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AI AND CREATIVITY SUMMIT
Programme
Across two cities, we will look at real creative practice, new opportunities, and the tensions that come with speed. This includes truth and trust, copyright and attribution, social license, and the future of creative craft.
Day One: Auckland
8:00 AM Registration and tea/coffee
9:00 AM Mihi whakatau
Theme 1: The Future of News
9:15 AM Introduction to AI Film Festival
9:17 AM Showcase of three AI Film Festival Entries
Experience the creativity and experimentation of the Aotearoa 1 Minute AI Film Festival with a fast-paced showcase of three finalist films at a time. After each screening, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favourites, helping decide which stories, techniques, and creative approaches resonate most. These sessions are designed to spark conversation about what’s possible (and what’s worth valuing) as AI transforms filmmaking, storytelling, and creative expression.
9:25 AM Inspirational Story: creatives using AI in their practice
In this session Pamela Morrow will share how she’s using AI in her practice.
9:45 AM Fireside Chat: Prompting curious minds — AI, creativity, and what comes next
Join Laura Ellis (BBC) in conversation with Lucky Gunasekara (CEO & Co‑Founder, Miso.ai) for a wide‑ranging fireside chat on how AI is reshaping the creative and media landscape. Together they’ll explore the opportunities and tensions emerging as generative tools move from experimentation into everyday workflows — from storytelling and audience engagement to trust, attribution, and the broader social implications of AI. Expect a thoughtful, practical discussion that brings global perspectives into Aotearoa’s creative context, and opens up the questions we need to ask next.
Laura Ellis, Head of Technology Forecasting, BBC
Lucky Gunasekara, CEO, miso.ai
10:05 AM Panel Discussion: The Future of News
News is where we expect truth from — but in the age of AI, what does truth look like, and who (or what) gets to tell our stories? Moderated by Laura Ellis (BBC), this panel explores how AI is reshaping journalism and the wider information ecosystem, from verification and trust to deepfakes, attribution, and the changing relationship between audiences and news. Together, we’ll examine what it will take to protect news integrity while still evolving how stories are created, distributed, and experienced in Aotearoa and beyond.
Moderator:
Laura Ellis, Head of Technology Forecasting, BBC
Panel:
Lucky Gunasekara, CEO, miso.ai
Carol Hirschfeld, TVNZ
Joanna Norris, Stuff
Andy Fyres, NZME
10:45 AM Morning Tea
Theme 2: How do we know what to Trust ? What is the Truth?
11:15 AM Showcase of three AI Film Festival Entries
Experience the creativity and experimentation of the Aotearoa 1 Minute AI Film Festival with a fast-paced showcase of three finalist films at a time. After each screening, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favourites, helping decide which stories, techniques, and creative approaches resonate most. These sessions are designed to spark conversation about what’s possible (and what’s worth valuing) as AI transforms filmmaking, storytelling, and creative expression.
11:25 AM Inspirational Story: creatives using AI in their practice
In this session a creative will share how they’re using AI in their practice.
Anthony Butters, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa, Ngāti Ruapani | Director, Pēnei Productions
11:45 AM Fireside Chat: Integrity of the information ecosystem
Laura Ellis, Head of Technology Forecasting, BBC
Bruce McCormack, Co-Founder, Project Origin
12:05 PM Panel Discussion: Reshaping the landscape
News is a key part of our information landscape and AI is reshaping the landscape fundamentally. How do we ensure we protect information, keep clear pathways to trustworthy content and help us all avoid the cognitive warfare that’s being waged on us, our society, our democracies and our human rights.
Laura Ellis, Head of Technology Forecasting, BBC
Bruce McCormack, Co-Founder, Project Origin
Bill Thompson, Head of Future Value Research & Principal Research Engineer, BBC
12:45 AM Lunch
1:15 PM Sponsor showcase: academyEX
Theme 3: Thief or Genius?
1:20 PM Showcase of three AI Film Festival Entries
Experience the creativity and experimentation of the Aotearoa 1 Minute AI Film Festival with a fast-paced showcase of three finalist films at a time. After each screening, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favourites, helping decide which stories, techniques, and creative approaches resonate most. These sessions are designed to spark conversation about what’s possible (and what’s worth valuing) as AI transforms filmmaking, storytelling, and creative expression.
1:25 PM Interactive Learning Session: ‘Meatworld Vs Bitworld/13 Reasons Why’
Join Andy Blood for an interactive session designed to spark better, more human conversations about AI. Using specially designed packs of playing cards, “Meatworld vs Bitworld / 13 Reasons Why” invites participants to explore AI’s real-world impacts, assumptions, and trade-offs through guided prompts and discussion. Expect a practical, engaging format that helps groups surface different perspectives, ask sharper questions, and build shared understanding—without the hype.
Andy Blood, Industry Fellow, Media Design School
2:00 PM Can a sovereign AI save us all?
International LLMs are systematically scraping Aotearoa’s knowledge culture, and selling it back to us without regard for data ownership or tikanga. Introducing a sovereign AI platform designed to address these shortcomings and provide a compelling alternative.
James Frankham, Publisher, New Zealand Geographic and NZGeo.com
2:20 PM Panel Discussion: Universal Design and AI
How do we make sure AI-enabled creative tools, platforms, and experiences work for everyone — not just the default user? This panel explores the intersection of universal design and AI, looking at how accessibility, inclusion, and equity can be embedded from the start as AI becomes part of everyday creative and digital workflows. Join Sarah Elise Baker, Ingrid Jones and others to be announced for a practical conversation about designing with diverse needs in mind, the risks of bias and exclusion, and the opportunities for AI to expand participation and creative expression when it’s built responsibly.
