WellyForge#7, 18th March 2026

Join us to help progress Wellington by bringing together science, tech innovators 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 for the night is the people with big news, so your show will be:

1st Speaker: Andrew Morrow, Country Manager and formerly CFO of PartsTrader, a Wellington software company that has been on a long journey since 2004 and agreed to be acquired by Enlyte in December 2025. Andrew has been with PartsTrader since 2012, The PartsTrader deal is likely to be one of the biggest in NZ this year when it formally closes.

Quickfire Speakers:

• Sam Siljee, PhD at Vic in lung cancer biology

• Alisha Gill, PhD at Vic in marine biology (lantern fish - size of a sardine and glow in the dark!)

• Dr Fernando Solis Fernandez at Vic, optical fibre sensing, and wants to commercialize

2nd Speaker: Dr Morgan Cable, ex NASA, now at Victoria and involved in several space projects like Dragonfly, Europa Clipper and Mars 2020. Chemist, explorer, trailblazer. She'll be talking about "Exploring Europa: Journey to an Alien Ocean":

Water is an essential element of all life as we know it - water gives us a medium for our biomolecules to meet, to interact, and to react. When mixed with chemical building blocks and an energy source, water creates what we call a ‘habitable environment’. This is why NASA has had the mantra to ‘follow the water’ in the search for evidence of life on other worlds. In this presentation, Dr. Morgan Cable will delve into why water is so important for life, and how it shaped the development of the Europa Clipper mission, currently hurtling through space towards Jupiter. Europa may hold the secret to whether life exists outside of Earth right here in our own cosmic backyard. Join us as we dive into an alien ocean in search of the ultimate question: are we alone?

Thank you to our sponsor, Rare Disorders NZ, and Dr Ariane Chan (Chairperson)

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