Innovatek delivers world class events and digital platforms - Connecting industry with the latest technology, innovation & intelligence

Technology Events

We create innovative event platforms to promote local and international innovation to industry. Over the last 20 years we have run over 500 major technology events throughout New Zealand, Australia and North America.

Digital News Platforms

We create digital platforms to provide the latest news, innovations and intelligence to industry. This includes publishing Australasia's two leading forestry industry e-newsletters, Friday Offcuts and WoodWeek.

Upcoming Events

Innovatek's platform of events showcases the best and brightest minds from the primary sector and around the world.

Download Events Calendar

November 2023

ForestTECH 2023

14-15 November 2023, Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND
21-22 November 2023, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

The ForestTECH series, run annually since 2007, is the ‘must-attend’ technology event for all forest resource managers, remote sensing, GIS and mapping specialists and inventory foresters from across Australasia.

May 2024

Wood Transport & Logistics 2024

22-23 May 2024
Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND + Virtual Online

Insights into wood handling & transport innovations, automation, log scheduling & logistics being employed by leading forestry, wood harvesting and log transport companies.

Sponsoring or Exhibiting?

If interested in sponsoring or being involved with displays at any of these planned events in 2021 (best to book early as these are sold out every year), please contact FIEA’s Marketing & Sponsorship Manager:

Gordon Thomson, (+64) 7 921 1384, (+64) 27 275 8022, gordon.thomson@innovatek.co.nz.

Longer term sponsorship and branding opportunities can also be discussed.

Wanting to Present?

If interested in presenting at the MobileTECH, HarvestTECH, WoodTECH or ForestTECH events please contact:

Brent Apthorp, FIEA Director, (+64) 3 470 1902, (+64) 21 227 5177, brent.apthorp@fiea.org.nz.

If interested in presenting at ForestTECHX, Forest Safety & Technology, ProteinTECH, Carbon Forestry or WoodWorks events please contact:

John Stulen, FIEA Director, (+64) 7 921 1382, (+64) 27 275 8011, john.stulen@innovatek.co.nz.

Wanting to Attend?

If interested in attending any of these events, all details, including how to register, can be found on the event's website. You will also be able to subscribe to receive email updates about the event.

We run a wide range of events and focus on new technologies and innovations within the primary sector. New Innovatek events will be featured on this events calendar.

Recent Events

WoodWorks 2023 | North Island

19-20 September 2023
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND

This event brings together engineered wood design and construction, timber producers, architects, project managers, designers, fit-out specialists, quantity surveyors, BIM specialists and engineers. For 2023 we are planning two regional conferences – one in the South Island in March 2023 and the second in the North Island in September.

Carbon Forestry 2023

29-30 August 2023
Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand’s ETS changes have delivered positive interest and investment. Rises in carbon prices have seen local emitters with emission obligations become motivated to form collectives to purchase marginal land suited to afforestation to establish forest portfolios.

Residues to Revenues 2023

25-26 July 2023
Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND + Virtual Online

The 2023 event will build on the technologies and innovations profiled for bio-fuel harvesting and collection, handling and transport.

Environmental Forestry 2023

20-21 June 2023
Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND

This event brings together key technical and management people from industry and government. It is designed both for people with boots on the ground and those planning operations to meet policy requirements.

Wood Transport & Logistics 2023

24-25 May 2023
Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND + Virtual Online

The time is right to bring this part of the industry together to learn about technology developments being employed to assist in harvest and transport planning, logistics & log transport operations.

WoodWorks 2023 | South Island

28-29 March 2023
Christchurch, NEW ZEALAND

This event brings together engineered wood design and construction, timber producers, architects, project managers, designers, fit-out specialists, quantity surveyors, BIM specialists and engineers. For 2023 we are planning two regional conferences – one in the South Island in March 2023 and the second in the North Island in September.

ForestTECH 2022

15-16 November 2022, Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND
22-23 November 2022, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

The ForestTECH series, run annually since 2007, is the ‘must-attend’ technology event for all forest resource managers, remote sensing, GIS and mapping specialists and inventory foresters from across Australasia.