Sarah Elise Baker, Head of Research and Associate Professor, Media Design School
3:00 PM Afternoon Tea
Theme 4: AI in Creative Practices
3:30 PM Showcase of three AI Film Festival Entries
Experience the creativity and experimentation of the Aotearoa 1 Minute AI Film Festival with a fast-paced showcase of three finalist films at a time. After each screening, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favourites, helping decide which stories, techniques, and creative approaches resonate most. These sessions are designed to spark conversation about what’s possible (and what’s worth valuing) as AI transforms filmmaking, storytelling, and creative expression.
3:40 PM Inspirational Story
Arthur Machado, AI Creative Producer at Kōawa Studios (and independent practitioner), will share an inspirational story.
Arthur Machado, AI Creative Producer, Kōawa Studios
4:00 PM Panel Discussion: AI in Creative practices
How is AI changing the way creative work is imagined, made, and shared — and what new skills and questions are emerging alongside it? This panel brings together perspectives from education, production, and creative innovation to explore how AI is showing up in real-world creative practice, from experimentation and workflow shifts to creative decision-making, authorship, and value. Featuring Ben Miller (Academic Director, UC Digital Screen and Kōawa Studios) and Midu Chandra (Seen Ventures) and more to be announced, the discussion will highlight practical examples and open up a clear-eyed conversation about what’s changing, what’s worth protecting, and what comes next for creators in Aotearoa.
Ben Miller, Academic Director, UC Digital Screen and Kōawa Studios
Midu Chandra, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Seen Ventures
Shannon Addison, Lead Creative Director TVNZ Blacksand
4:35 PM Announcement of the Aotearoa 1 Minute AI Film Festival
Winner to be announced by Sam Witters, Director, Kōawa Studios, with an introduction from Jo Smith, New Zealand Film Commission.
Sam Witters, Director, Kōawa Studios
Day Two: Wellington
9:00 AM Registration and tea/coffee
9:30 AM Mihi whakatau
9:50 AM Opening Keynote: Liquid Content: Designing Meaning in the Age of AI
As AI agents reshape how information is discovered and delivered, content is no longer bound to pages, platforms, or interfaces. It is extracted, recomposed, and surfaced dynamically – often without the creator’s control.
This talk introduces the concept of liquid content: structured, modular content designed to retain its meaning wherever it appears.
Part one explores how this shift changes the role of the creator – from producing content for channels to designing systems of meaning that machines can interpret without distortion.
Part two reframes the role of the interface. As agents take over the job of answering questions, websites and apps must evolve beyond information delivery into spaces of immersion, emotion, and connection.
This is not a technical discussion about SEO or optimisation.
It is a creative challenge:
If machines decide what is shown, how do we design what is understood?
Chris Brunner
Theme 1: REImagine
10:10 AM Inspirational Story: Embracing AI in Creative Production
Join TeMuri (Tim Tsiklauri), an accomplished director and producer, as he shares how he’s beginning to incorporate AI into his creative production process. This session offers a high-level look at what it means to adopt AI in real-world filmmaking and content creation — where it can accelerate work, open up new creative possibilities, and introduce new questions around craft, authorship, and decision-making. Expect a practical perspective grounded in creative practice, focused on how AI is being explored as a tool in the production workflow today.
10:30 AM Panel Discussion: ReImagining AI driven creative potential.
Imagine social capital amplified by AI, where retraining and upskilling unlock creative agency at scale. This panel explores the capability question at the heart of the AI shift: AI is putting powerful new skills at our fingertips — helping us turbo‑charge productivity, hothouse creativity, and work faster with data and information — but is it also quietly de-skilling us in the process?
Featuring Hema Sridhar, Paula Browning, and Ana Ivanovic‑Tongue (academyEx) (with additional voices from the screen/games and emerging tech ecosystem to be confirmed), the discussion will examine social licence, skills for the future, the role of education, and the difference between adoption vs adaptation. Expect a practical conversation about what capability-building looks like in Aotearoa — and how we ensure AI expands creative potential rather than narrowing it.
11:10 AM Morning Tea
Theme 2: REFrame
11:40 AM Inspirational Story
12:00 PM Quickfire Presentation
12:10 PM Keynote: Research on use of AI by Creatives
12:40 PM Panel Discussion: ReFrame: AI as a creative amplifier
How might we reframe the disruption of historic tools to redefine how we connect, engage, and create in an AI‑first era? This panel explores AI as a creative amplifier across emerging models of customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX), the rise of services as software, and the evolving tension between identity, privacy, and security — from image recognition to always‑on personalisation.
Moderated by Laura Ellis and featuring Nan O’Sullivan with others still to be announced, the conversation will also address a fast-moving reality: we’re increasingly using AI as an intermediary. Chatbots are becoming constant companions, advisors, and decision-support tools — but with high-profile incidents making headlines, how safe are they for our businesses, our communities, and ourselves? Expect a practical discussion that balances opportunity with risk, and focuses on how we design for trust in an AI-first world.
1:20 PM Lunch
Theme 3: REDefine
1:50 PM Inspirational Story
2:20 PM Launch of the AI Blueprint Refresh
2:40 PM Panel Discussion: Beyond the Tools: Sustainable AI in Practice
To close the day, we’ll step back from the tools and look at the wider context AI depends on — the systems that power it, the pressure it places on infrastructure, and the environmental demands that come with scaling AI. This session will explore what “sustainable AI” can mean in practice for Aotearoa, and how we build capability and governance that supports innovation without ignoring real-world constraints.
Featuring Juhi Shareef, Emma MacDonald, and Albert Bifet , this session will also provide an opportunity to spotlight the AI Blueprint and the AI Governance Working Group’s Sustainable AI toolkit.
3:30 PM Summary and Closing Karakia
4:00 PM Networking Function
5:30 PM Event ends