the Year' for 2019.
In 2020 Toby began a collaboration with Dr Siouxsie Wiles communicating scientific ideas around the COVID-19 pandemic. Several of their graphics, like 'Flatten the Curve' and 'Reduce the Spread' were shared around the world and adapted for use by international governments.
That work led to The World Health Organisation (WHO) hiring Toby and The Spinoff team to deliver content in support of the global effort to combat the pandemic, which they continue to do.
Jenny Suo
Jenny Suo began her television career in 2009 at TV3, directly after finishing a degree at the New Zealand Broadcasting School in Christchurch. Jenny — who moved to Auckland from China when she was four — went on to report for Nightline, 3 News and Newsworthy.
After four years at TV3, Jenny moved to the USA in 2014 for a year. Returning to TV3 for two years, she eventually produced and presented for Newshub Late.
In September 2017, Jenny moved over to 1 News as a reporter, and read news for Breakfast and late bulletin 1 News Tonight. Suo became 1 News Tonight's presenter in late January 2019.
Marc Daalder
Marc Daalder is a political reporter who covers Covid-19, climate change, energy, technology and the far-right from Newsroom’s office in Parliament’s Press Gallery.
Eugene Bingham
Eugene Bingham co-hosted the Coronavirus NZ podcast for Stuff with Adam Dudding, which looks at the COVID-19 pandemic from a Kiwi perspective.
Eugene has been a journalist for almost 30 years, working in print, TV and online, with a particular focus on investigative and public interest journalism.
Kate Newton
Kate Newton began her journalism career as a health reporter at the Dominion Post, before working for RNZ for seven years as a reporter, digital editor, and most recently as a long-form feature writer and data journalist.
A self-taught R user, Kate has just joined Stuff's projects team as one of the organisation's two full-time data journalists.
Jamie Morton
Jamie Morton has been the NZ Herald’s science reporter since 2012.
He covers research, medicine, technology, conservation, the environment and climate change.
Peter-Lucas Jones
Peter-Lucas Jones is an experienced broadcaster and digital content leader with tribal affiliations to Ngāti Kahu, Te Rārawa, Ngāi Takoto and Te Aupōuri.
Peter-Lucas is CEO of Te Hiku Media, the award-winning iwi broadcasting organisation and iwi innovation hub based in Kaitaia. He is Chair of Te Whakaruruhau o Ngā Reo Irirangi Māori o Aotearoa (the national iwi radio network) and Deputy Chair of Māori TV.
Peter-Lucas is also an advisory board member of Te Pūnaha Matatini, a Centre of Research Excellence hosted by the University of Auckland.
DK
As a Creative Producer, DK (yes, just a D and a K) is the TEDxWellington and TEDxWellingtonWomen licensee, founder of Creative Welly plus the Creative Leadership NZ conference.
DK is also a Speaker Coach, working with CEO’s and senior executives plus a random ex-All Black and Dame thrown into the mix. Previously, DK founded Mediasnackers and through it has over a decade of working in the social media space consulting / delivering training on five continents and to a cross-sector range of clients from UNICEF, Gates Foundation, BBC, Ubisoft, Hasbro plus spent time as a social media manager for a national education company in NZ.
DK also established Collider, a city-wide programme focussed on transforming Wellington into an internationally recognised Smart Capital (with 200 events in 14 months with over 5000 attendees). Follow DK on Twitter.
Rāwā Karetai
Rāwā, who connects to Waihōpai and Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou, has an extensive background in public relations, change management, project management, strategy and governance.
Having overcome significant adversity as a child—he was struck by a car and suffered severe injuries, needing extensive rehabilitation— Rāwā has a natural empathy and understanding of others. He has an ability to successfully bring together diverse people with different priorities and encourage them to work towards a common goal.
Rāwā currently works at the Ministry of Health as a Principal Advisor within the Disability Directorate. His work has mostly focused on the Cross-Government Disability System Transformation with a focus on strategic engagement and elevating disabled persons’ voices.
As part of New Zealand’s COVID-19 Response, Rāwā is also the Communications Director for both the All of Government team and the Disability Directorate. From early April 2020, Rāwā and his team worked in partnership with disabled people’s organisations and district health boards to ensure that critical information about COVID-19 was able to reach disabled communities.