WoodWorks 2022

9 November 2022
Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND

The 8th annual WoodWorks mass timber conference brings together leaders in engineered wood design and construction. Mass timber technology developments, including LVL and CLT, prefabrication and connection systems are set to transform commercial building.

Carbon Forestry 2022

9-10 August 2022
Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand’s ETS changes have delivered positive interest and investment. Recent rises in carbon prices have seen local emitters with emission obligations become motivated to form collectives to purchase marginal land suited to afforestation to establish forest portfolios. This event is designed for a wide range of local and international managers and investor delegates.

Residues to Revenues 2022

26-27 July 2022
Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND + Virtual Online

We have the potential to transform the forestry sector into a provider of biofuels, bioenergy and a range of renewable bioproducts. This event helps you understand the real value of energy tied up in wood residues.

Environmental Forestry 2022

28-29 June 2022
Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND + Virtual Online

Improving our environmental performance brings both challenges and rewards. For the first time, this event will bring together a wide range of foresters working on improving industry outcomes.

WoodWorks 2021/22

2 March 2022
Virtual Event Only

Woodworks brings together leaders in engineered timber design and showcases mass timber developments.

ForestTECH 2021/22

23-24 February 2022
Virtual Event Only

New technologies in new forest
inventory, data capture, reporting and management systems.

Carbon Forestry 2021

15-16 June 2021
Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND

Forestry is New Zealand’s largest potential carbon sink and, as the ETS continues to grow in importance to NZ businesses, so will its investment future.

HarvestTECH 2021

13-14 April 2021
- Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND
- In-Person + Virtual Online Event

New technologies in wood transport, log measurement and scaling and mechanised harvesting.

Forest Industry Safety Summit 2021

13 April 2021
- Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND
- In-Person + Virtual Online Event

New practices, systems and tools for improving forest safety.

MobileTECH Ag 2021

23-24 March 2021
- Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND
- In-Person + Virtual Online Event

Showcasing the digital technologies transforming the agricultural, horticultural and forestry sectors.

ForestTECH 2020

18-19 November 2020
- Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND
- In-Person + Virtual Online Event

New technologies in forest data collection, remote sensing and inventory management

WoodWorks 2020

20-21 October 2020
Rotorua, NEW ZEALAND

Woodworks brings together leaders in engineered timber design and showcases mass timber developments.

WoodTECH 2020

Dates: 13-24 July 2020
Online Series of 6 Webinars

Timber Manufacturing, Dry-mill Optimisation and Robotics & Automation.

Forest Industry Safety Summit 2020

16-18 June 2020
Online Series of 4 Webinars

New practices, systems and tools for improving forest safety.

MobileTECH AG 2020

April 2020 - Now an Online Event
New Zealand

Showcasing the digital technologies transforming the agricultural, horticultural and forestry sectors.

ForestTECH 2019

13-14 November 2019
Melbourne, Australia

19-20 November 2019
Rotorua, New Zealand

Australasia’s leading technology event for forest resource managers, remote sensing, GIS, mapping and inventory foresters.

WoodTECH 2019

11-12 September 2019
Rotorua, New Zealand

17-18 September 2019
Melbourne, Australia

Showcased the latest wood scanning, sawmilling equipment and mill maintenance tools.

Changing Perceptions 2019

3 September 2019
Auckland, New Zealand

Growing the capability and use of wood in commercial and multi-residential buildings throughout our cities.

ProteinTECH 2019

30-31 July 2019
Auckland, NEW ZEALAND

What alternative protein means for the New Zealand primary industries and what opportunities we have to get on board.

HarvestTECH 2019

26-27 June 2019
Rotorua, New Zealand

Showcased new innovations and operating practices suited to our local harvesting operations.

HarvestTECHx 2019

13-14 March 2019
Vancouver, Canada

Showcased new innovations and operating practices suited to our North American harvesting operations.

MobileTECH 2019

3-4 April 2019
Rotorua, New Zealand

Showcased digital technologies transforming the agricultural, horticultural and forestry sectors.

Event Management

Trusted, Experienced and Skilled. We have organised and run more than 500 events throughout New Zealand, Australia & North America over 20 years. While we have a wide range of conference and exhibition clients, our reputation has been built around a close connection with the primary sector and an understanding on how technology and innovation impacts on these industries.

