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    New Zealand's premier business summit is back. 

    Wednesday, 6th May 
    8:30AM - 7:30PM 
    Auckland Viaduct Events Centre

    New Zealand is at an inflection point. The businesses that win the next decade won't be the ones who waited, they'll be the ones who got in the room, made the connections, and went back to work with a different mindset.
    Ignite'26 is where that happens.
     
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    It's time to Ignite'26!

    New Zealand's economy needs its best operators at their best. That's the challenge, and the opportunity, that Ignite'26 is built around.

    We're bringing together the founders who've scaled from the garage to global, the disruptors who've rewritten entire industries, and the coaches who've built champion mindsets that perform when it counts.

    This isn't a day of theory. It's a day of hard-won lessons, genuine connections, and renewed conviction in what's possible — for your business, and for New Zealand.

    One day. The right people. Your next breakthrough.

    Icehouse Alumni

    $ 499 + GST

    Open to Icehouse Alumni & their team members

    BOOK NOW

    General Admission

    $ 599 + GST

    Open to all business people

    BOOK NOW

    2026 Speakers: Meet the minds driving New Zealand forward.

    Ignite'26 brings together operators, disruptors, and high-performance coaches who've actually done it. Each speaker has skin in the game and a story worth hearing.

    melisssa clark-reynolds

    Melissa Clark-Reynolds (ONZM)

    Futurist
    Melissa started university at 15, built a health and safety consultancy that became NZ's largest private workers compensation insurer, and today runs FutureCentre.nz, teaching digital governance and strategy at the NZ Institute of Directors.
    craig p

    Craig Piggott

    Halter
    Craig is the 2026 New Zealand Innovator of the Year, grew up on a Waikato dairy farm, built satellites at Rocket Lab, then founded Halter in 2016, a virtual fencing company with collars on over 500,000 cattle across New Zealand, Australia, and the US.
    david n

    David Niethe

    Mental Performance Coach
    Dave Niethe is a mental performance coach and speaker with 30 years working with elite athletes, coaches, and business leaders — he's worked with Lydia Ko and Israel Adesanya, and contributed to the NZ Breakers' 2015 NBL Championship.
    NerolieCurran

    Nerolie Curran

    Executive Performance Coach
    Nerolie is a partner and executive coach at Propel Performance Group, with a background in senior leadership at Nike and Red Bull, her own strategy consultancy, and coaching work spanning C-suite executives, Formula 1 teams, Olympic athletes, and tech startup founders.
    pic and aimee

    Pic Picot & Aimee McCammon

    Pic's Peanut Butter
    Pic Picot started making peanut butter in his Nelson garage in 2007 after one bad jar and a repurposed concrete mixer; his stepdaughter Aimee McCammon, who built brands at Whittaker's and Saatchi & Saatchi, became CEO in 2023 and has since grown Pic's to 41% of the NZ market.
    danny tomsett

    Danny Tomsett

    Uneeq
    Danny sold his first telco at 25, won the Sir Richard Branson Virgin Business Challenge, then founded UneeQ in 2016 - an AI digital human platform whose projects include a Cate Blanchett-voiced avatar for Australia's disability insurance scheme and a recreation of Albert Einstein with HUJI.
    puroteam

    Tim Aldridge & Sank Macfarlane

    Puro NZ
    Sank Macfarlane spent his career in international banking and agribusiness finance, Tim Aldidge was running multimillion-dollar events and hire businesses from age 22, and in 2018 the two co-founded Puro, converting Winterhome Farm — six generations of Macfarlane family land — into one of New Zealand's largest outdoor medicinal cannabis operations.
    GrantElliott26

    Grant Elliott

    International Cricketer
    Grant Elliott is a Johannesburg-born, Wellington-based former Black Cap who played over 100 games for New Zealand and hit the six that sent the team to their only Cricket World Cup final, and today draws on that experience as a speaker on what it takes to build teams that perform under pressure.
    AbbieMckoy

