Throughout 2024, we are running the Movac Operating Chapters. These programs have been designed to help Kiwi companies become global leaders by exposing them to world-class functional experts and international best practice.
The four Chapters are each centered around a functional area; the Movac Engineering, Customer Success, Sales & Marketing and Execution Chapters. Each Chapter is led by a Movac Operating Partner (Serge Van Dam, in this case), features globally sourced leaders, online primer sessions, deep-dive workshops, large scale ‘jams’ and the opportunity for peer-to-peer learning.
Come and level up with the best: we welcome ecosystem guests to most of our events (registration details below).
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Meet Serge
The Sales & Marketing Chapter is led by Movac Operating Partner, Serge van Dam. Serge spent 10 years in mobile banking and payments, principally as Chief Marketing Officer of M-Com, the world’s leading provider of mobile banking platforms to financial institutions (acquired by Nasdaq-listed Fiserv in 2011). In that period, he gained deep experience in international market entry (US, Europe, Asia, etc), B2B marketing and thought leadership, and managing sales and channel teams at scale.
In the last five years, Serge has been an active investor and Director in early-stage, high-growth, going-global Kiwi B2B software companies, with particular attention to growth strategies. He would describe his super-power as ‘disruptive marketing’ and has a long-standing interest in ethics and leadership development.
The line-up:
Growth Jam – The International Edition
How do tech companies choose, launch and win international markets? This special International Edition of Growth Jam will feature stories from some of our region’s top strategic marketing leaders. They’ll share how their business selects which markets to focus on first, how they launched, what worked, what hasn’t and what they learnt in the process.
Essential for anyone who is leading or working in a growth role at a Wellington tech company and relevant for people who want to learn from or network with the best of our tech sector.
Speakers include:
Kagan Sen, Country Manager, Japan, Canva
Natalie Screen, GM and Company Director, Accessit
Jamie Macdonald, CEO and Co-Founder, Storypark
Jo Mills, President and Co-Founder, Fuel50
Andrew Morrow, NZ Country Manager, PartsTrader
Date: Thursday 24 October
Location: Harbourside Function Venue, Wellington
Time: 1.00pm – 5.30pm
Stick around post the event for networking, drinks and nibbles from 4.30 – 5.30pm and a special pitch night with AngelHQ for anyone wanting to be inspired by the next generation of high growth Wellington companies.
Movac Marketing Jam in partnership with Proxi
Six tech marketing leaders share their best disruptive marketing story.
The shiniest tools in the box: Hear about unorthodox case studies of marketing interventions that have delivered compelling growth, from some of New Zealand’s top tech marketing leaders.
New Zealand’s largest Tech Marketing event hosted by Serge van Dam, Movac Operating Partner.
Speaker lineup:
Anne Fulton – CEO and Founder, Fuel50
Nick Houldsworth – Ex-Chief Marketing Officer, Vend
Paul Grey – Founder, A2X
Zheng Li – Vice President Marketing, Raygun
Nick Whitehead – Chief Marketing Officer, Serko
Emma Macfarlane – Ex – GM Growth Marketing, Xero
Date: Tuesday 12 November
Location: The Maritime Room, Princes Wharf, Auckland.
Workshop: 1.00 pm – 4.00 pm
Networking drinks: 4.00 pm – 5.00 pm
This event is delivered by Movac and Proxi.
Registration: Attendance is via approval only and priority will be given to growth professionals working for or in Kiwi-founded tech companies. ⭐ Register here ⭐
Past events:
Marketing in AI – Session 2
After the resounding success of our first Marketing in AI Workshop, we are back with a 90-minute online primer!
We will walk through practical approaches to exploit technology and automation to get you ‘100 Marketing Interns’. Tune in for mental models and ideas to help you exploit AI in your go-to-market plan.
This session is open to all Kiwi sales and marketing operators.
Hosted by Serge van Dam, hear from our speakers (all of whom are actively exploiting AI to scale their marketing programmes):
Ben Gleisner – Founder & CEO at Cogo
Anna Henwood – CEO at Stickybeak
Tim Pointer – Co-Founder at RescueMetrics & CEO at Reason
Date: Wednesday 25 September
Location: Online
Time: Noon
Registrations have closed. This event has passed.
Channels & Partnerships
In this 60 minute online ‘primer’ we will nut through a practical ‘carrots and sticks’ approach for building and scaling effective channel and distribution partnerships.
Speakers are: Serge van Dam and Nick Houldsworth. Nick is the co-founder of Prosaic, AI powered personal tax deductions. Previously, he was the Executive GM Xero App Store & Developer API, and the Chief Marketing Officer at Vend, and has deep experience in scaling partnerships for success.
Date: Wednesday 4 September
Location: Online
Time: Noon
Registrations have closed. This event has passed.
International SaaSDAY Party
The annual mid-winter celebration of the fastest growing sector in the New Zealand economy, for those in the SaaS industry. There will be no sitting down, no slides. There will be food, drinks, epic entertainment. We know that real parties are hard to find, so we’re working together with WellingtonNZ, Avid.legal, Volpara Health, Talent Army, Tourwriter, and Roady on this one to pull out all the stops!
Registrations have closed. This event has passed.
Marketing in AI
In this 60-minute online primer, we will walk through practical approaches to exploit technology and automation to get yourself ‘100 Marketing Interns’. Tune in for mental models and ideas to help you exploit AI in your go-to-market plan. This session is open to all Kiwi sales and marketing operators.
Leads: Hear from Zheng Li (VP Marketing, Raygun), Greg Stephenson (Chief Marketing Officer, LawVu), Dulan Perera (Demand Generation, Re-Leased) – all of whom are actively exploiting AI to scale their marketing programmes.
Registrations have closed. This event has passed.
The Capital Growth Jam – Wellington
We are bringing six stars from the USA, Australia and home soil to share stories of their growth tactics. This event is relevant for anyone who works in a product, marketing or sales function at a tech company and for entrepreneurs looking to learn and grow.
Story tellers:
Aaron Ward – AskNicely (USA)
Brooke Roberts – Sharesies
Joe Harris – Eucalyptus, ex Atlassian (Sydney)
Jo Blundell – ex Timely
Craig Piggott – Halter
Ralph Highnam – Volpara Health
Ricky Sevta – SimPRO
Registrations have closed. This event has passed.
The Sales Jam
Selling tech to the world: the good, the bad and the ugly. Six growth leaders tell their best and worst stories of selling Kiwi technology to the world’s most discerning buyers.
Speakers line-up:
Ricky Sevta – SimPro (exited)
Anna Henwood – Stickybeak
Hamish Mathieson – Tracksuit
Fallon Savery – Timely / SalonBiz
Gareth Berry – Unleashed (exited)
Registrations closed. This event has passed, you can read about it here.
