During my time at Massey University I initiated and led the project to bring the first MIT affiliated Fab Lab to Australasia. This consisted of pitching to host the International Fab Lab conference during the event in Peru, 2011, as well as lobbying for, designing and building Fab Lab Wgtn, with a team of 12. I also worked closely with the Centre for Bits and Atoms (CBA) and its Director, Neil Gershenfeld.

Both the conference and Fab Lab Wgtn were a huge success. The seven-day conference – Fab8NZ – attracted visitors from nearly every continent and the one-day public symposium held at the Michael Folwer Centre hosted 300 attendees, who saw a range of presentations from companies including Weta Digital, NASA and Arup.

There are soon-to-be three Fab Labs in New Zealand – Fab Lab WGTN alongside facilities in Christchurch and Masterton. It’s humbling to think I played a pivotal role in bringing this amazing network to New Zealand.