Auckland Members Breakfast
Please join us for the 2018 Auckland Members Breakfast! Held at the Grand Millennium Auckland Hotel (located at 71 Mayoral Drive, Auckland) from 7:30-9:00am on Thursday, 14th June.
Use this form to order tickets for a single individual or multiple people. All tickets ($38 pp) include a hot buffet breakfast with tea and coffee, and are in New Zealand Dollars and exclude GST.
PrefabNZ CoLab 2018 – ACENZ
PrefabNZ’s CoLab 2018 conference is coming…Its THE fun, interactive and thought-provoking event that places you are the heart of innovative construction that is transforming the industry. Wed 7 – Fri 9 March in Auckland.
Wednesday 7 March – full of varied prefab site visits
Thursday 8 – phenomenal conference day with evening soiree
Friday 9 – Member-only half day event
For further information click here.
AI Foundations Webinar Series with AI Forum AEC Working Group & academyEX – Webinar 1: AI Fundamentals with Felix – ACE New Zealand
The Foundations in AI webinar series is a collaborative initiative between ACE New Zealand, academyEX, and the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Working Group, as part of the AI Forum New Zealand. The webinar series is designed to empower consulting and engineering professionals to lead confidently through digital transformation. By engaging with AI now, we’re not just future-proofing individual firms—we’re strengthening the resilience and relevance of the entire consulting and engineering sector.
Through our Strategic Plan ACE is committed to powering successful businesses that are ready for the future. This webinar series aims to equip members with practical tools, sector-specific insights, and access to thought leadership that helps them adapt, innovate, and thrive.
Webinar 1: AI Fundamentals with Felix
Kick off the Foundations in AI webinar series with Felix Scholz in a foundational session that demystifies AI and introduces safe, practical ways to begin exploring its potential in consulting and engineering. Topics include:
What AI is and how it differs from traditional software
Core AI safety principles and risk management
Data privacy and legal considerations for ACE member firms
Creating safe sandboxes for experimentation
Building AI capability through continuous learning
This session will also reference practical resources and support options for developing implementation roadmaps, assessing data readiness, managing change, and piloting tools.
Speaker:
Felix Scholz, Senior Lecturer, academyEX
Felix Scholz is a senior lecturer at academyEX and founder of Stokeventures, with a background spanning PwC, Fonterra, ASB, and startups. He specialises in AI-driven innovation, digital transformation, and entrepreneurship. Felix helps professionals turn abstract concepts into practical outcomes using frameworks like design sprints and agile delivery—now supercharged with AI. Known for his clarity and hands-on approach, he’s guided hundreds of learners in safely exploring tools, ethics, and strategy in the AI space.
Register for the webinar
Join academyEX, the AEC Working Group and ACE New Zealand via Zoom on Friday 10 October to demystify AI and begin exploring in a safe and practical way.
Register here
Christchurch Umbrella Mental Health Workshop – ACENZ
March 7th 2019, from 9am – 4.30pm. ACENZ is hosting a heavily subsidized Umbrella Workshop.
Limited seats available, be sure you don’t miss out on this great opportunity!
The Mental Health Awareness Workshop is designed to:
Increase participant’s knowledge about stress, mental health and illness,
Help participants feel more confident talking about mental health, including when speaking with colleagues they may be concerned about,
Further develop their understanding about how to promote and protect mental health at work,
Ensure participants understand how they can enhance their own emotional, psychological, and social well-being
Key Learning Outcomes:
Connect with colleagues and feel confident you have new knowledge and robust skills to take away
Practice how to have conversations about mental health and illness
Identify when stress turns into signs of something more serious, and what to do about it.
Learn effective, practical strategies to strengthen your wellbeing at work
Learn more about the facilitator here
Register for the Christchurch Workshop
Early bird registration (prior to 14th Dec 18): $315+gst
Standard registration (from 15th Dec 18 onwards): $400+gst
2018 Presidents Roadshow – Tauranga 12th June – ACENZ
Please join us for the 2018 ACENZ President’s Roadshow in Tauranga! Hear from President Mike Kerr. Held at the Trinity Wharf Hotel (located at 51 Dive Crescent, Tauranga) beginning at 5:30pm on Tuesday, 12th June. Use the form below to reserve your place for a single individual or multiple people. The President’s Roadshow is FREE to attend, with dinner after at your own expense. Send any questions to Katie Bartlett at katie@acenz.org.nz
Drinks (at your own expense) will take place at the hotel bar prior to the President’s address with dinner following. Dinner will be at your own expense and you will be able to choose from an a-la-carte menu from the hotel’s restaurant.