Our events include a wide range of:

Conferences

Exhibitions / Tradeshows

Workshops / Seminars

Awards Nights / Industry Dinners

Events Organisation

Organising and running an event is a complex and time consuming process – there is so much that can go wrong. We are here to make that whole process easy, seamless and stress free for you.

We can cover a range of event management services:

Conference planning
Full design of speaking programme
Event branding and marketing
Sponsorship acquisition
Event registrations
Speaker, sponsor & delegate management
Event execution

We offer a wide range of conference and event management services designed to give you the best possible experience. Please contact us for a full set of event design and management services. We will ensure your event will attract the right delegates, presenters and trade exhibitors to meet and exceed your expectations.

Innovatek are professional event organisers, with offices in Rotorua and Dunedin, New Zealand and Melbourne, Australia. We have a wide range of conference and exhibition clients and our well-deserved reputation spans more than 20 years.

Event Services

Events are made up of many individual components. While we specialise in the complete package, we can also help in a number of areas, including:

Independent advice on venue selection
Venue liaison and coordination
Managing event action plans for organising committees
Project management and scheduling
Helping prepare event budgets, pricing and financial statements
Event promotion and advertising
Event marketing including online campaigns, brochure design, production and distribution
Event website design and management
Sponsorship sourcing and exhibition management
Management of delegates’ registrations
Social programme organisation and coordination
Speaker management
Proceedings collation, design, printing and distribution
‘Hands-on’ personal and professional event services on the day
Post event management to maximise your event’s impact

With our proven knowledge, attention to detail and capability to deliver innovative, customised, professional and successful events throughout Australasia, Innovatek looks forward to hearing from you.

Testimonials

Dr Ruud Kleinpaste, Entomologist (The Bugman)

“I have nothing but praise for the manner in which Innovatek organised and executed this Conference. It was one of the smoothest events I have ever attended and it was done with class and character. The catering was perfectly organised, the timing was impeccable, the venue “dressed” appropriately and with style.”

Warren Grigsby, Scion, Member of PRBBCS Organisation Committee

“For me personally, the value of Innovatek came in the last couple of months prior to the conference and the week of the conference. Organising a conference is a thankless task, but with many of the administrative tasks handled by Innovatek we, as a conference organising committee, found the burden taken off us in the last weeks leading up to the conference.”

Dave Little, Manager, Harvesting & Marketing, Crown Forestry

“Where there has been an opportunity for an evening event, such as a guest/celebrity speaker Innovatek have staged some very successful evenings, normally over an organised dinner. I personally would recommend Innovatek to any organisation considering holding a top class conference.”

Peter Hall, Project Leader, SCION

“The speakers & presentations were of a high standard and the networking opportunities excellent. The effort put in to get the speakers organised and their presentations published prior to the conference was much appreciated. The conference staff were very helpful and professional.”

Willie Shaw & Chris Bycoft, Conference Convenors

“On behalf of the New Zealand Ecological Society conference organising committee, we wish to thank you very much for your excellent work with our annual conference in Rotorua. It was an excellent conference, as reflected in the many positive comments from attendees from throughout NZ and from other countries.”

Rob Mallinson, Managing Director, Living Energy

“I have attended at least seven large conferences organised by Innovatek in both Australia and New Zealand. All these events have been run in an extremely professional manner. There have been no glitches or detail forgotten – which can make all the difference to the attendee. Their experience seems to ensure that proceedings flow well, allowing a full schedule and value for money for the attendee and the exhibitors. I would have no qualms at all in recommending Innovatek.”

Mary Drummond, Marketing and Administration Advisor, Energy for Industry

“We found Innovatek's professionalism, organisation and execution of the Wood Energy Conference consistent with previous involvement over several years. Once again the event was very well orchestrated in every aspect of contact.”

Brian Richardson PhD, Group Manager, New Forests and Forest Science, Scion

“The International Forest Bio-security Conference hosted by Scion was a tremendous success by any measure. Innovatek played a significant part in that success by ensuring the event was run seamlessly and to budget, guests were well looked after, and everything ran according to schedule. Many participants rated this conference as the best or one of the best conferences they had been to.”

