Hello Everyone:
WellyForge7 on March 18th is filling up, tickets & full speaker list are now live, and includes not only PartsTrader’s amazing story and insights into alien oceans but also 3 PhD’s telling us (in understandable terms!) about lung cancer biology (Sam Siljee), lantern fish (Alisha Gill), and optical fibre sensing (Dr Fernandez).
We had a great response to last weeks call for interest in helping WellyForge grow and develop. To help us guide that, Hercules has now set up a “next phase of WellyForge survey form” which we would love you all to fill out.
WellyForge is fortunate to have been offered some free tickets to biotech start-ups that cannot afford the Life Sciences Conference 9-11th March at Takina - email [email protected] to request one.
CreativeHQ is launching a Scale Up Wellington program, they want the top 10 fastest growing companies to enter a 6 month founder-focussed program, deadline 27th March.
New award announcements have come out (you deserve to win these):
KiwiNet Research Commercialization Awards for 2026 are open to April 17th. These are principally for academics who are commercializing stuff.
Royal Society is also looking for nominations for the 2026 Research Honours, closing date is 31st March 2026.
Finally, note that MORGO is looking for a community manager, “a person who loves science & technology”, ideally in Wellington.
Rule #1 - Celebrate the Wins
Chitogel open new HQ in “Blue Mountains Campus” Upper Hutt. Chitogel do salve for post nasal operations (see the Mayor of Upper Hutt’s post also).
Do AI have Homework Property out in beta, they want feedback on their tool to test the market. One of the companies that operates out of 40 Taranaki St.
Wellumio have completed their first in-human clinical trial of their early stroke detection system at the Royal Melbourne. Look forward to the results.
WCC’s Three Year Plan draft to be voted on next week. Includes #59, expert advisory groups for tech, science, education & innovation, and a plan to give more direction to WellingtonNZ around economic development including strengthening links with the university innovation hubs (Atom/Taiawa), “to strengthen Wellington’s credibility as a study and innovation business start-up destination of choice”.
And other recent media coverage of local interest:
Village Goldsmith / Floeting video of crafting their new ring “Eximius” - one of our most entertaining talks last year, still advancing!
John Mitchell of Arlo Training podcast with Serge van Dam - “most SaaS founders don’t start with a sewing machine in their parents’ basement”, more great startup theatre.
OpenStar paper “Deuterium-Tritium Levitated Dipole Fusion Power Plants”, this explains (apparently) how with their technology you can use different fuels and build better fusion plants. Where’s the I f****g love science podcast, Troy Hammond?
Speak becomes Delightable, virtual shopping assistant that turns customer conversations into intelligence for beauty brand marketers. New web page
Chen Chen’s AI posts. One of my highlights of 2025 was meeting Chen Chen at a Wellington Start-Up Collective and hearing about his problems - “how do I go from hundreds of thousands of users to millions”, and in 2026 I’ve been enjoying his AI posts, as someone who’s actually doing it.
Rule #2 - Understand Your Environment
Growth NZ launches, 5% annual economic growth by 2035, independent, non-partisan group, website is growthnz.org.nz, also RNZ article.
NZ Cyber Security Strategy 2026-2030 has been released.
NZ Institute for Advanced Technology announces Andrew Bridgman as Establishment CEO, looks a bureaucratic selection to get things moving with a more permanent CEO coming after.
MBIE Webinar on Science, Innovation & Technology reforms, March 12th, 1.30pm.
Rule #3 - Nothing Falls Thru The Gaps
TEDxVUW returns in May, express interest now!
Wellington Gold Awards entries are now open, deadline is March 31st.
Rule #4 - Get Inspired, Meet the Locals
Highlighted entries are new from last week.
NEXT 10 DAYS:
Wed Mar 4th, 5-7pm, Hutt Tech & Innovation Forum, features COUNT, The Better SMB and “I’m In and Your Sales Engine”, at the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Wed Mar 4th, 6-7.30pm, The 1855 Wairarapa Earthquake, what have we learnt? Public talk from experts from Massey & Vic, at The Pit at Massey.
Wed Mar 4th, 7.30pm, Exploring ocean worlds: the search for life and interesting chemistry in our cosmic backyard - Morgan Cable.
Thu Mar 5th, 5.30pm, “Thinking with your head and your heart: emotions as core functions of mind”, inaugural lecture by Prof Gina Grimshaw, who is using lots of virtual reality to study emotions.
Fri Mar 6th, 4-5.30pm, Can NZ Develop a “Sovereign Large Language Model"?, Vic AI Society Seminar Series, run by Ali Knott.
Sat Mar 7th, 10-3pm, Victoria Uni Coastal Ecology Lab open day in Island Bay.
Mon-Wed, Mar 9-11th, Life Sciences NZ at Takina
Tue Mar 10th, 5pm, “Vibe Coding - Introducing vulnerabilities at pace”, Simon Howard from Bastion talking at “Sec for Devs” at InternetNZ, 18 Willis St.
Wed Mar 11th, 7.30am, Women in HealthTech NZ Breakfast Panel at CHQ.
Wed Mar 11th, 4.30-7.30pm, Wahine shaping tech communities at CHQ with NZ Tech Rally
Wed-Thu, Mar 11-12th, FinTechNZ Hui Tamata at Takina
Fri Mar 13th, 4-5.30pm, “Protecting people in the age of deepfakes", Laura McClure MP, talking at Victoria’s AI seminar series in Rutherford House.
KNOWN EVENTS NEXT 4 WEEKS
Tue-Wed, Mar 17-18th, National Cyber Security Summit at Takina
Tue Mar 17th, 5-7pm, The Waiting Room - Cyber Risk in Healthcare, hosted at Talent Army with the digital health community.
Tue Mar 17th, 5-7pm, Governing for Growth, with Marcel van den Assum, Serge van Dam, Suse Reynolds hosted at KPMG.
Wed Mar 18th, Digitising Government Conference at Takina
Wed Mar 18th, 7pm, WellyForge7 at Undercurrent, full details
Thu Mar 19th, 5-8pm, Tech for Good with the French Embassy - Liquium, Kelvius, Farm Medix and along with Pierre Malou, CEO of Vic Univentures.
Thu Mar 19th-22nd, Wellington Animation & Film Festival at the Roxy in Miramar
Fri Mar 20th, 3pm, Rare Beer Challenge at The Malthouse, this is a fun event, and about raising awareness and funds for people living with rare disorders.
Sat Mar 21st, Code Camp Wellington hosted at Xero and Trade Me.
Mon Mar 23rd, 6.30pm, Antarctic Film Festival with Alexander Hillary at Victoria (repeated on the Tuesday in Paekakariki)
Wed Apr 1st, 5.30-7pm, “Drug discovery inspired by peptide natural products”, Ferrier Public Lecture by Prof Richard Payne.
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.
Mondays 8-9am, Atom - Founder Mentoring ON-LINE
Weds 12-1pm, Atom - Founder Support Drop-In Hour
Thursdays (every other), 12th Mar 8am, Kapiti Start-Up Network Meet-Ups
Fridays (every other), 13th Mar 5pm, Founders Meet Up at Southern Cross hosted by Jack Shennan, Alistair St Pierre and Adiraj Gupta.