The Internet Research Group of Otago is pleased to announce that our second guest speaker at the inaugural IRGO unConference 2009: NZ’s Digital Futures is Rod Snodgrass, Telecom NZ’s Group Strategy Director.

As Group Strategy Director, Rod Snodgrass drives the development of Telecom’s Group Strategy with the aim of optimising Telecom’s portfolio of businesses and initiatives, including Group corporate development, and coordinating Telecom’s transformation and growth agendas. Prior to becoming Group Strategy Director, Rod held a number of positions in Telecom, including GM Group Strategy and Development, GM of the Wired Division, including Telecom’s retail fixed-line, voice, data and internet businesses, and GM of Xtra.  Rod has also held various financial, commercial and business development roles in the division. Rod joined Telecom in 1998 after seven years in various strategy, business development and commercial roles in the oil and gas exploration and production industry. Hailing from Nelson in the South Island, Rod spent his youth in Nelson and New Plymouth before graduating from Wellington’s Victoria University with a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration.

Drawing on his diverse experience in NZ telecommunications, Rod will be addressing the conference’s closing remarks, and joins our opening guest speaker, Professor Greg Hearn, from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

The inaugural IRGO unConference will be held at the Centre for Innovation, the University of Otago, Dunedin New Zealand, from the 23-24th November, 2009.  Information about the unConference is available online at http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/glance.html

If you would like to join us at this event, there are still limited places available to register for the unConference, but places are filling fast.  Registration is free, and the registration form is available online at:  http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/registration.html

The unConference submission site is also still open for submissions and voting.  To nominate a topic you would like to see discussed at the unConference, or to vote on topics already suggested, please head to:  http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/submissions.html You do not need to be registered to submit a topic for the unConference, or to vote topics up or down.  The topics with the most  votes will make it onto the unConference schedule, so check back often to vote on the new submissions!

We look forward to seeing you at what is shaping up to be a fascinating event.  In the meantime, if you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact the organizing committee at irgo@otago.ac.nz