Gather – The Unconference
Bright and early last Saturday morning, like minded souls ventured out to Ormiston in south east Auckland to participate in ‘Gather – The Unconference.’
What is an Unconference? An unconference is a participant-driven meeting, a conference organised, structured and led by the people attending it. Instead of passive listening, all attendees and organizers are encouraged to become participants, with discussion leaders providing moderation and structure for attendees.
Labelled as the creative community’s big day out, Gather is an opportunity to collaborate, learn and share your latest works-in-progress, tech toys, and side projects with interesting awesome people.
Gather is the brainchild of Ludwig Wendzich, and with many helpers including Su Yin and Rochelle, they have created an event that sells out every year and has something for everyone.
The sessions are run by the participants and range from raising money for your start up, web design, approaches to community management, home beer brewing, playing Ukulele to learning to fly an RC plane!
The Gathering interlude featured presentations from Ben Gracewood – the tech guy, Sacha Judd – the not evil lawyer, and Phil Fierlinger – Xero – head of design. All very different, interesting and inspiring.
The sessions I attended included; community management, running a business in NZ -which I hosted with Sacha Judd and Glen Barnes; 18 Tips to avoid procrastination – very enlightening! and a couple of sessions where attendees pitched their new ideas. Vend founder Vaughan Rowsell talked on funding a start-up which was an honest insight into the early beginnings of Vend.
Some launches of note at Gather:
Check out companybox.co.nz – a companies office administration tool that Cloud Accountants will be rolling out to our clients in the near future.
Your share register is NOT on the companies office website!
Company Box will allow you to keep all your shareholder, directors and interest registers online and up-to-date. Store your documents securely in the cloud and never worry about finding that faxed copy again. Easily shared, it will allow you to add your team and advisors so everybody can access the same information in one place.
Do you have an Interests Register?
Here at Cloud Accountants we’re looking forward to a TrustBox or similar too…
Backofanapkin.co.nz – From law firm Buddle Findlay – This newly launched website is intended to help people collaborating on new projects. For instance you think about and agree some key issues that might arise in the future. The website quickly allows you to enter in five key pieces of information, which you then download as your agreement between the two parties. Just like writing it down on the back of a napkin!
Gather Workshops – Gather has launched Student and Teacher Workshops.
The Student Workshops have been created to introduce students to the industry and ignite their lifelong love for IT.
Teacher Workshops are designed to equip ICT teachers with real-world skills to meet the demands of teaching future IT professionals.
Workshops for Schools are written by industry professionals. Gather compiles these tool kits and distributes them online. Anyone is free to use them however they like.
Though it was not launched at Gather but very cool all the same – check out triage.cc – ‘First Aid for your inbox’
Triage is an iPhone app for busy people who struggle to stay on top of their email.
Triage doesn’t try to replace your desktop email client, but it lets you use your downtime to quickly remove the noise and stress.
The greatest take away that I have from the event (this was my second) is the meeting of such a diverse range of people; tech geeks, design and creative types, Xero’s and Vends (on recruitment drives!), angel investors and advisors. Speaking with people from all walks of life with such a great vibe and in such a great setting. Myself, like many attendees, are always fizzing after spending the day among such excellent company.
Until next year, Ludwig and team – we salute you!
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