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Speaking

Lian Passmore. Keynote speaker.

For tech conferences, women's networks, Māori and Pacific events, education and ethics audiences, wellbeing and capability conferences, and any room that needs a voice that doesn't perform polished distance.

What I bring to the room

Fourteen years inside one of New Zealand's largest energy companies leading wellbeing, learning, and capability work.

Fourteen AI products shipped to date. One of them, Bea, built solo in five days for an Anthropic and Cerebral Valley hackathon. A Master of Technological Futures from AcademyEX with three original theoretical contributions in ethical AI design. The Tikanga-Led Framework for Conversational AI Agents v1.1, co-authored with Lee Palamo and validated by Dr Karaitiana Taiuru.

A Pasifika woman who built it all while raising five kids including triplets.

I'm not a tech speaker who learned about wellbeing. I'm not a wellbeing speaker who learned about tech. I'm both, at the same time, and that's why my keynotes do something the standard versions don't.

What it's like

Stories specific enough to be uncomfortable. Generous enough to be a gift.

I don't do polished corporate. I bring my actual self into the room. Data that anchors the ideas. Warmth that makes the difficult parts land gently.

I'm equally at home at a women's networking breakfast in Whangārei, a tech conference in Auckland, or a Pacific community hui. I integrate te reo Māori and Pacific concepts naturally and substantively. Not decoratively.

The audience leaves with something that follows them home.

Four keynotes

Pick the one that fits the room. I'll adapt for it.

01

For

Business conferences, women's leadership events, Māori and Pacific business networks, technology and innovation stages, education audiences, regional business forums.

The Job I Wanted Didn't Exist Yet. So I Built It.

The talk for everyone in the room who's changed their mind many times and wondered if that makes them unfocused. It doesn't. It makes them prepared. I trace the unlikely thread that connects Samoan kid from a small rural town, systems trainer, learning designer, sleep coach, wellbeing strategist, podcaster, and AI builder, and show how every pivot became the architecture for the work I do now. The talk ends with a provocation: the job you want might not exist yet. That's not a problem. That's an invitation.

Themes

  • • Starting before confidence arrives.
  • • Building while overwhelmed.
  • • Non-linear careers and multi-passionate paths.
  • • Permission vs self-authorisation.
  • • Ambition without waiting for validation.

30 to 60 minutes. Adapts as a 20-minute keynote, 45-minute conference talk, or 90-minute workshop.

02

For

Small business conferences, chambers of commerce, regional business events, professional services audiences, SME growth forums.

Start with the Business. The AI Comes After.

Most AI adoption fails not because the tools are wrong, but because the question is wrong. Businesses jump to the solution before they understand the problem. I've spent fourteen years designing systems that change human behaviour. I know what actually makes transformation stick, and it is never the tool. This talk gives rooms full of business owners a practical, honest framework for stepping into AI without losing what makes their business theirs. No jargon. No hype. No strategy decks that sit in a drawer.

Themes

  • • One clear question to ask before any AI decision.
  • • A way of thinking about AI that starts with the business, not the technology.
  • • Confidence that they aren't behind. They're being thoughtful.
  • • How to separate signal from panic.
  • • What AI can and cannot do for a values-led business.

30 to 50 minutes. Works with or without a live demonstration.

03

For

Technology conferences, ethics and governance forums, education, government, public sector, health sector, DEI and people and culture audiences.

Values in the Architecture, Not the Footer.

Every organisation has values. Most put them on a wall. A few put them in their AI documentation. Almost none put them in the actual logic of how the AI thinks and responds. My research proved what this costs. When I downgraded the AI model in my pilot due to budget constraints, the relational quality of the conversations collapsed. The communities who most need high-quality AI are the most likely to be priced out of it. That isn't a technical problem. It's a political one. I introduce the Tikanga-Led Framework for Conversational AI Agents v1.1 and walk through how it shows up in Bea, the AI presence for whānau built solo in five days for an Anthropic hackathon.

Themes

  • • The difference between AI ethics as decoration and AI ethics as architecture.
  • • Language to use when evaluating vendors.
  • • Indigenous and Pacific perspectives in technology design.
  • • Designing systems people can feel.
  • • Why values in the footer aren't values at all.

30 to 45 minutes.

Read the full research →

04

For

Māori and Pacific business networks, wāhine leadership events, social enterprise, community sector, Northland and regional audiences, equity and inclusion forums.

Built for the People Everyone Else Skips.

The Samoan girl from Maungaturoto always knew what it felt like to be the afterthought. Designed for, but not designed with. Talked about, but not included. That experience is now structural to everything I build. This is my most personal talk. It traces the experience of growing up in the in-between space, spending a career watching who got left out of systems that claimed to serve everyone, and deciding, when AI arrived, that I wasn't going to let that happen again. I make the case that the people with the most to gain from AI are precisely the people it is currently built to skip.

Themes

  • • Technology isn't someone else's territory.
  • • Specific examples of AI built for communities that have historically been excluded.
  • • Designing with, not for.
  • • What it means to build for the long game.
  • • The story of a woman who went and built it herself.

30 to 45 minutes. Can be extended with Q&A or facilitated conversation.

Format

Keynote, panel, workshop, conversation. I adapt for the room. Most-booked length is 30 to 45 minutes plus Q&A.

Investment

Founding speaker year 2026.

I'm in the first year of taking the keynote work public. The material is ready, the substance is fourteen years deep, and the research behind it is original. The body of paid keynote bookings is still being built.

So the rates this year reflect that honestly. They'll move up as the catalogue of work grows.

If you book me in 2026, you're booking me at founding rates.

Speaking rates

Engagement

2026 rate

Community, non-profit, kaupapa-aligned

$750–1,500

Corporate or business event (NZ)

$2,000–3,500

Conference keynote (NZ)

$2,500–4,500

Panel or fireside (NZ)

$750–1,500

Workshop rates

Engagement

Rate

Half-day workshop (up to 4 hrs)

from $2,500

Full-day workshop (up to 7 hrs)

from $4,500

Multi-day intensive (2–3 days)

from $9,000

Workshop add-on after a keynote

+$1,500

Includes pre-event scoping call, custom slide deck, participant handout, and 30 days of post-event email support.

Travel and accommodation additional, at cost. 50% deposit on booking, balance on the day.

In exchange for the 2026 rate, I ask every event organiser for a written testimonial and permission to film. Those help me carry this work into bigger rooms next year.

Book me to speak.

Please include the date, audience, format, and what you want the room to leave with.

Book me to speak

Ngā mihi nui.