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Julie Woods

Introducing New Zealand Speaker – Julie Woods

Blonde haired woman (Julie Woods) smiling. She has a black lace top on and a pearl necklace.
Image: Julie Woods

When Julie Woods went blind in 1997 as a 31 year old mother, she thought her life had ended; little did she realise it had only just begun.

After turning down the chance to go cross-country skiing, Julie realised she wasn’t going to make a very good blind person unless she learned to say WHY NOT to opportunities that came her way. Learning to read with her fingers, embracing how to touch type and getting speech software on her computer were her first steps in gaining greater access to the world around her.

But she couldn’t stop saying WHY NOT!

Not only that, she went on to say WHY NOT to walking 10 half marathons, visiting the Seven Wonders of the World and refereeing not one, not two, but three games of nude touch rugby…

Find out what Julie did last year in response to reading a newspaper article on disability awareness that horrified her, and how it inspired her to create the Accessibility Game.

Pink flower logo for That Blind Woman. There is braille underneath that represents the same words.

Find out more…

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Phil O’Reilly

Introducing NZ Speaker – Phil O’Reilly

Man (Phil O'Reilly) in a blue suit, business shirt and tie.
Image: Phil O’Reilly

Phil O’Reilly ONZM is Managing Director of Iron Duke Partners, a Wellington based Public Policy Advisory Firm.  He is a global business leader and advocate. 

He was until recently the Chair of the Board of Business at OECD, based in Paris, which is the representative of businesses in OECD member states and was a member of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation based in Geneva.

He has worked closely with the B20, advising G20 leaders and was also a member of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC).

He has acted in a governance or advisory capacity to a number of New Zealand and overseas organisations in areas as diverse as trade, sustainability, diversity, pay equity, manufacturing, tertiary education, child poverty, social welfare and the future of work. 

He was previously Chief Executive of BusinessNZ, New Zealand’s leading business advocacy group, representing thousands of businesses of all sizes.

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Suzanne Colbert

Introducing International Speaker – Suzanne Colbert

Woman (Suzanne Colbert) in an office. She is wearing a red blazer and she is smiling.
Image: Suzanne Colbert

After stepping down as CEO of the Australian Network on Disability (AND) in December 2020, Suzanne is consulting to organisations and assisting them to recruit suitably skilled and talented people with disability. She brings clarity and simplification to understanding the complexity of employment services, providers, and programs so that organisations can create efficient and effective recruitment strategies tailored to their needs.  

Suzanne continues to support AND’s Disability Champions by equipping and encouraging newly appointed Disability Champions and facilitating meetings.

Under her leadership AND grew from 2 members with 40 employees to 310 members collectively employing 1.75 million Australians and became the ‘go to’ for employers committed to building disability confidence. AND built a suite of best practice publications, policies, facilitated and eLearning sessions and developed the Access and Inclusion Index and the Disability Confident Recruiter recognition program.

Suzanne pioneered the internationally acclaimed Stepping into Internship Program, mentoring programs, and the highly effective and successful Intellectual Disability Business Administration Traineeship program.

Prior to the Australian Network on Disability, Suzanne was the founding General Manager of a successful disability employment service for 7 years and the inaugural Chair of Ace National Network (now Disability Employment Australia).

She is a member of Disability Employment Australia’s ‘Hall of Fame’.

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Callum McKirdy

Introducing NZ Speaker – Callum McKirdy

Image: Callum McKirdy sitting on some steps in a causal pose

Callum McKirdy is a speaker, author, mentor and facilitator specialising in workplace dynamics and behaviour. With a successful 20-year career assisting leaders and teams to develop radically authentic workplaces by leveraging their uniqueness across Australasia.

Proudly dyslexic and ADHD-positive, Callum champions organisations to think differently about different thinking, and views neurodivergent people as the innovative super-workforce of the future.

Callum speaks at industry conferences, facilitates high-impact workshops, trains teams, and mentors professionals who are looking to reconnect people with purpose in their workplaces.

The author of The HR Catalyst: A Guide to the New Practice of Leading HR, published in 2019 and a contributing author to the 2020 Amazon Bestseller What The Hell Do We Do Now? – An Enterprise Guide to COVID-19 and Beyond, Callum is due to publish his second book TILT: Thinking Differently About Different Thinking in late-2021.

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Selwyn Cook

Introducing our MC – Selwyn Cook

Selwyn Cook head shot
Image: Selwyn Cook, Disability Employment Faciliator and our Conference MC

Selwyn Cook enjoyed a career as a Shell and then Z retailer in the Waikato owning and operating a multiple service station business for 27 years. His discovery of the talent pool that identified with disability had a significant impact on the positive performance of his business.

