WellyForge - 27th August 2025

Forging a dynamic, vibrant, science & city innovation culture

Author

Ralph Highnam
August 27, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes

Hello Everyone:

Thank you the all the attendees that packed out WellyForge3 last week, including the MC, Peter Griffin, AutoHive the sponsor, and all the mayoral candidates. Read Hercules’s or Kevin’s reports. Some of the candidates had clearly read about the innovation eco-system and it’s importance, which was promising (see Diane and Alex’s posts). I enjoyed seeing the mutual respect amongst them, and some of the passion we saw towards the end. Innovation is Wellington’s way back, and we need to have some tricky conversations as a region and convert that passion to action:

The next two WellyForge events are getting lined up nicely, we’re going to have some fun, click these links and accept the calendar invite to save the dates. WF4 will feature Matt Hayter, founder of Projectworks who raised US$20m+ in June 2025 at a valuation north of $100m and won the HITECH award for Emerging Company:

The Ecosystem Map is developing, added more new start-ups this week including Doze Face, great name! We are going to circulate that Map to ANZ VC’s at some point soon, because we want their money flowing into y’all so it is important to get yourself on there.

Please do feedback on events, we managed to miss the AI Accelerate day at the Beehive!

Of the new events below, please particularly note:

  • Tonight (Weds), AngelHQ is running a recruitment masterclass with Rob Woodward

  • GovHack being run at CreativeHQ this coming weekend (see below)

Rule #1 - Celebrate the Wins

And recent media coverage of relevant local events:

Rule #2 - Meet the Locals

Wed-Fri, Aug 27th-30th, Rust Forge conference is at Shed 6 run by Tim McNamara

Wed Aug 27th, 5-7pm, “Songs for my Chatbot” at Critical Signals on Taranaki St

Thu Aug 28th, 5.30pm, “Tawhaki Special Use Airspace: The Journey” - Aero Society talk by Adam Houston at the CAA, Asteron Centre.

Thu Aug 28th, 5-7pm, NZ Agentics Meet Up hosted by Starfish Consulting on Lambton Quay

Fri Aug 29th, 4.30-6.30pm, Biotech & Beers at Fortune Favours

Fri-Sun, Aug 29-31st, GovHack - teams look at re-using Govt open data at CreativeHQ

Sat Aug 30th, 4pm, “Designing Horror Game Spaces”, run by Game Developers of Wellington and featuring Marina Cone at Studio30 on Abel Smith St.

Wed Sept 3rd, 5.30-7pm, “The Future of Insurance” by Jonathan Boston from Vic at Critical Signals on Taranaki

Thu Sept 4th, 5.30pm, “The Beauty of Uncertainty”, inaugural lecture by Prof Ivy Liu of the Maths & Stats department at Victoria

Tue Sept 9th, 5.30-7.30pm, Chiasma Wellington workshop on career catalysts with Vic students. Can you offer a summer internship? Email: [email protected].

Wed Sept 10th, 1pm, “From Sample to Intelligence”, ONLINE, how innovation in eDNA typing and data science is changing biodiversity monitoring. This is being run by EPI and includes talks by Wellington’s Shaun Wilkinson of Wilderlab (started in Miramar) and Petra Muellner of EPI.

Wed Sept 10th, 5pm, Upper Hutt Mayor Candidates talking to the business community

Wed Sept 10th, 5.30-7pm, “Space: What is Our Place in the Cosmos?” at the Southern Cross, this is a rebirth of Cafe Scientifique from Victoria. Great to see this back. Speakers are Dr Tim Corballis, Dr Yvetter Perrot.

Fri Sept 12th, 8.30-12, “Supercharge your Business Productivity with AI”, Rutherford House with Serge van Dam and Dascha Cooper

Fri Sept 12th, 4-5.30pm, “AI Safety and Alignment: Research Agendas and Organizations” by Hanna Betts at Rutherford House as part of the AI & Society Series at Victoria

Wed Sept 17th, 5pm, Hutt City Mayor Candidates talking to the business community, hopefully the Gracefield site comes up as a topic

Wed Sept 17th, 4.30-6.30pm Angel HQ AGM & Members meeting (member only, so join!)

Wed Sept 17th, 7pm - WellyForge4, Matt Hayter of Projectworks first confirmed speaker, note the slightly later starting time [WF4-Calendar Invite]

Thu Sept 18th, 6-9pm, , TEQ Talk run by the Visual Effects Society and Visual Effects Professional Guild, being hosted at Vic. “TEQ Talks are about sparking cross-industry conversations and celebrating Aotearoa’s innovation edge”. Speakers are all Wellington based - 37Degrees Studio, Doze Animation Lab, Vic, and PikPok.

Sat Sept 20th, 11am-12, “Art & AI: Brit Bunkley in Conversation with Megan Dunn” at the National Library, Bunkley is a artist and filmmaker.

Thu-Sat, Sept 25-27th, NZ Game Developers Conference 2025 at Takina, celebration of NZ’s gaming industry

Tue Oct 7th, 8.30-10.00am, Sustainable Business Network. Victoria and the MacDiarmid Institute are co-hosting a network meeting at the Marae at Victoria

Thu Oct 9th, 5-8.30pm, Startup World Cup, NZ Final hosted in Kapiti - apply via CreativeHQ by 5th September

Fri-Sun, Oct 10-12th, Startup Weekend Wellington at Rutherford House

Wed, Oct 29th, 6.15pm, WellyForge5 (hmm, close to Halloween), [WF5-calender invite]

Thu-Sat, Nov 6-8th, Kawaiicon 2025, at the Michael Fowler Center, hacker paradise.

Sat Nov 6th, iSANZ (Cybersecurity) Awards Gala Dinner, Shed 6, for the awards you need to enter by Aug 29th

Mon-Wed, Nov 10-13th, ICDE (International Council for Open & Distance Education) is being hosted at Takina with AI a major focus

Mon-Fri, Nov 17th-21st, Pacific Rim International Conference on AI (PRICAI) is being held at Takina with plenty of input from the AI people at Victoria

Wed-Fri, Nov 19th-21st, Synbio (synthetic biology) is at Te Papa, organized by Mark Calcott

Fri Nov 21st, 6pm. Wellington Regional Business Excellence Awards 2025 in Upper Hutt, apply by 12th Sept

Fri-Sun Nov 21-23rd, Kiwi PyCon (Python!) at Shed 6

Recurring Events:

The Atom at Victoria is open for any unfunded Founders (Students, Early Stage, Idea Stage) and is run by Entrepreneur in Residence, Adiraj Gupta - Email [email protected] , or join the Facebook community.

Reminders:

Rule #3 - Understand the Wider Environment

Rule #4 - Your Local Community Index

WellyForge