Join us to help progress Wellington by bringing together science, tech & investors from across the city into an informal, fun and informative meet-up. The goal of the event is that you learn something new, meet someone new, have fun and we all start forging new paths ahead for Wellington.

Focus of the night is the KiwiNet award winners who are from Wellington. KiwiNet funds the commercialization of public research across 19 universities in NZ. So, your show will be:

1st Speaker: Dr Ben Mallett from the MacDiarmid and Robinson Research Institute (part of Victoria) who won the Breakthrough Innovator Award, and is a co-founder of JxB Space Systems.

Quickfire Speakers:

Maci Libby, Massey Design Graduate, founder of Wise Gear NZ, passionate about outdoor adventure
Suse Reynolds, KiwiNet Commercialization Icon Award Winner, and big start-up fan (investor & Director)
Lachlan Mead, Young Enterprise Scheme Award Winner, and founder of the Christmas Chaos card-game, yes, copies will be available!

2nd Speakers: Prof Rob Weinkove who leads the Malaghan Institute's CAR-T cell program which won the KiwiNet PwC Breakthrough Project Award, and John Robson CEO of BioOra, a spin-out from the Malaghan which recently raised $15m to accelerate roll-out of its cancer treatment.

Thank you to our sponsor Mark Pascall's The Wellbeing Protocol and it's spin-out hum.community.

The venue is bohemian bookstore, Undercurrent, a perfect venue for story telling but tickets are limited - so please reserve yours, but if you do end up not being able to come please return the ticket!

Join WellyForge

Contact the host of WellyForge#6, 10th Dec 2025 (Christmas Edition)