Digital Council for Aotearoa New Zealand #Weeknotes 14

Blog | 2020-07-28 | By: Digital Council for Aotearoa New Zealand
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Three participants sit at a white rectangular table in white chairs with their backs to the camera looking across the table at five Council members with a large wall sized powerpoint screen behind them. viewing PowerPoint presentation
Digital Council for Aotearoa New Zealand presentation by Mitchell Pham at this month’s regular Council meeting in Wellington.

Meeting with Ministers

Last Friday we met with Statistics Minister the Hon. James Shaw and Government Digital Services Minister to talk them through where we’re at with our main research project exploring ADM (automated decision-making).

Shortly, we’ll publish early insights into ADM, followed by our major research report in December.

Friday’s meeting was a great chance to reflect on our first piece of advice delivered to Ministers in June after lockdown and discuss our ongoing engagement. It was also an opportunity to meet a range of leaders from the public sector. Thanks to everyone who made time to catch up with us at Wellington’s National Library.

Research co-lead Marianne Elliott presenting to Ministers
Research co-lead Marianne Elliott presenting to Ministers last week.
Research co-lead Colin Gavaghan presenting to Ministers
Research co-lead Colin Gavaghan presenting to Ministers on Friday.

Stakeholder engagement

Earlier in the week we met with New Zealand firm Soul Machines, now a world leader in humanising artificial intelligence to create so-called ‘digital people.’

We discussed how artificial intelligence was used to support people during lockdown, the post-COVID recovery and in the education technology field.

We also caught up with BNZ to discuss how digital technologies can make New Zealand more productive and New Zealand businesses more digitally included.

Media outreach

Thanks to the Asia Media Centre for contacting our chair Mitchell Pham for comment on the government’s recent strategic partnership between Vietnam and New Zealand.

On Friday, Mitchell published his ideas in a blog called Strategic partnership between NZ and Vietnam: an exciting step forward.

Mitchell also caught up with Umbrellar Connect reporters last week to talk about his recent appointment to the Asia Society Global Council and his vision for New Zealand.

TechweekTV reminder

TechweekTV reminder

In the meantime, a reminder to join us this week for a Techweek 2020 TV panel discussion on Friday 31 July at 2pm-3pm.

Our panel session is called: The future of digital and data driven technology in New Zealand. What do we want it to look like; who should benefit; and why should we care?

We look forward to discussing these issues and more with our host Ryan Ashton.