Thanks to everyone who made Geekzone 2006 such a blast! The feedback received from participants was great, and it looks as though this event set a new level of expectations for the next one. The format for Geekzone 2006 was very different from our first meet-up in 2005, which was just drinks around a bar.

The interest in attending was tremendous, with the event being sold out in the first hours after registrations opened. Even extra seats that became available due to some people unable to attend were quickly filled and the venue was at 100% capacity!

We welcomed people from all over New Zealand, including Auckland, Dunedin, Hamilton, Hastings, Palmerston North, Taupo, Wairarapa, and Wellington.

Peter Torr Smith was at the door welcoming participants and handing out the goody bags, while our moderators Tony Hughes and Brad Stewart were inside helping us set up the stage.

The goody bags had gifts from our sponsors (featured in the sidebar), including USB memory keys from Symantec Australia/New Zealand, DataViz software and CDs, TechSmith CDs, WebIS discounts for Pocket PC software, Ilium Software discounts for Pocket PC, Smartphone and Palm software, free hosted Exchange accounts from AnywhereExchange, DVD and Guides for Microsoft Windows Vista and our Geekzone t-shirts courtesy of Telecom New Zealand d>zone.


The Keynote Speaker, Rod Drury did a great job commenting on the current state of technology, and what directions he thinks companies and developers should take to use resources available now.

We then heard from Jay Templeton on media technologies, Juha Saarinen on blogging and legal issues, Jethro Carr on myths related to Open Source, and finally Nathan Mercer who showed off Microsoft Windows Vista and some new features, as well as new applications based on .Net 3.0, such as The New York Times Reader.

During the break we draw some gifts from our sponsors flashcards.co.nz, mabode and TechSmith. Drinks were provided throughout the event thanks to Skweezer!

After the main event we moved to Little India, where Microsoft sponsored dinner. By great coincidence, Geekzone served its 100 millionth page during the dinner! How about that!

Internet access throughout the event was provided to participants, free of cost, by Telecom New Zealand T3G Mobile Broadband.

In addition to the feedback we received on the day, Tim Haines had this to say about Geekzone 2006 on his blog:

Mauricio and the Geekzone crew put on an absolutely awesome day yesterday. It involved getting 40 or so opinionated geeks into the comfy sofa's at the Paramount Cinema, and having 5 top notch speakers present.

Apart from the interesting speakers, the crowd was pretty cool too. I caught up with a guy I hadn't seen since high school. I spent the day and dinner sitting next to Richard McManus of ReadWriteWeb, and discovered he lives pretty close to me. Steve, the friendly Access guru was on the other side of me, and Peter Torr Smith (working on some secret startup) was at the door welcoming guests.

And this is from Juha Saarinen:

I can conclude that Geekzone06 was a great event. Very good speakers, including Rod Drury, Jay Templeton, Jethro Carr, and Nathan Mercer in a good venue that let the audience participate made Geekzone06 quite unique compared to anything similar I've attended.

The feedback forms show people are really enthusiastic about this format, and keen to see Geekzone 2007 happening.

I would like to thank everyone involved in the arrangements and preparation (including my wife Jann), the staff at both Paramount and Little India, our moderators Tony and Brad (and Chiefie who couldn't make it this year), all people attending the event, our speakers and sponsors (check the links on the sidebar).

In a few days we will be introducing a new blog, specifically for Geekzone 2007!

We have now a Flickr set with pictures from Geekzone 2006.

This is a picture taken just now, before we start filling the bags:


Full resolution image is available on Flickr. May I remind you that if you are blogging about Geekzone 2006 please use the tag "Geekzone 2006", and if uploading your photos to Flickr please use the tag "Geekzone2006" (one word).

Nathan is a Technologist and has been with Microsoft New Zealand for 6 years. He is presently responsible for Windows operating system evangelism to NZ IT Professionals, focusing on Platform Adoption around identity management, security and systems management.

A long-time and well-known contributor to the nz.comp newsgroup, Nathan has also been a consultant focused on Systems Management for the finance sector in Wellington and a *nix administrator for an ISP prior to joining Microsoft.

When not working Nathan can be found listening to electronic music, skydiving, or mountain biking. His blog is at http://blogs.technet.com/nmercer.


During Geekzone 2006, Nathan will talk to us about some "Windows Vista Nuggets":

Come and dig deeper into Windows Vista to uncover some of its lesser-known but still extremely cool and useful features. In this demo-intensive session, Nathan will show advances in some of the key scenarios for Windows Vista, including mobility, collaboration, speech recognition and more.

You will leave this session with the latest Release Candidate DVD of Windows Vista and an understanding how the new features will improve life for you and your colleagues.

Another company sponsoring Geekzone 2006 is DataViz. All guests attending the event will find a CD with evaluation copies of their fine software for mobile devices (Windows Mobile, Palm and Symbian) as well as a free copy of their choice of DataViz RoadSync (for Windows Mobile or Symbian) or Documents To Go (for Palm or Symbian).