Please RSVP no later than Tuesday, 29th May to reserve your place for the roadshow.
AMINZ Role of the Expert Seminar Auckland – ACENZ
The Role of the Expert, Auckland – 26 February 2018
Experts often play vital roles in a wide range of disputes, as investigators, witnesses and determiners.
This one-day seminar considers the various expert roles, best practice in the use of experts and how to make the most of experts.
The day will cover a range of topics including:
Expert roles – defining differences
The investigator expert
The expert witness
The determinative expert
Expert investigation and forensic analysis
Investigator bias and cognitive illusions
The place of fact and opinion in investigation
Air accident investigation protocol – a template for evidence collation and reporting
Expert witnessing
Eliminating indigestible evidence, saving time and making settlement easier
What counsel wants from a witness
Forensic accounting evidence – considerations and practical experiences
How to be an expert determiner
Expert determinations – it’s not as simple as it seems
Tribunal appointed experts and other procedural considerations
What’s a determiner to do: When expert evidence collides
Who should attend:
Lawyers and advocates who use experts
Engineers and those working in the construction industry
Expert witnesses
Expert investigators
Expert determiners
Arbitrators
Adjudicators
AMINZ is offering a 10% discount if you register before 16 February – just use the discount code ACENZ when you buy online and get to the shopping trolley.
To register, please click HERE.
If you have any questions, please contact our Education Co-ordinator, Rebecca – education@aminz.org.nz
NZTA’s decision-led approach: The framework for state highway projects – ACE New Zealand
As of July 2025, the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi uses its decision-led approach to develop state highway infrastructure projects which supports smarter, more transparent decision-making.
Consultants will see changes in how NZTA develops investment cases and the role consultants play. Those who are currently working on NZTA projects or will be in the future are encouraged to attend this session.
In this webinar you’ll learn about:
What the decision-led approach is and why it matters
How to apply the approach
What changes consultants can expect to see
New tools, templates and examples to support your work
How this approach aligns with Treasury’s Better Business Cases and the investment lifecycle
Check out the draft guidance
The draft guidance for the approach is now available on the NZTA website.
Register for the webinar
Join NZTA and ACE New Zealand via Zoom on Wednesday 8 October to get an overview of the decision-led approach, understand the changes consultants can expect to see, and learn about new tools and templates to support your work.
Register here
Share your feedback
To further refine the guidance, NZTA is collecting feedback from those who’ve used the approach. We encourage you to get familiar with the approach and the guidance, and understand how it will shape the way NZTA and consultants will work together.
To provide feedback, email decisionledpdinfo@nzta.govt.nz by 16 October 2025.
Wellington Umbrella Mental Health Awareness Workshop – ACENZ
March 5th 2019, from 9am – 4.30pm. ACENZ is hosting a heavily subsidized Umbrella Workshop.
Limited seats available, be sure you don’t miss out on this great opportunity!
The Mental Health Awareness Workshop is designed to:
Increase participant’s knowledge about stress, mental health and illness,
Help participants feel more confident talking about mental health, including when speaking with colleagues they may be concerned about,
Further develop their understanding about how to promote and protect mental health at work,
Ensure participants understand how they can enhance their own emotional, psychological, and social well-being
Key Learning Outcomes:
Connect with colleagues and feel confident you have new knowledge and robust skills to take away
Practice how to have conversations about mental health and illness
Identify when stress turns into signs of something more serious, and what to do about it.
Learn effective, practical strategies to strengthen your wellbeing at work
Learn more about the facilitator here
Register for the Wellington Workshop
Standard registration (from 15th Dec 18 onwards): $400+gst
Auckland Cocktail & Networking Event – ACENZ
Join us for a Members Cocktail & Networking Event in Auckland on Wednesday, 23rd May from 5:30-7:30pm at the Rydges Hotel Rooftop Deck (located at 59 Federal Street, Auckland). This event is FREE for ACENZ Members and includes light nibbles and drinks.
