AI assisted coding: Productivity, fatigue or tech debt
Description
Join NZ Tech Rally for another inspiring evening in Wellington Central. We're bringing together our community for a nuanced discussion on AI-assisted coding. Our July panel features three senior engineers/leaders who use LLMs in their day-to-day and will get real with us about their experiences.
Date: Wednesday, 29 July 2026
Venue: Hnry, Level 2, 45 Johnston St, Wellington Central, NZ
Time: 5.00 pm – 7.30 pm
Programme
5:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Arrival & networking
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Welcome notes - Stuart Whitehead
Panel discussion
Facilitator - Stuart Whitehead, Engineering manager @ Hnry
Panellists
Elise Wei, Tech Lead @ Eddy Works
Pearl Scully, Technical Product Manager @ Xero
Niraj Nagtilak, Senior Full Stack Engineer @ Trade Me
Audience Q&A
Closing notes - Camy Bhandari
7:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Community building & networking
Event entry
This is a free event for our Wellington tech community. Everyone is welcome. Please grab your free ticket, as we have limited seating space.
Please save your email with the ticket QR code as we will digitally check-in on arrival at the venue.
For any enquiries, please email info@nztechrally.nz
Panellists
Elise Wei
While Elise has become increasingly full-stack in her dotage, she is, at heart, a front-end developer with special interests in digital accessibility and design systems. She has done management of developers, teaching of newbie developers, and managed the teaching of newbie developers, but primarily just likes to make stuff and make it really well. Elise learned web development by trial and error before the days of YouTube and Stack Overflow.
Pearl Scully
Pearl is a passionate Technical Product Manager with a proven track record of delivering impactful software solutions in complex, tech-debt-heavy environments. Pearl bridges the gap between business needs and technical feasibility, translating user needs into clear product roadmaps and driving cross-functional teams toward ambitious goals. A former Software Engineer, Pearl brings deep knowledge of development processes and Agile methodologies.
Niraj Nagtilak
Beyond 14+ years of leading tech teams and building enterprise C#/.NET applications, Niraj remain a hands-on developer at heart. Coding is his passion, and he actively uses AI-assisted development to drive real-world outcomes and cleaner code. Based in Wellington, Niraj's life outside technology is centered around his family. When he is not solving technical puzzles, you’ll find him exploring scenic spots with his wife and two kids or playing sports with the little ones.
Stuart Whitehead
Stuart is an Engineering Manager at Hnry, focusing on engineering strategy and people leadership across payments and banking systems. Inspired by the strong mentorship he received early in his career, he has spent a decade volunteering with Summer of Tech to empower the next generation of local talent. At NZ Tech Rally, Stuart serves as a Meetup MC and volunteer, dedicated to fostering a supportive and inclusive tech community in Wellington.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity
