The focus of Professor Rod Badcock’s presentation was on the advancements in superconductivity, highlighting New Zealand's role in high-temperature superconductors. He compared it to the coldness of a freezer and how it allows for zero DC resistance. There is also potential of using materials like hair as superconductors, due to their lack of resistance.
Nicholas Zoomed into the club meeting from the Wairarapa and gave a presentation on global sea level rise and socioeconomic impacts for New Zealand. Nicholas highlighted the drivers of sea level change from melting glaciers, thermal expansion of the water itself, and the fact that Wellington is actually sinking ½ cm per year!
Mark was High Commissioner to the Solomon Islands and also Ethiopia and rhe African Union. He was also educated at Harvard University.
He spoke about the importance of the Pacific in NZ's foreign affairs work, and NZ's strong historical and people to people links and a significant proportion of our population has roots in the Pacific. Mark's introduction included highlights of the numerous projects Rotary had sponsored in the Region.
Dave gave a great talk this week about his experience joining Good Nature and the journey the company has had over the last few years. This Wellington manufacturing company has made over 600,000 traps, and sells to 60 countries around the world, including Antarctica
Len Cook explained that as a government statistician he left the country for another job in statistics and as a result was called a bit of a reptile for staying in the same role not once, but twice. The talk contained a fascinating bundle of figures and statistics under the general subject of the population storm and what New Zealand Statistics are doing about it. Len explained that this was the most exciting time to be interested in population numbers.
Arohanui Strings transforms lives through music by teaching ensemble playing for free. Charlotte and Margaret explained the organization's origins, starting in 2013 as a grassroots charity providing music education in Wellington. The program, led originally by Margaret Goldberg, serves 350 children aged 6-16.
David Stubbs is a Wellington based film producer and director.
The evening’s talk was about previous and current projects, mainly with Libertine Pictures, based in Avalon, Lower Hutt.
Nick Arathimos, one of the founding partners of MIEA, Migrant Investor and Entrepreneur Association.
Nick Arathimos, one of the founding partners of MIEA, Migrant Investor and Entrepreneur Association.
This week’s speaker was Nick Arathimos, one of the founding partners of MIEA, Migrant
Investor and Entrepreneur Association.
Nick’s talk started with the purpose of MIEA, which focuses on supporting migration
through social interaction and networking
The Club was presented today with a talk on hearing loss and industry by Tracy Curtis – COO of Ears Hearing Limited.
This week Belinda Hinimoa, Chief Executive of Social Service Providers Aotearoa, was our speaker. Like many of us I had never heard of this organisation which has 250 members ̶ those which are not-for-profits and provide care in the community.
Our club was privileged to hear from John Allen, who provided fascinating insights into the vital work of the Ombudsman's office and it's role in maintaining fairness across all of New Zealand.
Can AI be trusted?
We heard from John Paul Michael who is Deputy Director of Digital Safety at the Department of Internal Affairs – a lot of capital letters to start with. John started by explaining how artificial intelligence – known by us all as AI ̶ is being used generally in the world and how it is changing every day. It can be very useful in a wide variety of ways. One example John gave was how AI has been used to decipher ancient scrolls from Pompeii another was how in healthcare it is used to identify rare diseases which may not otherwise be detected.