He has worked with organisations such as Workbridge, Enrich+, Idea Services and Blind & Low Vision New Zealand to recruit people with physical, mental and intellectual disabilities, In the last three years in business he employed over seventy job seekers through Workbridge alone.

Selwyn has won a number of awards for his work including the Attitude ACC Employer Award 2014, Diversity Works Diversability award in 2015, a City of Hamilton Civic award for Community, People and Wellbeing and was the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Local Hero winner for 2016. 

This led to Selwyn to take up a new challenge as the Workbridge Employer Ambassador. He has always been committed to reflecting diversity in the workplace and ensuring businesses become more inclusive of those living with a disability or illness. 

Now as an independent facilitator of Disability Employment this allows him to continue to promote the benefits to employers so to consider the disability talent pool. He is now also very much involved in supporting young disabled job seekers on their employment journey. 

His work with providers, the wider disability community and with employers not just supports the building of more inclusive workplaces but also a more inclusive New Zealand. 

Selwyn Cook in front of Z petrol station in orange high visibility vest and cap

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Brendan Roach

Introducing International Speaker – Brendan Roach

Photo of Brendan Roach smiling
Image: Brendan Roach, Director of Strategy and Networkology, PurpleSpace

Brendan is a globally respected leader in the field of disability inclusion in business.

On a mission to create impact at scale, Brendan ensures that we help disability ERGs/Networks to drive cultural change by developing our Networkology life-cycle approach to resource group development and cascading that know-how to every corner of the globe. He leads PurpleSpace’s strategy to remain and grow the world’s only network of disability employee networks and resource groups through the delivery of high-quality Learning & Development.

With 15 years’ experience supporting organisations and government in the UK and internationally to improve disability confidence, Brendan is passionate about disability inclusion in business and on a mission to create impact at scale. Prior to joining PurpleSpace, Brendan developed and led Business Disability Forum’s global strategy where he supported governments, global businesses and national business and disability networks around the globe to build a better working world for people with disabilities.

Naturally curious and a born collaborator, Brendan loves connecting people and ideas. This means you’re most likely to find him listening and working with our members and partners. A Dyslexic thinker with a gift for connecting people and ideas, Brendan is a born collaborator who loves working with others to make things happen.

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Christopher Patnoe

Introducing International Speaker – Christopher Patnoe

Man (Christopher Patnoe) dressed in a blue polo shirt, smiling.
Image: Christopher Patnoe, Head of Accessibility Programs and Disability Inclusion for Google.

Christopher Patnoe is the Head of Accessibility Programs and Disability Inclusion for Google. He leads Google’s efforts around the accessibility of product, people (both Googler and end users) and partnerships.

He has more than 20 years experience in tech working at companies like Apple, Sony Ericsson and Disney where he’s built hardware, software, and services.

His current passion is Accessibility at the intersection of immersive technologies (AR/VR) and consumer hardware. He is the chair for the Immersive Captions Community Group with the W3C, is a co-Chair of the XR Association Accessibility Working Group, and sits on the Board of Trustees for the American Foundation for the Blind and the GAAD Foundation.

Christopher has a degree in Music from UC Berkeley.

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Paula Tesoriero

Introducing our Keynote Speaker – NZ Disability Rights Commissioner, Paula Tesoriero MNZM

Paula Tesoriero dressed in a black suit jacket, with her MNZM award ribbon on her lapel.
Image: Paula Tesoriero MNZM, New Zealand’s Disability Rights Commissioner

Paula Tesoriero is New Zealand’s Disability Rights Commissioner. It is her role to protect and promote the rights of disabled New Zealanders.

Paula is Chef de Mission for the NZ Paralympic team heading to Toyko. She is also a Paralympian cycling gold medalist, a former lawyer,  was a general manager at Stats NZ and at the Ministry of Justice. She is a life trustee with the Halberg Foundation, and has held a range of governance roles on various Boards, and she is a mum.

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Sponsorship

Sponsorship Opportunities

The inaugural NZ Disability Employers’ Network Conference ‘Disability Inclusive Pathways’ will be held on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th July 2021 at the Novotel Lakeside Rotorua, New Zealand. Sponsorship revenue significantly reduces the overall cost of participation, allowing more attendees to participate in this conference.

The Audience

The conference is projected to be attended by 60 – 100 delegates, making up a powerful network of business leaders, diversity and human resource professionals, industry experts and influencers from across the public, private and for-purpose sectors.

