Priority One's one-day DayBreak Festival of Innovation returns on 24 February 2027 at the University of Waikato Tauranga Campus, pairing a futurist keynote with panels on Tauranga's 2036 future and hands-on business workshops.
The DayBreak Festival of Innovation returns to Tauranga on Wednesday 24 February 2027, running 8am to 6pm at the University of Waikato Tauranga Campus. Organised by Priority One, the event is a single-day programme of a keynote, panels, interactive workshops and networking under the tagline "Wait... What? Wow!". The 2027 keynote, "The Future Is a Team Sport — How networks help us thrive in uncertain times", is delivered by futurist and network scientist Victoria Mulligan, alongside two "Tauranga 2036" panels on building sustainable systems and the next generation of business and innovation.
DayBreak is presented by Priority One, the economic development agency for Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty. The festival is an established fixture on the region's calendar, with earlier editions held in 2024 and 2025 (the 2025 event ran on 5 March). For 2027 Priority One is again handling registration through Humanitix, including a group registration option for teams and a DayBreak Patron option.
The programme is pitched at professionals and forward-thinking people working across business, marketing, technology, strategy, policy and systems. Workshop streams reflect that breadth: storytelling strategy (Vince Ford), shared-value social impact (Jonathan Ng, Holland Beckett), joining up the digital customer journey with data (Peter McHannigan, RUSH Digital), customer understanding for products and programmes (Jonathan Prince, Caliber), and attracting and retaining emerging talent (Nicole Hoeata, Growth Hungry). Group registration for teams of five or more signals an audience of organisations sending multiple attendees.
The 2027 edition is hosted at the University of Waikato Tauranga Campus at 101 Durham Street, in central Tauranga. The central-city location places delegates within the downtown core, close to the waterfront and the city's accommodation and hospitality. Tauranga is served by Tauranga Airport with domestic connections to main New Zealand hubs, and the city is roughly a three-hour drive from Auckland.
DayBreak is a recurring, locally-anchored business event that gives the Bay of Plenty a flagship innovation gathering rather than relying on the main-centre circuit. Run by the region's economic development agency and hosted on a university campus, it reflects how secondary New Zealand cities are building their own professional-development and networking events to retain delegate spend and talent locally.
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