One day. Three streams. The playbook for moving to The New SaaS.

Thursday 24 September, 2026 | 9am - 6pm
Hnry Stadium Wellington

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300

Capacity

20+

Speakers

3

Streams

Connect and learn with your community

  • Understand your options

    Big picture strategy + practical tactics from 20+ SaaS leaders (the stuff you can actually use).

  • Be with your people

    Three functional streams — learn alongside your peers in Sales/Marketing/GTM, Product/Engineering and People/Ops/Leadership.

  • See where you stand

    Benchmark where your company is leading vs lagging across key dimensions.

  • Get to your next actions

    Highly interactive sessions to apply the learnings to your context and map your next moves.

  • Enjoy the ride

    A full-day KiwiSaaS reunion — energy, antics and fun to reconnect and recharge with your community

About

SaaS is Changing – Are You Ready?

These are wild times for SaaS. Risk is up, change is accelerating — but for NZ SaaS, the opportunities are bigger than ever.

SaaSpocalypse Now 2026 brings together 300 SaaS leaders for a day of practical learning, peer connection, and honest conversation about what it takes to win in the next era.

You'll spend most of the day in functional streams — Sales/Marketing/GTM, Product/Engineering, People/Ops/Leadership — learning alongside people who share your context (and your constraints). You’ll leave with a clearer view of the state of play, and concrete steps you can take to level up what you do next. 

Walk away with:

  • a shared understanding of what’s changing (and what’s not) in SaaS right now

  • a practical sense-check of ‘good vs great vs late’ for your function

  • real examples from peers on how AI is being used today — and what’s coming

  • better-than-usual connections: people at your stage, or just beyond

  • a plan of action you can take back to your team.

Who’s coming? 

  • Matt Hayter

    Projectworks

  • Kirsti Grant

    Auror

    Topic:
    Building Audiences in the AI Era

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    LinkedIn

  • Serge van Dam

    Director & Investor

  • Bridget Snelling

    Xero

    Morning Keynote:
    SaaSpocalypse or SaaSpring?

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    LinkedIn

  • Iain Phillips

    VP of Engineering, Pushpay

  • Kiri Rodger

    Director of People Experience, Timescapes

  • Caleb Helm

    COO, Lumin

    Topic:
    The State of Product & Engineering

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    LinkedIn

  • Nick Whitehead

    CMO, Serko

  • Christelle Blanchet-Aissaoui

    Fractional CMO & Co-Founder, Proxi

  • Tim Nichols

    Fractional CMO & Co-Founder, Proxi

  • Michael Murphy

    Director

  • David Clearwater

    Executive Director, KiwiSaaS

  • Scotty Freeman

    Founder, Apprento

  • Kate Radcliffe-Reid

    Founder, Backkr

  • Nick Steevens

    CFO, DataTorque

  • Adam Taylor

    CEO, Matomo

  • Andrew Tokely

    Founder, CPO Connect

  • Graeme Muller

    Tech New Zealand

    Afternoon Keynote:
    The New SaaS — Winning What Comes Next

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    LinkedIn

  • Caitlin Jackson

    Caitlin Jackson

    Head of Marketing, StarshipIt

Conference MC

Nicole Retter

Founder of PAM

Nicole’s is the founder and CEO of PAM, the infrastructure layer families use to run their lives — transforming emails, school newsletters, screenshots and voice notes into a smart shared family calendar, reminders and tasks that reduce the mental load of modern family life.

A mum of two with 20+ years across marketing, brand and digital. Nicole is known for combining strategic thinking with high-energy storytelling and relatable honesty. Her speaking style has been described as “TED Talk meets stand-up set” - blending startup realities, big ideas and plenty of laughs.

Nicole was the winner of the Innovation Award at the 2025 Matihiko Awards, a finalist for both Software Innovation and Māori Company of the Year categories at the 2026 New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards, and a finalist in the Services category at the Gold Awards.