David Reid, Solutions Development Manager, Energy for Industry

“One of the better conferences I have attended in terms of organisation and balance – fantastic.”

Digital News Platforms

We publish a range of e-newsletters with the aim to better connect industry with the latest news, technologies, innovation and market intelligence.

Our two major e-newsletters are Friday Offcuts and WoodWeek. Both e-newsletters are read by 10,000 each week and have, for the last 15 years, been leaders in their respective industries for weekly news and current events.

Communication with industry members is a vital element to any organisation and providing a well-run e-newsletter is the best way to keep everyone informed on the current happenings within your industry. E-newsletters are also a great way to bring a community together and help spread the knowledge about new technologies to improve their business.

These digital news platforms are recognised as the leading weekly news sources in the Australian and New Zealand forestry sectors.

We have also developed WoodTECH.news, ForestTECH.news and HarvestTECH.news as regular targeted newsletters to key industries within the forestry and wood products sector.

We have developed proprietary technology and processes for the creation and management of digital news platforms. We would love to talk to you further about how this could help you and your industry.

For details on advertising in any of our industry newsletters or event sponsorship in general, please contact Gordon Thomson via (+64) 7 921 1384 or gordon.thomson@innovatek.co.nz.

Industry Newsletters

Friday Offcuts

The leading weekly newsletter on the latest industry news read by the Australasian forest products industry.

ForestTECH.News

A monthly newsletter providing the latest updates relevant to forest resource management and planning in Australasia.

WoodTECH.News

A monthly newsletter providing the latest updates on sawmilling, wood manufacturing and wood products companies in Australasia.

HarvestTECH.News

A monthly newsletter providing the latest updates for wood harvesting and transport operations throughout Australasia.

About Us

Innovatek started in 1998 as a technology transfer event management company and has well over two decades within the industry.

A large part of the initial business has been in running the Forest Industry Engineering Association (FIEA) and an extensive series of technical programmes for forestry and wood products companies. Over 500 programmes throughout New Zealand and Australia have been run to date. These provide an independent forum for local companies to evaluate new technologies.

FIEA is well established as a leading provider of technology transfer services for forest products companies throughout Australasia. It has very strong linkages and partnership arrangements with most major technology providers, equipment suppliers, research institutions and industry associations throughout the region.

Innovatek has since run additional technology transfer events into a number of primary sectors throughout Australasia and, in more recent times, Canada and USA.

Innovatek also publishes the forestry industry’s leading e-newsletters, Friday Offcuts and WoodWeek. Starting back in 2005, Friday Offcuts quickly became the leading source of weekly news and technologies for the forestry industry. This enabled the launch of Friday Offcut's sister publication, WoodWeek. Both e-newsletters have gone on to lead their particular niches and provide a successful platform for others to utilise the system within their own sectors.

Along with FIEA, we also provide secretarial and management services for the New Zealand based Wood Council, the Southern Wood Council.

Events

Innovatek Events

Innovatek is a leading provider of technology transfer events for the primary and manufacturing sectors. This includes NZ agritech events, MobileTECH & ProteinTECH and several forestry events in North America.

Network

Forest Industry Engineering Association

FIEA is the leading provider of technology transfer events for the forest and wood products industry.

Association

Southern Wood Council

The Southern Wood Council promotes sustainable economic development of forestry in Otago and Southland.

eMedia

Friday Offcuts

Friday Offcuts is the most widely read and distributed forest products e-newsletter in the Australasia.

eMedia

WoodWeek

WoodWeek is a leading industry e-newsletter for Australasian forestry contractors, managers and owners.

Contact

Office Details

(+64) 7 921 1382

1800 126 398 (from Australia)

Rotorua Office

Innovatek
Building X91, Sala Street, Rotorua 3010, New Zealand
PO Box 1230, Rotorua 3040, New Zealand
Ph (+64) 7 921 1382

Dunedin Office

Innovatek
c/o Distinction Dunedin Hotel, 6 Liverpool Street, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand
PO Box 904, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand
Ph (+64) 3 470 1902

Send us a Message