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DayBreak programme at a glance:
8.30am-10am Welcome & keynote plenary – Turning Signals into Strategy with Melissa Clark-Reynolds.
10.45-12.15 Morning sessions (choose which to attend)
– Startup Secrets – From the Bay of the Big Time (panel)
– Artificial Intelligence – Real Experience (workshop)
– Leading within Complex Systems for Powerful Change (workshop)
– Intrapreneurship: New Ventures in Large Organisations (workshop)
12.15pm-2.15pm Take your lunch voucher to a downtown eatery and enjoy!
2.15-3.45 Afternoon sessions (choose which to attend)
– Under the Hood – What it Takes to Grow a Competitive Organisation (panel)
– Turning an Idea into a Scalable Business (workshop)
– Be Open to Possibility: Small Shifts, Big Impact (workshop)
– Sparking Action: 4 Simple Brand Tools for Influencing Behaviour (workshop)
– The Role Clarity Roadmap – From Whiteboard to Reality (workshop)
– Igniting Community Pathways to Talent (workshop)
Full session details below. See all speaker bios here.
Festival keynote: Turning Signals into Strategy with futurist, Melissa Clark-Reynolds
Ever wish your team had a crystal ball? While the future may be uncertain, it’s not unknowable. In this keynote, Melissa Clark-Reynolds will bring sharp analysis and grounded insight to help you see what’s coming – and what to do about it. Melissa doesn’t just predict trends, she decodes the 10 most important signals from the future. Expect an energising session that leaves you thinking differently – and ready to act.
Format: Keynote plenary session in a lecture theatre
Morning sessions: 10.45am-12.15pm
PANEL: Startup Secrets – From the Bay of the Big Time
This is your chance to learn about some of the most exciting companies emerging from the Bay, and the people behind them. This session will feature founders from three companies at different stages of their journey, with a particular focus on their personal stories and experiences: the decisions, challenges, successes and setbacks, and what’s helped them take the big leaps. There will also be plenty of time for discussion and audience Q&A, so you can dig into what matters most to you.
How can this session Make Shift Happen?
– Get an idea of what’s coming in our region’s future by hearing from the next generation of companies.
– Gain practical insights from founders taking on big challenges – you’ll be able to apply them to work, and life in general.
– Absorb the energy, vision, resilience and sheer awesomeness of these founders!
Format: Panel with Q&A
Chair: Nina Le Lievre, CEO, Enterprise Angels
Panellists: Steph Kennard, Founder and CEO, Bonnet; Steve Saunders, Founder and CEO, Robotics Plus; Trevor Stuthridge, Founder and CEO, Cetogenix
WORKSHOP: Artificial Intelligence – Real Experience
This workshop is for people who want the opportunity to explore the practicalities of implementing AI. There’ll be a panel of people from a range of organisations, speaking about their projects that have delivered impact. You will have the chance to workshop approaches in small groups, then join an audience discussion. This session is pitched at people who have some familiarity with AI tools, who want to share experience with peers and are keen to get real about AI. Or maybe you’re curious and happy to be a little over your head?!
How can this session Make Shift Happen?
– The chance to deep dive into the practicalities of AI with others.
– Explore how to set up a business or organisation in an AI world.
– Get past the ‘AI BS’ and get down to brass tacks of real implementation and delivery.
Format: Presentations, workshop exercises and audience Q&A (30 minutes for each)
Chair: Korey Rubenstein, Crayon
Panellists: Ray Everest, Future Focus, remaining panellists to be announced.
WORKSHOP: Leading within Complex Systems for Powerful Change
A purposeful economy is one which serves people and the planet. Economies are not predetermined by nature, only by us. The challenges we face are not technical, they are human. Addressing the complexities of climate change and inequity requires courageous leadership by those who believe businesses can be drivers of change. Globally this is happening. In 2021, the Inner Development Goals were introduced, providing a framework to help shift our thinking towards more sustainable futures. Adopted by academic institutions such as Harvard, and commercial giants like Ikea, the IDGs are providing transformational skills for sustainable development.
How can this session Make Shift Happen?
– Be challenged to see economies and business through a different lens.
– Learn about the IDG framework and take away resources to start working with straight away.
– Be connected to a local network of others in the IDG space.
Format: Presentation/hands-on workshop
Session leader: Jo Wills, Sustainability Options
WORKSHOP: Intrapreneurship – Building New Ventures from within Organisations
Details to come.
Format: TBC
Session leader: Jeanine Walsh, Head of New Ventures, Beca
Afternoon sessions 2.15pm-3.45pm
PANEL: Under the Hood – What it Takes to Grow a Competitive Organisation
Hear from leaders of three local exporters on what it takes to build and grow a successful organisation. This session will explore their stories, insights and experience, with a deep dive into key elements for the organisation overall, and a practical focus on what they do and how they do it. There’ll also be plenty of time for discussion and audience Q&A – your chance to ‘get under the hood’!
How can this session Make Shift Happen?
– Get practical, experience-based insights into how organisations work and apply them to your own context.
– Know more about some of the amazing local companies that are taking Tauranga and the Western Bay to the world.
Format: Panel
Chair: Tanya Drummond, Special Counsel, Sharpe Tudhope
Panellists: Kevin Flint, General Manager, Oasis Engineering, Sam Kidd, CEO and Founder, LawVu, remaining panellist to be announced.
