On Wednesday 7 May, we had a presentation titled "Wellington's going-global software/ SaaS sector - threats and opportunities in the era of AI" by Serge Van Dam, director/ investor/ founder of many high-tech companies. Serge is originally from Argentina, and now lives in Wellington with his family.
Serge started the presentation by sharing the brief from RCPN on this talk - the general SaaS/ software landscape in NZ/Wellington; how these companies can boost a city economically and culturally; and vision for Wellington as the SaaS capital of NZ.
Serge shared a live demonstration of how AI makes a presentation responding to these briefs, using www.gamma.app. The presentation was titled: The Elephant in the Cloud: Wellington's SaaS Safari, as elephants were used as motifs (at Jo's suggestion). Each presentation pages responded to the brief in Elephant's language, which was visually pleasing, and effectively delivering bullet points.
For Q&A, Bill asked "how do you see AI working for charities?" Serge's answer was: charities would always need relationships to build fundraising income and AI could help with messaging for brochures and support material. Bill was given a chocolate for asking a 'hard question.''
For a property related question from Tony, "who is responsible for cleaning/maintenance of exterior of the building, tenants or owners?" Serge demonstrated another live reply, using www.lawcyborg.com. The answer by AI in short was: it depends on contracrts, but mostly tenants. Tony's response was: in NZ, it's mostly owners.
There were more quetions/ debates on what AI can do and what it can't, and a lively conversations followed.
The topic was very timely, and presentation and Q&A were well-structured, informative and engaging.