After an incredible opening ceremony on Friday night, the 1,200+ strong crowd arrived bright an early for the first full day of Festival for the Future. Wellington turned on the weather, and our friends at L'Affare turned on the fair trade organic coffee in full force.
Saturday morning theme...
The fourth revolution – global forces, planetary boundaries and the purpose economy.
First up on Saturday morning was Adithi Pandit, exploring the future of work. She began by asking the the audience a question someone once asked her – "what would you do if you weren't afraid?". She talked about how this led her to integrate her personal goal of improving the lives of families and children into her strategy and consulting work at Deloitte, and onto setting up the Social Impact Practice. She honed in on the future of work and how it is possible to for everyone to master their chosen field. She talked about the five keys to mastering the future of work: (1) Build skills to solve complex issues; (2) find what you are interested in and excel at it; (3) relationships - find the people around you to invest in; (4) question who's at the table and who's not, is this a place you want to work?; (5) zoom out to see what the big picture is; and ALWAYS say yes to leadership.
“What would you do if you weren’t afraid? ”
Justin Flitter spoke about the emerging tech revolution transforming society. He made reference to Black Mirror - showing us how robot bees are being used to avoid an agricultural crisis. He talked about how technology can be terrifying but if embraced it has the power to achieve extraordinary things.
Founder and CEO of Girlboss NZ, Alexia Hilbertidou talked about how her passion for technology made her feel isolated growing up. She referenced her high-school days where she was the only girl studying advanced physics. "You can't be what you cant see" she said as she talked about the lack of famous women in technology. She candidly discussed how she faced injustice even after winning a coding prize and how this led her to start a business that sets out to bring women to the technology table.
Louise Aitken talked about Growing Social Enterprise in New Zealand. "Sustainable business is here, and it's the future," she said. She spoke of how we are all 'intra-prenuers'. We have the power to drive change from within any organisation. She talked about procurement – the purchasing power of businesses and organisations, and challenged the crowd to demand their organisations buy from purpose-driven and social enterprises because it could create better social and environmental outcomes.
“You are all in-treprenuers. You have the power to drive change from within any organisation”
The morning speaker session was hugely thought-provoking, really bringing the human factor back into business and technology. Next up was workshops – with eight different streams to choose from!
Saturday morning panel discussion...
The future of Government and civic engagement
Did you know that although the number of young people voting went up in the 2017 General Election, nearly 400,000 thousand did not vote?
The first of our panels featured Chloe Swarbrick, Emily Beausoleil, Malcolm Alexander, Laura O’Connell Rapira and Dannielle Hammond. Chloe discussed the possibility of reducing the minimum voting age and shared accessible ways for young people to get involved in politics, making real change beyond the typical ‘MP’ route. Malcolm Alexander participated in a debate over whether the Maori Land Wars should be taught in secondary schools, exclaiming that he was surprised this wasn’t already a part of the curriculum. He went on to explain why he is a feminist, much to the crowd's pleasant surprise. Emma and Laura proposed that civics education should also be added into the curriculum in order to enhance youth participation in local government. Finally, several Future Leaders from Kawerau shared their personal experience in community involvement and the importance of being represented through politics.
Left to right: Malcolm Alexander, Chlöe Swarbrick, Laura O'Connell Rapira, Emily Beausoleil, and Dannielle Hammond.
Saturday afternoon panel discussion...
Tackling child poverty and the wellbeing of children and young people
Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft led the discussion, with Kristie Carter and Anya Satyanand offering an organisational stance. Tupua Ulrich and Whaiora Patrick shared their experiences with poverty, detailing how growing up amongst poverty resulted in mental health issues to the detriment of their communities. Tupua spoke candidly about growing up through New Zealand's State Care System, highlighted the systemic failures that urgently need to be addressed. Then Whairoa took to the stage. At first she seemed shy and nervous before inviting her crew from Kawerau to the stage. From then on out she spoke with strength as she shared stories from her childhood. She talked about the ‘mask’ many young people living in poverty wear because they ashamed of asking for help. This panel session reminded us that the statistics we use when talking about poverty reduction aren't numbers - they are people.
The panel sessions ran concurrently with seven other workshop streams that happened throughout the Festival. You can check out the full Festival programme here. A glimpse of the other sessions below.
World Cafe – ideas and insights to shape real world projects, hosted by Massey University
Millennials in the workforce and the new leadership basics, hosted by Deloitte
Local democracy and future-proofing our communities, hosted by Microsoft and Local Government NZ
Next generation philanthropy and impact investment, hosted by Thankyou Payroll
Tools and strategies to support your mental health and well-being, hosted by CoLiberate
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently - they’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see them as genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do”
Saturday afternoon theme...
The radicals – disruption, innovation and leadership
Merenia Hudson proposed that injustice, in actuality, is a series of broken relationships – with ourselves, each other, and our planet. She spoke about reconciling these relationships. She acknowledged her whakapapa, the community she grew up in, and the women who inspired her. She talked about righting the inherently unjust wrongs and closed with a quote from Meihana Durie's opening address "you can’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’re from".
Glen Herud is the founder of Happy Cow Milk, and spoke about the challenges he faced trying to build a more sustainable model for dairy farming in an industry that doesn't want to change. He shed light on the dark side of the dairy industry which removes calves from their mothers with days of giving birth. A practice which has been widely accepted to make sure that society has enough milk for its morning latte. Glen isn't anti-dairy, he actually comes from a long line of farmers. His issue is with the unfair, and often avoidable mistreatment of cows. That's why he designed his own mobile milking shed which means mothers can stay with their calves for up to 15 weeks.
Mateawa Keelan is the General Manager of Hikurangi Enterprises, an organisation that has set out to break the poverty cycle in one on New Zealand's poorest rural communities – Ruatoria. She spoke about their journey trying to leverage native plants to produce high value goods, and harnessing local expertise in growing recreational cannabis and putting this to good use. Hikurangi Enterprises recently raised $2M via equity crowdfunding and is preparing to launch New Zealand's first medicinal cannabis export operation.
“Disrupt things around you which do not yield positive results”
Lisa McLaren is the National Convener of youth-led climate movement Generation Zero. She spoke about her involvement in leading the development of the Zero Carbon Act, and what it will take to put this into law in New Zealand. She spoke about the challenges ahead, but really drove home about the absolute need to make plans and set goals if we really want to be carbon neutral by 2050.
#Challenge #Disruption #Purpose #Leadership