Combine this great gift from DataViz with the free Exchange hosting offer provided by AnywhereExchange to our guests and you have a powerful push e-mail solution. DataViz Roadsync implements the Microsoft Direct Push protocol for older Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition devices, and for Symbian smartphones (both S60 and UIQ).


Note that users of Windows Mobile 5.0 devices do not need RoadSync, since those devices support the native Direct Push solution directly.

Welcome aboard DataViz!

As you know the Geekzone 2006 is a private event, and seats are available on a limited basis, due to the venue capacity.

Since the registrations were sold out in the first day we had some inquiries about more seats. As we now know that some guests will not be able to attend the event, we will make those available on a first in, first out basis.

If you are interested in attending Geekzone 2006 (check the keynote speaker and all the speakers in our sidebar) please contact us and we will see if seats are available when we receive your ping.

Another speaker we will have the chance to hear during the Geekzone 2006 is Jethro Carr. Jethro has many years of experience in the world of IT and Open Source Software (OSS), and has done things such as developing his own Linux distribution, and organising the Wellington Linux Users Group (Wellylug).

He currently works as a Systems Engineer for Prophecy Networks, where he develops computing solutions using OSS and Linux.

At Geekzone 2006 Jethro will talk us through "An Introduction to Open Source Software", where he will be discussing what exactly OSS and Linux are, common misconceptions/myths about OSS, how OSS and proprietary software can work together, and more.

It is time to confirm our Keynote Speaker, Rod Drury. We know it will be a great opportunity for everyone attending the event to learn from Rod, an experienced technology entrepreneur passionate about software development and building value.

The topic of his keynote will be Tech Trends and Business Opportunies for us in NZ.

There are a number of big things happening in the technology world at the moment. I will talk about technology trends that are getting me excited and especially focus on areas of opportunity for NZ tech companies.

Rod was founder and CEO of AfterMail which was acquired by Quest Software in January 2006 and subsequently won Best Exchange Product at TechEd 2006 in Boston.

Rod co-founded USA based Context Connect Incorporated which provides directory solutions for mobile devices. Prior to this Rod was CTO of Advantage Group where he spent significant time in the USA working with leading international technology companies.

In 1995 Rod established Glazier Systems, one of New Zealand's leading software development and consulting companies. Glazier Systems was acquired by Advantage Group in 1999 and continues today as Intergen, based in Wellington.

Throughout his career Rod has maintained a close relationship with Microsoft and was selected as New Zealand's first representative on the Microsoft MSDN Regional Director program, holding the role from 1997 to 2000. Rod achieved Microsoft MVP status for his work in the early days of Active Server Pages.

Rod was an Independent Director of TradeMe, New Zealand's most successful eCommerce Internet site, when it was recently sold to Australian public listed company Fairfax. He continues to be on the TradeMe Advisory Board, and also joined the NZ Trade & Enterprise Beachheads Program Advisory Board in August 2006.

We are planning to provide drinks (coffee, soft drinks, beer) as part of the main Geekzone 2006 event, at the Paramount Cinema, and to the rescue came the folks from Greenlight Wireless. The tab will be sponsored by Greenlight Wireless, the developers of Skweezer.

With Skweezer you can access mobile versions of your favourite websites, access your POP3 e-mail account, read RSS feeds and more, directly from your mobile device's web browser - Pocket PC, Smartphone, PDAs or even Java-enabled phones.


It works on devices with a web browser (such as Internet Explorer Mobile, Access Netfront, Opera Mobile) on any network. It fetches the URL you want to visit and reformats the pages to best fit the mobile device. This includes compression and reducing image sizes, to make the browsing fast and smooth on slower networks (such as GPRS and CDMA 1xRTT) or save you traffic (on faster networks such as UMTS, CDMA EVDO and HSDPA).

So, to say thanks to the guys who are sponsoring our drinks during the event, please visit Skweezer, try the service (free!) and spread the word.

I think this post "Top 10 ways to motivate geeks" is a great definition of what keeps geeks moving. It's also something to ponder, while we wait for the Geekzone 2006 kick-off:

1. Geeks are curious. Let them feed their desire to learn things
2. Geeks like to be self-sustaining. Let them figure things out on their own.
3. Geeks are creative even if they don’t know it. Give them a chance.
4. Geeks need tools, good ones. Give them more than they need.
5. Private, yet collaborative. Geeks need to be left alone, but not too alone.
6. Free stuff. T-shirts, food, desktop widgets, whatever.
7. Control
8. Geeks need recognition
9. Freedom
10. Compensation - Saved this for last, but geeks gotta live too

Looking forward to meeting all participants on Geekzone 2006!

Another sponsor is joining the Geekzone 2006 sponsors roll, if you look in the sidebar: AnywhereExchange.