You’ll hear from two speakers with networking time before and after the presentations on
“How technology can build resilience within your AEC firm”
It is a testing time for the architecture, engineering and construction sector, with project complexity increasing as clients want projects delivered faster and cheaper. The industry also faces labour shortages, which means firms are being stretched to do more with less people so it is time for action, before profit margins suffer and staff burn out.
To overcome these challenges, AEC firms need to review their current processes to decrease risk, ensure more robust project delivery processes and improve collaboration. This can be achieved by embracing new technologies to unify internal operations into a single view of people, work, time and financial results. Building trust and communication, which in return boost employee engagement and commitment.Join us for an evening of networking to hear how technology can help your firm create synergy, and purpose for all team members allowing your company to grow and/ or stay competitive.
Attendees will hear from industry experts Lisa Hinton, Director of Context Architects and Jonny Breen, Digital & IT Manager of Context Architects presenting their success and lessons learnt along the way in implementing the right strategy and technology to their business.
This event will cover:
The steps your organisation can take to avoid risk from managing the end-to-end project lifecycle, to ensure on time and on budget delivery of projects
Embracing new technologies to remain relevant to prospective employees
Streamlining processes so staff focus on design not administration task
Give staff the visibility and organisation they need
About our speakers:
Lisa Hinton, Director
Lisa is a founding director of Context and sits on the practice’s board to drive our strategic direction.
She makes a three-fold contribution to the business. First, she’s not an architect; her focus is on the business of architecture and strategic financial management. On getting architectural practice and business thinking together aligned. Second, Lisa helps shape our culture. Her nose for good people – with the right attributes and attitudes – has built a strong team with a shared sense of purpose. And third, she takes on strategic special projects that look to the company’s future.
Lisa is also a director of Confitex Underwear, a New Zealand textile technology company that is taking its world-first urinary incontinence range global. Pre-Context, she spent seven years at Trade New Zealand (now NZTE) managing a team that helped technology-and-services exporters set up shop in international markets.
BBus, GradDip Public Relations, MA International Relations
Jonny Breen, Digital & IT Manager
Jonny is our virtual building expert. He also does all the behind the scenes strategising that means our IT systems are some of the most advanced in the business. Before he joined us, he studied architecture in his native Ireland and worked for a leading BIM software developer.
Jonny is an enthusiastic advocate of the power of Building Information Modelling. It’s a way to combine every element of a building’s design – architectural, structural, electrical, heating and plumbing – into one smart virtual model. It results in better designed, higher-performing structures that are easier to build. In warmer months, Ironman Jonny also leads our lunchtime Context boot camps.
BSc (Hons) Architecture
Don’t miss out on this fantastic event, proudly sponsored by Deltek.
About Deltek (our sponsor) – Deltek is the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for government contractors, professional services firms and other project-based businesses. For decades, we have delivered actionable insight that empowers our customers to unlock their business potential. 22,000 organizations and millions of users in over 80 countries around the world rely on Deltek to research and identify opportunities, win new business, recruit and develop talent, optimize resources, streamline operations and deliver more profitable projects.
The Modern Engineer: Cultivation, Collaboration & Communication – ACENZ
Our Auckland Regional Chair, Meagan Barfoot, has organised a Members event co-branded with Hays Recruitment for Thursday, 22nd February, 2018 beginning at 5:30pm. “The Modern Engineer: Cultivation, Collaboration, and Communication” is a white paper published by Hays. Hear from Ludo Campbell-Reid, GM of the Auckland Design Office, Phil Bull from Blue Barn Engineering, and Liesl Waldek of Hays Recruitment. Discussion will include what engineers and businesses can do to ensure they are keeping up with future demand, what can be done better, and how these changes can be made.
Drinks and canapes will be provided at this FREE event at the Birdcage located at 133 Franklin Road, Auckland (note that Hays Recruitment is managing this event, and by signing up you are agreeing to be added to their contact database). Join in on the discussion on key issues within the industry and take time to network with your peers.
RSVP for this event online here