150 people, two days, no agenda, Kiwi Foo Camp (or affectionately known as Baa Camp) is a private gathering of people who are building the future. Invitations are extended to those doing interesting work in fields such as neuroscience, Internet applications, psychology, open source programming, art, business, education, physics, politics, and all manner of interesting science and technology. They network, share their works in progress, and find new partners for collaboration. Past events have seen attendees form companies, change the legislative agenda, kick-off scientific research, and launch new international careers.
Modeled on Tim O’Reilly’s Foo Camp, Kiwi Foo Camp is:
- By and for interesting people: scientists, technologists, business people, politicians,
- Limited in size,
- Scheduled over a weekend,
- A melting-pot of different interests, nationality, and opinion,
- Strictly invitation only,
- Free-form—talks are scheduled once everyone’s on site.
Past attendees include:
Kim Hill: Radio New Zealand; broadcasted her show live from Kiwi Foo.
Quinn Norton: Journalist, Body Hacking.
Rod Drury: Entrepreneur, founder of Xero.
Chris DiBona: Google; Open Source.
Erica Lloyd: Callaghan Innovation.
Dave Dobbyn: Musician and Kiwi icon.
Heidi Leeson: Auckland University, Education.
Jock Philips: Te Ara Online Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
Clay Johnson: Co-founder of Blue State Digital and author of The Information Diet.
Dina Kaplan: Co-founder of blip.tv
Daniel Walker: Founder of Nvader, an anti-human trafficking non-profit.
Fabiana Kubke: Auckland neuroscientist and chair of Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand.
Bill English: NZ Minister of Finance (at the time he attended).
Duncan Davidson: TED conference photographer.
Hazel Phillips: Editor of Idealog magazine.
Elf Eldridge: Nanotechnologist and science ambassador.
Julia Shaw: Psychologist and senior lecturer in Criminology at the London South Bank University.
Gerry Paul: International recording artist, winner of the 2013 John Lennon songwriter prize.
John Barnett: CEO South Pacific Pictures.
Anna Guenther: Co-founder PledgeMe.
Steve West: Co-founder of Serato DJ software.
Siouxsie Wiles: Sciblogger and microbiologist specialising in bioluminescence and infectious disease, winner of 2013 Prime Minister’s Science Media Communication Prize.
Vaughan Rowsell: Founder of VendHQ.
Shaun Hendy: Physicist and researcher of innovation.
Rosabel Tan: Editor of the Pantograph Punch.
Shanshan Zhou: Roboticist and digital designer.
Jacinda Ardern: NZ Labour MP (later, Prime Minister of New Zealand).
If you’ve confirmed your attendance this year, logging in using the details sent to you by confirmation e-mail will allow you to visit the other pages on the website to see what’s in store for you.
Kiwi Foo is a welcoming positive environment for all attendees. The Code of Conduct lays out behavioural expectations.