    Abbie McKoy

    Interim Co-CEO of Young Enterprise
    Abbie McKoy is Co-CEO at Young Enterprise, where she leads partnerships, funding, and storytelling to help over 5,000 young people a year build real business skills, drawing on a background across government, social impact, and entrepreneurship.
    gary charlotte

    Gary and Charlotte Altenburg

    My Little Pub
    Gary and Charlotte Altenburg had spent 23 years running MWF Manufacturing, a Christchurch joinery business, when the COVID lockdown gave Gary — who'd fitted out dozens of pubs around New Zealand — the idea to build one small enough for someone's backyard, and My Little Pub has been delivering custom pubs to happy customers across the country since December 2020.
    David Downs

    David Downs

    CEO of NZ Story & Chairman of Icehouse
    David Downs was given less than a year to live in 2018, beat cancer through a last-chance CAR T-cell trial in the US, and now runs charity Down with Cancer to bring that treatment home — in between serving as CEO of The New Zealand Story, chairing The Icehouse, and drawing on a past life as a comedian, Microsoft regional director, and published author.
    Olivia Blaylock

    Olivia Blaylock

    CEO of Icehouse & Icehouse Alumni
    Olivia Blaylock won Marketer of the Year at the Child Cancer Foundation, spent 12 years co-owning and running business training company David Forman, and is now CEO of The Icehouse — a place she first walked into as a participant on its Owner Manager Programme in 2011.

    DEBATE: What does the next term mean for your business?

    There's an election coming, and what that means for business owners is genuinely unclear. Steven Joyce, Bernard Hickey, and Christina Leung will each have a different answer to that, and that's exactly why it's worth hearing all three. Joyce ran the government's finances. Hickey has spent years asking the questions mainstream economists sidestep. Leung brings the NZIER data to back up what she's saying. Paddy Gower moderates, which means no one gets to dodge. Should be a good one.

    Bernard Hickey

    Bernard Hickey

    Journalist and Political Commentator
    chrstina leung

    Christina Leung

    Principal Economist at NZIER
    steven joyce

    Steven Joyce

    Former NZ Finance Minister and Entrepreneur
    patrick gower

    Patrick Gower

    Journalist

    Is Ignite'26 for you?

    If you're leading a New Zealand business and you're serious about growth, yes.

    Ignite'26 is built for:

    • Owners and leaders of NZ SMEs ready to move, not wait
    • C-suite and senior decision-makers driving change inside growing organisations
    • Business development and operations leads in growth-focused companies
    • Anyone who refuses to accept that the current climate is as good as it gets

    We bring together people from different industries and different stages on purpose. The ideas that shift your thinking rarely come from inside your own sector.

    What You'll Gain

    Hear directly from founders and operators who've navigated the hard yards. Real stories, real decisions, real results. Leave with frameworks that change how you think about your own business.

    A room full of New Zealand's most motivated business owners and leaders. Every conversation is a potential collaboration, referral, or reminder that you're not doing this alone.

    Walk away with practical strategies and renewed clarity on where to focus your energy. Your notebook will be full and your motivation even fuller.

    Ignite'26 is designed for decision-makers. Every session is built to speak directly to the people driving New Zealand's most exciting private businesses — and to send you back to work ready to move.

    Agenda

    To come

     

    FAQs

     Yes — catering is included throughout the day, morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea. 

     Absolutely. Coffee available throughout the day at the venue. 

     If you run or lead a New Zealand business and you're focused on growth, yes. Ignite'26 is designed for every stage — from emerging businesses to established operators looking for the next level. 

     Yes. The schedule is designed so you can catch every speaker across the full day. 

     Smart casual or business wear — whatever helps you show up at your best. 

     Yes. If you're bringing 8–10 people and would like a reserved table, email us at grow@theicehouse.co.nz.

     Tickets can be refunded up to 31 March 2026. Transfers to another attendee are welcome — contact us directly.