Innovation Chatter Club

We bring together two people who are thinking about train stations of the future. A topic that might sound niche but many should be very interested in for the impact how we live, work, socialise and generally experience cities. We're joined by Chris Burchett from BAI Communications and Jaspal Singh from UITP who are both running projects looking at what future stations might look like. 

We talk about what stations are, why they matter, how they could evolve and where groups are coming together to make it happen. 

Let's talk about yoof....young people, the next generation that stodgy old white blokes sitting at the top of so many organizations just don't understand. We're joined by the amazing Winnie Ogwang & Rosie Baker from Living Proof and Matt Cebulski, a so-called metaverse 'expert' ;) .... love you Matt!

We talk about how companies can better serve the next generation, some of the simple ways of going about it, how to be real and why Harry Potter might not be so loved by the young 'uns of today. 

We need to talk about the office ... the actual place many of us go to work, not the TV show, ok a bit about the TV show. As we enter what is hopefully the closing stage of the pandemic and employers get to bringing people back to places of work again, we need to talk about what an office should really be about. 

We can't go back to the monotony, the miserable commute, the drab cubicle or ill advised hotdesking situation. Our guest, Dave Cairns, is one of the most enlightened and opinionated people about the future of commercial real estate and the ideal person to explore what a better future could look like. 

Governments around the world are in the process of decriminalizing and legalizing the likes of cannabis and psychedelics so we thought it would be great to talk with people building ventures in this new economy. Peter Reitano and Jeff Goldenberg share their experience from Canadian and Californian legalization, what went well, what could have been done differently and explore what it might mean in places around the world. 

We get a bit sidetracked towards the end, chatting about how the metaverse as a term might be the new 'mobile internet' .... did any of you say you were just off to listen to this podcast on the mobile internet? Nope. Didn't think so. 

In this episode, Iain chats with Nick Sherrard and Maxine Mackie about procurement. Wait, don't run away just yet! What if we told you why procurement is the hottest and most exciting department of any big business right now? We discuss how procurement hold the keys to unlocking innovation and how new tools can make companies find vendors that will be more efficient, effective and ethical. 

Iain chats with his old boss, Phil Clarke - founder of Hunch and author of Pioneers Wanted. We discuss what it takes to write a book on innovation, voice some of our frustrations with what it takes to pioneer in a big business and discuss how New Zealand develops pioneers for the rest of the world to envy.

In this episode, Nick and Iain chat with Andy Nulman about the world of sport as well as his MBA class at McGill. Andy is one of those inspiring pioneers who make stuff happen. We bounce around from how the world of sports needs to evolve and the part Andy is playing with a minor hockey league as well as how he's teaching a future generation of corporate leaders to think and act differently. 

Following on from the COP26 event, we talk about what it means for businesses. Nick considers how financial services might be leading the way when it comes to sustainability while Ramy exposes some deep issues he has with that word. We shame online retailers, ponder why the definition of last mile should probably mean something different entirely and get a bit worked up about a $14 head of broccoli.