Hey everybody,

Thank you for the amazing showing at WellyForge #10! This was a collaboration with Chiasma, which is doing a phenomenal job of showing their membership all the great options that they might have for careers, not only inside the university sector. It felt great to connect another community! I know many people who made meaningful connections on the night, that’s what it’s all about ✨

Now, where do these meaningful connections go? Last night Creative HQ launched a couple of reports, with the Mayor and two Councillors in attendance: A Year in Wellington’s Tech Sector and a fantastic data ream on funding and people in our tech sector (thank you to everyone who got in touch with Ruth!). All these are great signs that our meaningful connections are going to great places. Keep on forgin’ Welly!

"This is not a time for being cautious. This is a time for being clear and brave." That was the message from Glen Willoughby’s keynote at the Innovation Election Debate hosted by Creative HQ. He also reminded a room full of representatives that while capital-intensive moonshots are great, huge wins often come from small, practical changes driven by frontline staff, citing a valuable hospital fix that cost just $8,000.

Growth NZ is pitching the Catalyst Visa to boost our talent pipeline by allowing up to 300 exceptionally accomplished migrants (think senior operators, technical founders, and researchers) to move to Aotearoa annually without a job offer. A 12-month runway to start businesses or advise local companies would deliver high-level expertise to our R&D and tech sectors and drive economic growth. Looking forward to poring over their Room for Brilliance policy 📖

All about scale, two ways. On the capability side, multi-agent frameworks like ScientistTwo (from Google and U.Waterloo) direct AI to expand our knowledge, and fuel hardware demands like Australia's giant data centre boom. On the security side, the new geenration of frontier models brough a lot of reported instances of misaligment, including an OpenAI agent infiltrating an Australian government website, just as big hitters keep asking for effective guardrails.

Even SNL pounced on the need for guardrails, but also managed to make an amazing point through comedy: “Tell us about all the good stuff”. So, if you’re on the “good stuff” side of AI, tell your friends. I’ll start 😁

Check out “Made in Wellington”, a series celebrating local resilience and innovation curated by Deloitte New Zealand. So far there are features on Hnry's stadium-sized growth, Hello Cashflow's empowering decision-making tools, and The Village Goldsmith's lasting creative legacy ✨

OpenStar’s magnetic dipole design is the gift that keeps on giving, “capable of producing medical radioisotopes used to detect and treat cancer”.

This week there is another instalment of Hack Aotearoa at Telos. If you are building in Wellington, you need to go. There are people to meet, a space to make stuff, and even workshops if you like some structure and value-adds.

Another two events brought innovator communities together:

And a shout-out to our WF$10 host, Gracefield Innovation Quarter: They have office, lab and workshop space available for anyone operating in science, innovation and technology. Just contact Jo McFarlane for details 🥼🏢

Highlighted entries are new from last week.

Thu, Oct 1st, 5–7pm, The Waiting Room Sessions, HealthTech meetup.

Thu, Oct 1st, 5–7:30pm, After the Agent Writes the Code, Wellington AI Meetup at Hnry (🏢 not 🏟)—waitlist only.

Thu, Oct 1st, 6pm, Innovative Young Minds quiz and fundraiser at Boulcott Farm Golf Club.

Fri, Oct 2nd, 9am–12pm, next iteration of Supercharge your Business Productivity with AI, right next to the rail station 🚉

Fri, Oct 2nd, HackAotearoa #2: Co-working for startup builders 🛠

2–4 Oct, Climate Hack-tion is a “hackathon for students to reimagine climate solutions”. Go imagine! And maybe win a prize 🥇

Thu, Oct 8th, 4–7pm, VUW Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence research showcase at Rutherford House.

Fri, Oct 9th, Small nation, big opportunity: NZ's path into global fusion ⚛

Mon, Oct 12th, 3–5:30pm, Ada Lovelace Day 2026: Demystifying AI at Deloitte.

Tue, Oct 13th, 10:30–11:30am, Artificial Intelligence in Everyday Life is an intro talk aimed at seniors, at the fancy new library. Tell your folks 🙂

Tue, Oct 13th, 5:30–6:45pm, Doodle Cafe: Playtime for serious professionals. Because creativity and openness to experience are strong drivers of innovation.

Thu, Oct 22nd, 11am–8pm, Show Me the Money, “A full day of practical capital, growth and connections for founders”.

Wed, Oct 28th, 12:30am–1:30pm, The future of clinical workstations: designing secure, seamless and clinician-first access to healthcare technology, online.

30–31 Oct, Kawaiicon 4 at the Michael Fowler Centre no less.

Thu, Nov 12th, 5–6:30 pm, EdTech Community Connect at Taiawa.

9–12 February 2027, eResearch NZ comes to Wellington.

15-17 March 2027, Life Sciences Summit at Tākina.

17-18 March 2027, FinTech Hui Taumata at Tākina.

Fri, May 7th 2027, NZ Tech Rally on a Super Early Bird launch.

The Atom at Victoria is open for any unfunded Founders (Students, Early Stage, Idea Stage) and is run by Tania Jones, with entrepreneurs in Residence, Parisa Shademan, Jack Shennan, and Alistair St Pierre and investors in residence Dave Moskovitz, Aaron Scott & Ralph Highnam. Email or join the Facebook community.