In 2025, a new conference emerged in Auckland.
Revved is its chosen name, and it’s all about engineering the future.
I didn’t go in 2025. It looked flashy and way too Auckland glam for me.
Yet it got lots of positive reviews after the event, so I was up for buying a ticket in 2026 and checking it out for myself.
I bought my ticket early and, without knowing it, had gone into the draw to win a table of eight for my proactive purchase.
The week before the event, the very well-organised Revved team contacted me to say I had indeed won a table. This was kindly donated by the Generate KiwiSaver Scheme, for which I am very grateful.
Wowser.
I put a message out to the teams and, within a few hours, we had filled the table.
This went from a little bit exciting to quite a bit more exciting – having a full table of Collective Intelligence members in a prime spot on Table 5!
My expectations were high.
One of the first things that struck me was the 8.15am start time. That’s ambitious when you need to get 800 people through the doors, seated and ready to go.
But they did it.
It was a brisk morning and there was plenty of energy in the foyer, as you would expect. What I didn’t expect was a Ferrari on display from one of the sponsors as we walked into the main room.
I chuckled and thought, yep, we are definitely in Auckland.
Disclaimer: I love Auckland. It’s our only international city, I reckon. Without it, we would be Fiji but with a worse climate.
I’m not going to dissect the whole day. Instead, I want to dig into a few reflections and observations.
One of the highlights for me was the panel conversations and seeing future leaders emerging from very different backgrounds. There were some impressive people on that stage.
However, at times some were very much in performance mode, and there wasn’t a huge amount of authenticity on display.
The speakers were a good balance of youth, gender and ethnic backgrounds – tick.
At these sorts of events, I’m there to take away one or two things that really stick. Thinking you are going to remember much more than that is nonsense.
There were some great messages from Frances Valintine about being conscious when using AI, and the need to be very careful about how and what we use it for.
And another message that stuck: technology will not change a system that is broken. Only humans will.
My first big takeaway came from Nicola Taylor and her thoughts around the need to change the stories we tell ourselves.
That resonated big time.
It’s something I’ve put into my Board report for next week, as it builds nicely on the work we’ve already done in the Writers’ Room.
My other big takeaway came from Dr Alia Bojilova, who is so different from me in almost every way, yet her messages were so aligned with my thinking it was spooky.
Alia has a new fanboy in me, and I’m hoping we can meet for a coffee in the near future.
Thinking big and the need for ambition were recurring themes throughout the day. Loving our country also came up a few times, and at one point I thought Make NZ Great Again might even get a mention.
Putting on a show of this scale is a massive effort, so a big thank you has to go to the co-founders and the team working behind the scenes.
However...
In many ways, it also felt like I had stepped into a time warp.
Engineering the Future and the whole Revved brand gave me the sense we were back in an era when humans believed we were masters of the universe.
Which, of course, we aren’t.
The format felt old school, there was no interaction between the speakers and the audience, and not much focus on some of the things that matter most to humanity right now.
For a while, you could almost have believed there were no problems with biodiversity loss, poverty, climate change or, or, or...
The venue was packed, which made mingling hard work, so the network effect was limited. The room was dark, the curtains were drawn and, just outside those curtains, was the beautiful Waitematā Harbour that none of us could see.
The biggest question I was left with was: What is Revved actually trying to bring to life?
Will I go again? I think so.
If nothing else, I want to work out what they’re up to – and perhaps gather one more useful insight from the day.
Next time, though, my expectations will be lower.