Agenda

Your full day of practical SaaS learning

9:00am Morning Keynote: SaaSpocalypse and the New SaaS
  • What’s changing (and what’s not): risks + opportunities
  • Market strategy in wild times: new moats + durable advantages
  • Operating models: teams, tools, and ways of working for the next chapter
  • What’s good vs great vs late: benchmarks and best examples
  • Valuations, capital, M&A: the investor lens for local SaaS

And what do you do next?
10:15am Morning tea
10:45am Functional deep dives: pick your stream - Part 1

Jump into your functional stream and explore:

  • What's changing in your functional area?
  • What's leading versus lagging?
  • Who are the leaders and what are they doing?
  • How does your team stack up vs your peers?
  • What are your next best moves to level up?
Marketing, Sales & GTM

Topics include:

  • What's working for winning buyers through AI/agents?
  • How do we win attention as AI begins to dominate outbound?
  • Who does what in the AI-assisted sales cycle?
  • How do we deliver a brand voice when half your conversations aren't human?
  • What's actually driving growth now?
Plus, ‘who’s doing it well?’ and ‘what do we do tomorrow?’

Session continues after lunch

 Product/Engineering

Topics include:

  • How far along are we with agentic development?
  • Overlapping roles: who does what now?
  • How do we make more bigger bets, more often?
  • How are we building software now?
Plus, ‘who’s doing it well?’ and ‘what do we do tomorrow?’

Session continues after lunch

 People/Ops/Leadership

Topics include:

  • What are the new operating models emerging?
  • How are we incorporating agentic teams?
  • What's working for transforming our organisations?
  • How are we rolling out AI tooling that delivers value?
Plus, ‘who’s doing it well?’ and ‘what do we do tomorrow?’

Session continues after lunch
12:00pm Lunch
1:00pm Functional deep dives: pick your stream - Part 2

Jump back into your functional stream.
Marketing, Sales & GTM

Topics include:

  • How are we packaging and pricing for value/usage?
  • How do we engineer for compounding growth across GTM functions?
  • What tooling and tech stacks are we actually using now?
  • How do we architect GTM teams in the agentic era?
  • What does the next era of content marketing look like?

Plus, ‘who’s doing it well?’ and ‘what do we do tomorrow?’

 Product/Engineering

Topics include:

  • Are we moving towards portfolios of products now?
  • How are we moving to usage/value based pricing models?
  • What do we do with vibe coding business people?
  • What are we doing (and not doing) in our security posture?

Plus, ‘who’s doing it well?’ and ‘what do we do tomorrow?’

 People/Ops/Leadership

Topics include:

  • What org structures are people exploring?
  • What are the skills we are looking for now?
  • What kinds of leadership do we need now?
  • How do we support our people through all this?

Plus, ‘who’s doing it well?’ and ‘what do we do tomorrow?’
2:30pm Afternoon Tea
3:00pm What’s coming next? Pick your function

Leaders share the shifts to watch, the bets to place and what to stop doing. Bring your questions and best reckons.

What's next for Sales/Marketing/GTM?

Mix of panel and table chat about what's ahead, featuring:
  • Hyperpersonalisation
  • Agentic commerce
  • Semi-autonomous GTM teams

What's next for Product/Engineering?

Mix of panel and table chat about what's ahead, featuring:
  • Semi-autonomous agentic development
  • Building for agents
  • AI economics

What's next for People/Ops/Leadership

Mix of panel and table chat about what's ahead, featuring:
  • Which bits of leadership get automated
  • Distributed organisations
  • Semi-autonomous companies
4:00pm Drinks + nibbles + the first ever Total Bad SaaS Awards
6:00pm After-match drinks at a nearby bar

Venue

Where It All Happens

HNRY Stadium

Where:

HNRY Stadium Wellington

When:

Thursday 24 September 2026

The Future of SaaS Wellington takes over HNRY Stadium for a full day of learning, connection, and energy. Four purpose-configured spaces — from the 300-seat Members Gallery to intimate 70-person breakout rooms — mean every session feels like the right size for real conversation.

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What to expect

"Easily the most learning, connection and value a NZ SaaS leader could get in a day."

– Kirsti Grant
Chief People Officer, Auror

“Spend the day with your tribe; people like you, solving, the very same problems

– Serge van Dam
Investor & Director

“This will be the most useful, most action-oriented, most fun conference you’ve ever been to. Or Serge will give you your money back.”

– David Clearwater
Exec Director, KiwiSaaS

This is gonna be different: Non-traditional, with more organic learning, and a focus on real connection, inspiration, cool shit, and having fun.

Nicole Retter
Founder, PAM

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