Category Archives: Coming Events

In search of the perfect glass of wine: A consumers’ dilemma

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Speaker: Dr Barry Wong
Date: Thursday 27 August
Time: 6pm
Venue: EIT
Admission: Gold coin donation

Wine is a complicated product with many features and attributes. A simple stroll down the supermarket aisle reveals hundreds of wines on display – from strange bottle shapes to wine varieties that cannot be pronounced. Wine has been integral to many cultures and, for centuries, has accompanied the rise and fall of empires. In this presentation, Dr Barry Wong will discuss modern consumer attitudes and behaviour towards wine. How do we react to certain wines? Or why are we drawn to one particular wine and not the other? As part of the presentation, he will share some emerging trends in the research conducted by his masters students in Hawke’s Bay covering organic wine, no- and low-alcohol (NoLo) wine, and alternative wine packaging.

Dr Barry Wong has been a Postgraduate Lecturer in Wine Business at the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) since 2023. Before moving to Hawke’s Bay, he completed a PhD in Sensory and Consumer Science at Auckland University of Technology.

His doctoral research explored New Zealand consumers’ sensory and flavour perception of Korean rice wine. Currently, his research focuses on consumer attitudes and behaviour towards food and beverages using a range of research methods.

Thursday, 11 May: 2023 Gibbons Online Lecture – AI and the New Creative Revolution

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The 2023 Gibbons Lectures series is intended to describe ongoing research in Computer Science to a wider public, organized by Faculty of Science, University of Auckland.

Tim Gibson, Stolen Glances Studio

Thursday 11 May, 6:30pm

Venue: Lib B15 Lecture Theatre General Library Basement, (109-B15) The University of Auckland 5 Alfred Street, Auckland CBD, register your place here.

This lecture will be available to livestream here.

Generative Artificial Intelligence like ChatGPT and its visual equivalents Dall-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion have shaken up the creative workforce, often producing industry level copywriting, editing, illustration and design at a fraction of the time and cost of a human worker. Their capabilities have set off a technological arm’s race at the world’s largest tech companies while simultaneously building a user base of enthusiasts faster than the most popular social media platforms.

What can Generative AI be used for, how powerful is it really, how could it be used ethically, and what impact will it have on our creative industries and the people who work for and engage with them?

What could a world look like where creativity is ‘free’? 

In this talk, Tim will showcase some of the current technologies’ capabilities, the hot takes and debates from within the creative industries and attempt to predict what is next for creative Generative Artificial Intelligence.

Tim Gibson is a Creative Director, Animator and Illustrator who has worked for companies big and small across film, television, comics, branding and packaging design. His work has appeared for Garage Project, Weta Workshop, Le Monde Diplomatique, Penguin Random-House, Te Papa Tongarewa and more.