CANTERBURY TECH SUMMIT 2024

James is Xero’s Executive General Manager of Technology and Research & Advocacy will share a behind the scenes look at how Xero has harnessed emerging technology and catalysts for innovation from its inception to now. James shares stories from the early journey from cloud to become NZ’s first unicorn company and unique insights on how the Doblin Ten Types of Innovation apply to their journey.

Hear stories beyond the hype, from those innovating and exploring innovation against a backdrop of emerging quantum computing, Ai and hyper connectivity and what is still to come on the horizon.

Grant is a Principal Solutions Architect for Elastic based in Canberra, Australia. Elastic are the makers of Elasticsearch, the market-leading search analytics platform downloaded over 4.7 billion times that empowers customers to find the results that matter, across all of their data, in real-time. Elastic’s Search, Observability, and Security solutions are depended on by brands like Uber, Slack, Microsoft, and thousands of others. Grant has been with Elastic for over 3 years specialising in Search, Analytics, Machine Learning and AI. He has previously worked in several roles in the Analytics, AI and Automation space, including as IBM Australia’s Data and AI Architect for Federal Government. In his spare time he is a Home Automation enthusiast, and can often be found putting the Elastic stack to work at home to Observe and Secure his house.