Benefits to you

The NZDEN ‘Disability Inclusive Pathways’ Conference offers an exceptional opportunity for organisations to connect with other organisations committed to advancing disability career and inclusion outcomes and fostering a culture of true belonging of disabled people in the workplace.

The conference will include workshops and presentations from leading national and international experts, practitioners and people with lived experience, and will allow sponsors the chance to showcase their position as leaders for the inclusion of disabled people.

In addition to the reputational benefits, the conference also provides significant opportunities to network with and influence senior decision makers from leading New Zealand businesses.

Sponsorship offering

We have four levels of sponsorship available for the conference. In addition to the packages outlined we are happy to discuss a tailored sponsorship solution that meets your organisations specific objectives.

Early confirmation of your sponsorship will ensure a higher level of exposure.

Major Sponsor (Limited to 2)
$5,000 + GST

Major Sponsors will benefit from significant opportunities to demonstrate their position as a leader in accessibility and disability inclusion.

Return on investment:

  • Organisation logo displayed as a Major Sponsor on digital and printed promotional materials, including:
    • Event signage
    • Newsletter e-mail outs
    • Conference programme
    • Holding slides
  • Organisation logo to be displayed on the conference web page with a link back to the organisations website
  • Opportunity to insert promotional material into the conference packs (approx. 60 – 100)
  • One half page full-colour advertisement in the conference programme, printed and also made available digitally to attendees
  • 30 minute speaking slot
  • Exhibition space at the conference
  • Display up to six branded banners throughout
  • the venue and on or near the stage. (Banners to be supplied by the sponsor)
  • Acknowledgment as Major Sponsors by the MC throughout the event
  • Two complimentary tickets for the conference, including accommodation (single) and full meal packages. Additional tickets available at member rates.

Technology Sponsor (Limited to 1)
$3,000 + GST

Technology Sponsors will be able to demonstrate their innovation in accessibility and disability inclusion by helping to ensure that event material can be accessed via technology.

Return on investment:

  • Organisation logo displayed as the Technology Sponsor on digital and printed promotional materials, including:
    • Newsletter e-mail outs
    • Conference programme
    • Holding slides
  • Organisation logo to be displayed on the conference web page with a link back to the organisations website
  • One opportunity to insert promotional material into the conference packs (approx. 60 – 100)
  • One half page full-colour advertisement in the conference programme, printed and also made available digitally to attendees
  • Exhibition space at the conference
  • One complimentary ticket for the conference, including accommodation (single) and full meal package. Additional tickets available at member rates.

General Sponsor
$2,000 + GST

General Sponsors will benefit from the opportunity to demonstrate their position as a leader in accessibility and disability inclusion.

Return on investment:

  • Organisation logo displayed on digital and printed promotional materials, including:
    • Newsletter e-mail outs
    • Conference programme
  • Organisation logo to be displayed under the General Sponsors section on the conference web page with a link back to the organisations website
  • One complimentary ticket for the conference, including accommodation (single) and full meal package. Additional tickets available at member rates.

Exhibitor (Limited to 6)
$1080 + GST

With a limited amount of exhibition space available, this is a great opportunity to connect with delegates on a one to one basis.

Return on investment:

  • Organisation logo to be displayed under the Exhibitors section on the conference web page with a link back to the organisations website
  • One opportunity to insert promotional material into the conference packs (approx. 60 – 100)
  • Exhibition space at the conference (one trestle table and outlet)
  • One complimentary ticket for the conference, including accommodation (single) and full meal package.

Custom sponsorship packages

Custom sponsorship packages available by negotiation e.g. providing NZSL interpreters, video captioning services, etc. Contact us on 09 242 0511 or email events@accessibilitytick.nz for more information.

Advertising

Programme advertising rates

Full page colour ad (210mm x 297mm) $450 + GST
Half page colour ad (210mm x 145mm) $250 + GST
Quarter page colour ad (100mm x 145mm) $150 + GST
Business card sized colour ad (90mm x 55mm) $110 + GST

If you would like to discuss any of the Sponsorship or Advertising Opportunities further, please contact us on 09 242 0511 or email events@accessibilitytick.nz

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Getting there and parking

Getting there

Located in central North Island, Rotorua is less than 3 hours drive from Auckland and 90 minutes from Hamilton. All major NZ cities have direct flights to Rotorua, with connecting flights to many others.

The conference venue is the Novotel Rotorua Lakeside
Address: Lake End, Tutanekai Street, Rotorua 3010.

The hotel is a 10 minute drive from Rotorua Airport.

Parking

There is free parking, including accessible parking, on-site as well as street parking.

Find out more…