AI Brunch v3.0 - Tradition is Innovation

'Anau Mesui-Henry is a Tongan entrepreneur, kava practitioner, and cultural leader born in Tonga and raised in Māngere East Tāmaki who in 2019 co-founded Auckland City's first kava lounge, Four Shells Kava Lounge at Victoria Park Market, alongside her husband, photographer and PhD candidate Todd Henry. Her business is rooted in her experiences having grown up in a kava family who migrated to Aotearoa in the late 80s, and is a tribute to her elderly parents who are ‘Anau’s biggest inspirations.

Through her kava lounge ‘Anau runs her KAVA initiative – a talanoa platform for sharing sensitive topics like mental distress that she’s delivered across the North Island. She’s also a research and cultural consultant, having worked on the Pacific Pay Gap Report at the Human Right’s Commission. Her work has been recognised with the Sunpix Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Pacific Enterprise Award (2022), featured on the cover of Viva Magazine, and presented at international conferences in Tanzania and Tonga, cementing her as one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading voices for Pacific culture, wellbeing, and the revival of kava as both a communal and healing practice.

Ngāti Ruanui

Dan Te Whenua Walker is founder and Chief Executive of Te Whare o Toitū AI, a kaupapa Māori AI company. He spent seven years at Microsoft before leaving to build technology grounded in Māori values and data sovereignty.

He chairs the Child Cancer Foundation board and is a director of Tātaki Auckland Unlimited and NZ Māori Tourism, and he is a doctoral candidate at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi researching Indigenous approaches to AI.

Kia ora, I'm Isaac (Te Aupōuri, Te Whakatōhea), founder and Managing Director of RIVER Group.

I've spent more than 20 years building digital products and platforms for organisations like Counties Manukau DHB, UNESCO, Edison Health, UniMed Insurance and the Mental Health Foundation. Today RIVER builds the AI and technology that ambitious organisations run on: 1,000+ projects delivered, a 100% delivery rate, and clients who typically stay with us 8+ years.

Three years ago we rebuilt RIVER around AI. We kept seeing the same thing: teams adopting AI, but nothing really changing. Now we lead, coach, and build teams into the AI era:
• Lead: know where you stand with AI and where to go next
• Coach: your people using AI on the work they actually do
• Build: the AI-first command centre and AI solutions your organisation runs on

You own your data, your workflows, and your IP. Always. We build AI that empowers people, not replaces them (we've turned down work that would simply replace a team, and we will again). Done well, AI gives your team room to do their best work, and increases your output without hiring.

Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau A Apanui, Te Arawa

Born and raised in rural nz,  Mihi Tibble is the founder of Tiaho Mai Ltd, providing strategy, consultancy and development training grounded in whakapapa and pūrākau. Over thirty years she's held senior executive and leadership roles across the Crown, NGO and corporate worlds. She's also  entrepreneur who has owned a number of small businesses, co-founded Tuhi Stationery, The Hina Collective, and now Wāhine Who Build, a membership platform teaching wāhine to build with AI.

Over the last four years she's brought AI into her consultancy and training, supporting and teaching NGOs, education providers, iwi and marae. Purpose and people first, always, tools second. An absolute "non-techy," she understands the mahi, the industry and the people.  Her style is practical, interactive and fun, using AI to sharpen, innovate, elevate and open new ground shaped by those who work with whānau and communities by building what matters.