Community Events

Great connections are gold. Back in 2017 we organised our first delegation of New Zealand SaaS companies to the annual SaaStr conference in the USA. The valuable connections that we made, and a need to maintain and grow those connections, sparked the start of our kiwiSaaS community. Today, the community connects regularly through our many events and activities.

Upcoming Events

Establishing the Product Management Function - Presenter: Andrew Tokeley
Establishing the Product Management Function - Presenter: Andrew Tokeley
The decision to hire your first dedicated product leader, regardless of whether that is a PO, PM or CPO, isn’t always straightforward. What does a product leader actually do? You feel like the time is right but, is it? Who should you hire? What sort of experience do they need? How will they impact your role? How much will they cost? How many do you need? In this presentation Tokes will share his insights on how best to establish a dedicated product management function as your company scales.
October 28, 2022
10.00am - 11.00am
High-yield data: Setting up a data science and insights function - Presenter: Matt Gerrie
High-yield data: Setting up a data science and insights function - Presenter: Matt Gerrie
Matt will provide an interactive overview of the lessons he has learned on how to build a scalable data science organisation. He will share what he has learned from leading teams of hundreds of data scientists, as well as multidisciplinary data product teams in a Fortune 500 company and from sitting on the Facebook Measurement Council & Google Measurement Roundtable. To be successful, you need to clearly understand what value is delivered by infrastructure and what is delivered by using the data. And finally, know when to jump off the cliff and have deep faith in data science versus know when to ignore it entirely.
November 3, 2022
10.00am - 11.00am
kiwiSaaS - Need to know

kiwiSaaS 'Need to Know' Series

Essential, short and punchy learning sessions run by experienced SaaS practitioners and hosted by Callaghan Innovation. The kiwiSaaS 'Need to Know' Webinar equips SaaS entrepreneurs with the critical ‘survival’ skills needed to tackle big business challenges such as attracting talent, data security and business scaling.

Excellent talk and perfect for the stage of our company and my own career path
Ben Gracewood sessions: ‘Ben is awesome – I enjoyed listening to his real-life experiences at Vend. It’s been valuable.’
Really informative, thank you team!

Upcoming Events

kiwiSaaS Local Chapter meetup | Hawke's Bay
Hosted by Brett Roberts (kiwiSaaS), our local chapters are for anyone working in a New Zealand-founded SaaS company, including technical staff, all functional leads and their team members, as well as founders - it's a great way to get to know your local SaaS colleagues.
Presenter:
October 19, 2022
4.00pm - 6.00pm
kiwiSaaS Local Chapter meetup | Queenstown
Hosted by Simon Small (Optimal Workshop) and Ali Meredith (LawVu) our monthly Queenstown local chapter is for anyone working in a New Zealand-founded SaaS company, including technical staff, all function leads and their team members, as well as founders - it's a great way to regularly get together with your local SaaS colleagues.
Presenter:
October 26, 2022
3.00pm - 5.00pm
kiwiSaaS Local Chapter meetup | Hamilton
Hosted by Brett Roberts (kiwiSaaS) and Rosie Spragg (Kaihautū Rāngai Tūmataiti at Te Waka: Waikato's regional economic development agency), this is a great opportunity to meet with fellow SaaS company members in your local area.
Presenter:
October 27, 2022
4.00pm - 6.00pm
kiwiSaaS Local Chapter meetup | Auckland
Hosted by Sam Fielden (Beca) and Brett Roberts (kiwiSaaS) this is a great opportunity to meet your fellow local SaaS colleagues. Our kiwiSaaS local chapters are for anyone working in a New Zealand-founded SaaS company, including technical staff, all functional leads and their team members, as well as founders.
Presenter:
November 2, 2022
4.00pm - 6.00pm
kiwiSaaS Local Chapter meetup | Bay of Plenty
Hosted by Korey Rubenstein and Brett Roberts, our local chapters are for anyone working in a New Zealand-founded SaaS company, including technical staff, all function leads and their team members, as well as founders - its a great way to get to know your local SaaS colleagues.
Presenter:
November 10, 2022
5.00pm - 7.00pm
kiwiSaaS Local Chapter meetup | Wellington
Hosted by Craig Hadfield (Volpara Health) and Brett Roberts (kiwiSaaS) this is a great opportunity to meet with fellow SaaS company members in your local area.
Presenter:
November 24, 2022
4.00pm - 6.00pm
kiwiSaaS - Local Chapters

kiwiSaaS Local Chapters

We all know that working in SaaS can feel lonely at times and opportunities to network exclusively with like-minded SaaS people are rare, particularly in the regions. Register to attend your next local Local Chapter meetup - and make sure you've joined our kiwiSaaS community so you'll be notified of future meetups in your area. The gatherings are relaxed with plenty of time to chat and to share ideas on topics such as supporting local SaaS talent growth.

Upcoming Events

Kiss My SaaS/Byte My SaaS
Byte and Kiss My SaaS is a series of peer-to-peer learning workshops addressing key business capabilities needed to grow your SaaS business. Whether you are just starting out or looking to rapidly expand your SaaS business, then this event is for you. These workshops run in a face-to-face format in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Presenter:
October 20, 2022
20 October 2022 - 16 November 2022
Kiss My SaaS Byte My SaaS

Kiss My SaaS, Byte My SaaS

Kiss My SaaS and Byte My SaaS are peer-to-peer learning experiences hosted by NZTE. Meet with local SaaS professionals in roles similar to your own, to problem solve and learn from one another. Our small group sessions are organised according to your SaaS company size to ensure discussions remain relevant to your business needs.

Southern SaaS

Our flagship annual event since 2018, Southern SaaS has become an institution for early stage SaaS founders and executives. Featuring top local and international SaaS speakers, practical workshops and networking, this two-day event offers something for everyone.

With New Zealand’s recent move to the Red traffic light level, we have made the difficult decision to cancel Southern SaaS 2022, scheduled for Wednesday 23 & Thursday 24 March.  
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Our kiwiSaaS Community team is still committed to providing New Zealand’s SaaS businesses with valuable content and events in 2022. We are currently working with speakers and partners to deliver some of the presentations and workshops planned for Southern SaaS 2022 as part of our kiwiSaaS Learning Series, and a soon-to-be launched Webinar Series.
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Keep checking this page for updates on other new and exciting kiwiSaaS events.

Read about our last event
Great conference, so much learning... and of a really high quality. Keep it up for next year, I will definitely be back.
The value [of the event] to the NZ tech industry must be huge… We are learning from each other and this avoids the traps we can fall into.
One of the best events I have been to. Better than SaaStr in San Francisco.
Southern SaaS conference

Annual SaaStr Delegations

The event that started it all, our annual pilgrimage to the US SaaStr Annual conference. Had it not been for COVID travel restrictions, this year’s delegation would have been 180 people strong.

This page will be updated when details of upcoming SaaStr delegations are confirmed.

I’m still processing it all! It’s going to take a few weeks for us to work out how to implement some of the things we’ve learnt here – it’s exciting and inspiring!
It’s great having new ways to think about problems that we are facing in our business right now. I’ve learnt some really actionable insights around pricing and customer problem discovery that we can apply as soon as we get home.
I’ve come away with a set of steps and a set of benchmarks to work from to know if I’m on the right track with my business.
SaaStr conference
Two people presenting at a SaaS event

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