Rāwā is also on the world board of ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) as the International Bisexual Steering Committee Chairperson. ILGA is an international LGBTI organisation which lobbies for human rights in every country of the world, at the United Nations and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
Rāwā is additionally the chair of Qtopia, Christchurch Heroes and is also involved with Rainbow Canterbury, Kahukura Pounamu, Hui Takatāpui.
Hannah Slade
Hannah has an MA in English, and has worked in Communications, Marketing, Events and Programme Management in diverse settings- including local government, language schools and libraries.
Hannah is passionate about the planet, people, and the belief that together we can make our corner of the world a better place. She considers herself lifelong learner, and on her bedside table you’ll find books about climate change, leadership, neuroscience, psychology, and social change – with a bit of science fiction thrown in for luck.
Hannah joined Be. Lab as the Be. Leadership Programme Manager in 2015, and has provided support to the Communications, Events and Marketing team since 2016.
She lives in Piha on the wild West Coast of Auckland with her partner, two human children and one furbaby - who everyday teach her about life, and the person she wants to be.
Arash Tayebi
Arash Tayebi is an entrepreneur and the CEO of Kara Technologies, a tech start-up based in Auckland.
Arash has a PhD in engineering from University of Auckland. He founded Kara Technologies in 2017, with the hope to improve accessibility to sign language for D/deaf people.
Arash and his team won best social enterprise category in the Auckland University Velocity program in 2017 and since then have received seed funding, expanded their team and created a minimum viable product. This product is an avatar (called Niki) who can sign and is backed by an AI engine.
So far they have created a small library of children’s books in New Zealand Sign Language (signed by Niki) and collaborated with international companies in entertainment.
Linda Jane Keegan
Linda Jane is an environmental educator, writer and parent, based in Tāmaki Makaurau.
She teaches kids in the bush, has written a children's book and writes academically on ecology.
Linda Jane loves chocolate biscuits and jumping into cold bodies of water.
Carolle Varughese
Carolle started her science communication journey as an Astro-tourism guide after graduating with a B.Sc in Astronomy. She has spent the last five years in various science communication roles, the most recent one being a Physics Teacher.
Carolle’s current roles include being a full-time hype-woman for STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) with Massey University, the education group leader for the Royal Astronomical Society, and a councillor for the Auckland Astronomical Society.
She is working towards her Master in Public Policy to continue her mission to empower rangatahi, young women, and other underrepresented groups of people into STEM pipelines.
Shanandore Brown
Shanandore Brown is a promoter of STEAMM (science, technology, engineering, maths and mātauranga Māori) education in Aotearoa.
She is a specialist teacher of technology at Papakura Intermediate School. In 2019 she and her students created NZ’s first Māori Astronomically Aligned School Playground.
In 2020 she received a Teacher’s Study Award and is working toward completing a Master of Technological Futures, where she is exploring how emerging disruptive technologies can be used to enable effective communication of live environmental data with a modern, cultural twist. This includes the concept of projecting a 3D Digital Avatar as a ‘kaitiaki’ of a river system whose appearance is determined by live environmental data sourced from an IoT (Internet of Things), giving nature a voice and body. This fundamentally creates a picture that paints a thousand words - a picture that can speak and communicate scientific data.
Linda Major
Linda Major is Director of Social Marketing at Clemenger BBDO in Wellington.
Linda leads a passionate team that loves delivering work that changes lives for the better. Most recently she lead the Unite Against COVID-19 campaign, but is probably best known for her world-class road safety work for NZTA and overseeing the agency’s behaviour change discipline.
Masterclass
Purposeful storytelling: effective ways to deliver engagingly online
Run by: DK, speaker coach and TEDx Wellington licencee/producer
Rāmere Fri 27 Nov 12:30-1:30pm (see programme)
Public speaking is a skill set which needs to be nurtured and developed. Delivering through online mediums also means a whole host of other considerations. When these are effectively combined with a range of storytelling techniques it provides a powerful strategy which is guaranteed to have a positive impact on achieving communication which resonates.
This masterclass will explore:
Why nerves are your best friend
Where TED/TEDx gets it right / wrong
What's the set up to amplify personal qualities
Which body language techniques resonate online
How to engage the audience from passive listeners to active participants.