The First YKIA Wellington Meetup: Recap
Drafted with AI assistance.
Key takeaways
- The first Wellington meetup was Friday 30 October 2026 at Trade Me. 68 signed up and 55 came.
- Talks covered a rugby clip finder, a flagging system turned into one prompt, an agent on billions of rows with the gates kept, and personal branding.
- Thanks to Mark Savage, Trade Me and Younity. Another event is lined up with the Agentics crew.
- The national conference is Friday 12 February 2027 at Novotel Auckland Airport.
Friday 30 October 2026 was the first Young Kiwis in AI meetup in Wellington, in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. It ran at Trade Me, 2 Market Lane, Wellington Central, from 5:30 to 7:30pm. It was free to attend. 68 people signed up and 55 came.
The night followed the usual meetup shape. Short talks from people building with AI, then time to talk to the room. A typical YKIA meetup is a couple of hours in the evening. This one was that, in a city that had not had one before.
Blake filmed a vlog around the day. The title on YouTube is Day in the Life of a 23-Year-Old AI Consultant in NZ. Watch it above, or on YouTube.
The talks
There were four talks. Three are described here by the work, not by a name.
One speaker showed an AI clip finder built for New Zealand Rugby content. The work is making clips from that content. The tool cut that clip-making time dramatically.
A second speaker had gone from a dairy farm to MPI, the Ministry for Primary Industries. He showed a flagging system that had been complex, and how AI turned it into a single prompt. That was the talk: the path from the farm, and the prompt.
A third speaker showed delegating work to an agent. The example was SQL queries on billions of rows. The agent suggested skipping the human approval gates. He kept the gates, and he told the room why.
Blake Harkness spoke on personal branding in the age of AI. He described a hiring round where he asked every applicant for a 2-minute video. Fifty people were asked. Nine sent one. The ask was short, and most people still did not send it. His closing line was: "In a world full of AI, authenticity wins."
Signing up and turning up are different counts. 68 people signed up. 55 were in the room. A typical YKIA meetup draws somewhere between 20 and 30. This was the first in Wellington, and it was bigger than that. The city now sits with Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton, Dunedin and Palmerston North: the places that have actually hosted a meetup.
Thank you
Thanks to Mark Savage and Trade Me for the venue. A first meetup needs a room, and they provided it. Thanks to Younity for the food.
What is next
Another event is already lined up with the Agentics crew. Join the community and you will hear when it is announced. City dates sit on the Wellington page.
A Friday night in one city is one room. The larger one is the YKIA National Conference 2027, on Friday 12 February 2027 at Novotel Auckland Airport, from 8:30am to 5pm. It is built for students, grads and early-career builders, and it is open to everyone. The day has talks, panels, a young builders showcase and speed networking. Lunch is included. Drinks from 5pm are at your own cost. Early-bird runs until 15 December: Student $79, Young Professional $149, Industry $249. See the programme and get your ticket.
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