WORKSHOP: Turning an Idea into a Scalable Business
This fast-paced, practical workshop will show how early-stage and growing businesses can reduce execution risk and build a stronger business behind the idea. Grounded in global research on why SME companies succeed or fail, the session introduces the BSP STEP Framework — six operating levers and the 0–3–1 horizon model that underpin scalable performance.
Participants will then apply the framework in small “Advisory Board” groups with the owner/founder of a real business, producing an actionable Clarity Sheet. Whether you are a founder, investor or part of the early-stage business support ecosystem, you will leave with sharper insight, practical tools and a clearer understanding of what really drives the ability to successfully scale a business.
How can this session Make Shift Happen?
– Understand the six critical levers that determine whether a business scales or stalls.
– Learn and use the 0–3–1 horizon planning model to align strategy and execution.
– Apply the STEP UP framework to a real business and produce a practical 60-day action plan.
Format: Interactive workshop with Advisory Board breakouts
Session leader: Rob Dorey, BSP Advisory
WORKSHOP: Be Open to Possibility: Small Shifts, Big Impact
In a world where change is constant, the ability to stay open to possibility is a superpower. In this interactive session, Jules Simpson and Brad Hook will guide you through a series of activities designed to spark creativity, deepen connection and unlock the tiny shifts that drive meaningful change. Through playful ideation, curiosity-driven conversation and micro-moments of culture-building, you’ll experience firsthand how small actions can create big momentum. Expect movement, reflection, practical tools and plenty of fun – and leave with a personal commitment to the shift you’ll make next!
How can this session Make Shift Happen?
– Learn how small, intentional shifts in thinking, connection and culture can create outsized impact.
– Gain practical tools and frameworks to spark creativity and inspire positive change in your workplace.
– Build stronger connections through curiosity and collaborative, playful activities that energise and engage.
Format: Interactive workshop with Q&A
Session leaders: Jules Simpson, Thrive People and Brad Hook, author, speaker and podcaster
WORKSHOP: Sparking Action: 4 Simple Brand Tools for Influencing Behaviour
In this hands-on session, Tom Lear and Alex Metson will introduce four practical Action Sparks that brands can use to help influence people’s behaviour in simple, natural ways. The workshop blends behavioural insight with creative problem solving, showing how small, well-designed brand interventions can influence how people act. Working in small groups, participants will explore how each Action Spark works, why it’s effective and how to apply it to real brand challenges. The session will demonstrate how creativity can spark meaningful shifts in behaviour.
How can this session Make Shift Happen?
– Gain a clear understanding of four Action Sparks and how they influence behaviour.
– Get practical tools for combining creativity with behavioural thinking.
– Confidence to apply behaviour-changing ideas to brand, marketing and business challenges.
Format: Interactive workshop
Session leaders: Tom Lear, Society, and Alex Metson, BBDO
WORKSHOP: The Role Clarity Roadmap – From Whiteboard to Reality
Your best strategies shouldn’t die on the whiteboard. Yet without role clarity, teams stay confused about their part in the vision – and great ideas never launch. At this workshop, you’ll receive a map for becoming a shaper of your work arena so your team works from a place of clarity, not confusion. You’ll learn the roadmap Josh has used with organisations to create accurate role perception, where everyone knows exactly how they contribute. This approach doesn’t try to change your people – it changes their environment. The result? Strategies that actually launch, teams eager to execute and momentum your next big idea deserves.
This workshop blends framework, discussion and real-world roadmaps – no trust fall exercises required. You’ll walk through a practical role clarity framework, see how other organisations have navigated from confusion to aligned teams, and engage in peer discussions with fellow Daybreakers to share insights and test ideas. Expect useful tools, collaborative conversation, and plenty of energy as we tackle why brilliant strategies stall – and how to make shift happen.
How can this session Make Shift Happen?
– Explore the link between role clarity, accountability and innovation
– Learn a new model for building alignment and defining what matters most for your team.
– Get tools and language that will help your team self-manage with confidence.
Format: Presentation/hands-on workshop
Session leader: Josh Turner, Culture Fuse
WORKSHOP: Beyond Recruitment: Community-driven Approaches to Building Youth Capability
Current recruitment and labour-market approaches to youth employment aren’t working – record unemployment, disengagement, and a widening gap between what young people need and what the system provides. This session explores a community-driven alternative that centres the unique qualities of individuals, while balancing collective needs. We’ll examine the stakeholders in our ecosystem, some of the systemic challenges they face, and how meaningful pathways can be created through reciprocity and fostering self-determination. Through real examples from Aotearoa and global communities, participants will explore practical actions and emerging opportunities to redefine talent development at the regional level.
How can this session Make Shift Happen?
– Understand why current recruitment-focused models fail youth and how community-driven approaches address systemic gaps that traditional employment pathways cannot.
– Hear about examples from Aotearoa and international communities that successfully balance individual potential with collective regional needs.
– Get immediate actions you can take to shift from transactional recruitment to meaningful stakeholder collaboration in your own context.
Format: Presentation with interactive elements and Q&A
Session leader: Jay Tihema, Kia Mau Charitable Trust