Fireside chat with Banny Banerjee: Designing change for a complex world

Creative HQ hosts a fireside chat with Banny Banerjee, Founder and Managing Director of Global ChangeLabs and Adjunct Professor in Change Leadership for Sustainability at Stanford University, on how to design change that works at the scale of today's tangled problems, from climate change to technological disruption. Trained as an architect, Banny has spent more than three decades across design, technology, systems innovation and sustainability, founded Stanford ChangeLabs and worked at IDEO during the rise of design thinking. He will share how leaders and organisations are moving beyond linear, one-off solutions, covering embracing complexity, reframing design and innovation for systemic challenges, finding leverage points that create positive ripple effects, and what Aotearoa could show the world, followed by an open Q&A. He is visiting at the invitation of Jim Scully, founder of ThinkPlace NZ.

It runs on Wednesday 28 October 2026 from 4pm to 5:30pm at Creative HQ, Level 1, 7 Dixon Street, Te Aro, Wellington. Entry is free with registration, and capacity is limited to 60. It is for innovators, entrepreneurs, founders, designers, strategists, policymakers, people from the social sector and anyone working on climate response or positive impact, and attendees are invited to bring a challenge they are grappling with.