The company offers hosted Microsoft Exchange accounts, including OWA and synchronisation with mobile devices. Their plans include different levels of service, from the home user to companies, including Microsoft Outlook licenses in some of the plans.

For Geekzone 2006 AnywhereExchange is offering six months of free hosted Microsoft Exchange service to all participants. Instructions will be available in the goodies bags distributed upon check in.


Anyone attending the event will be able to sign up for a Base (for personal use) or Platinum (for business use) account which will be free of charge for the first six months. If you have your own domain name AnywhereExchange will provide the details for pointing the MX record to their server, otherwise if the user requires a domain name they will be able to arrange this (at their standard rates for domain registration).

The Base account comes with 100MB storage, POP3 access, OWA (Outlook Web Access), Exchange ActiveSync for Windows Mobile devices, and Contacts. The Platinum account provides 300MB storage, POP3 access, OWA (Outlook Web Access), Exchange ActiveSync for Windows Mobile devices, Contacts, Calendar plus Shared Contacts, Calendar and Folders.

Welcome to the pack!

That's right - sponsorship is coming in from all over... This time we are announcing TechSmith, developers of SnagIt, Morae and Camtasia Studio software for Windows machines.


Using SnagIt, you can select and capture anything on your screen and share it with others to visually clarify difficult concepts, create clearer documentation, and give your presentations a professional, dynamic look.

Camtasia Studio gives you the power to easily record your screen, PowerPoint presentations, voice, and Web camera video to create compelling video tutorials, training presentations, and rich sales demonstrations for Web and CD-ROM delivery.

Morae records real-world actions, such as user speech and facial expressions, along with detailed application and computer system data to give usability professionals a unique view into the way that software and Web sites are seen and experienced.

As part of this sponsorship we will have some freebies for our swag bags, plus a few t-shirts and extra software to distribute during the event!

We are happy to confirm another sponsor for Geekzone 2006: Microsoft New Zealand will participate in this event by bringing a speaker (more information on topic and bio later in another post), and sponsoring our dinner after the main event.

Welcome to the crew!

For everyone who couldn't get past the registration (since the event filled up very quickly) or for anyone wanting to have access to the sessions after Geekzone 2006 we have some good news: Tony Hughes (The Geekzoner) will record the activities during the event, and we will post videos of those sessions here for your viewing pleasure.

Keep an eye on this blog after the event (16 September) for links and more information.

We all know what a good bunch of geeks you are, and how Internet access is important during tech events. Because of this, after talking to Telecom New Zealand, we can confirm people attending the Geekzone 2006 will have Internet access! And best of all, this will also be free.

The service will come courtesy of Telecom New Zealand and some of their nifty Wi-Fi access point with CDMA EV-DO access.

You can blog about the event, during the event, and chat in our #geekzone IRC channel while things are happening... But please be considerate with everyone else and don't go downloading a Windows VISTA ISO image.

If you or your company want to sponsor Geekzone 2006 either through some item for the goodie bags, or some item in our list of things to pay (yes, the event is free to attend, but we have some expenses!), you can contact me and we can arrange something.

What's the benefit? Your company's name publicised in front of a geek audience, people that "get IT", and influencers from around New Zealand, coming to attend this exclusive event happening here in Wellington. Your company is also announced here in this blog and linked from our sidebar.

Another company to join us and support Geekzone 2006 is Ilium Software. Ilium Software develops software for Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Windows Mobile Smartphone and Palm Powered handhelds.

Everyone attending Geekzone 2006 will receive a gift from Ilium Software in our goodie bags!

We can now confirm another speaker for the Geekzone 2006. Gary Rogers (a.k.a. Jama in our forums) has over 20 years experience working in technology and for the last 5 years has been employed by Telecom New Zealand in the field of mobile data.

Gary will bring you his experience in the areas of mobile data applications, devices and networks, spanning across sales, market/service development, product management, technical deployment and distribution.

One of the topics Gary will explore is the complexity of developing a new service that spans multiple providers, in this case the new Silent-I service recently announced by Telecom New Zealand, ADT and Navman.

If you have a Windows Mobile device, be it a Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone Edition or Smartphone, then you are lucky!

WebIS is another company sponsoring the Geekzone 2006, through their offer for the swag bags! Everyone attending Geekzone 2006 will have a gift from WebIS.

You can find all about Pocket Informant, FlexWallet, MobileSync for Plaxo, FlexMail 2006, VoiceMinder, WebIS Money 2, WebIS Toolbox 3, Journal ActiveSync and other software at their website.

Can I recommend anyone of you, either coming to Geekzone 2006 or simply talking about the event, to use "Geekzone 2006" as a technorati tag when posting about it?

If you are using the Geekzone Blogs, then you can simply enter this into the Tag List field, below the post, or if using Flickr please enter "Geekzone2006" in the tag.