Advisory Board

Colin Beardon

Colin Beardon was awarded his PhD in Artificial Intelligence in   1976 and lectured in computer science in the UK, Australia and in New  Zealand.  In 1990 he became Reader in Computer Graphics  in the  Faculty of Art & Design at Brighton University and went on to become Professor of Art & Design in Exeter and, simultaneously,  in Malmö,  Sweden. In 2003 he returned to New Zealand to take up a 2 year Professorship at Waikato University.

He worked on a number of projects involving the introduction and use of computers in the creative arts.  The 'Virtual Curator' project introduced a new concept for virtual museums, and was followed by the 'Visual Assistant' which was digital sketching software for visualising theatre.

Colin was the founder of CADE (Computers in Art & Design Education) and organiser of their first conference in 1996. He was editor of the international journal 'Digital Creativity' for 10 years.  He published several books, including 'Computer Culture: the information revolution in New Zealand' which was published in 1986.

He retired in 2005 to live on Waiheke Island and has been very busy since, not least because he is chair of the Artworks Community Theatre.

Fiona Milburn

A producer and director whose work includes film, television, and stage in New Zealand and internationally.  She also has a background in computer science.  It was at Acclaim Entertainment in New York, and in the world’s first dedicated motion capture studio, that she integrated her early computer & stage experience with her production work by creating the narrative sequences and characters for license driven video games.  Fiona has lived in London, New York and Los Angeles, and is now based in New Zealand.  She has her own production company which specializes in visual effects and technology based content for emerging platforms.  She is also involved in the development of online SaaS initiatives for the animation, VFX and video game industries.  Fiona is a founding member of Unguarded Intersection, a collaborative group of moving image artists, which specializes in exploring new and innovative ways of presenting the moving image.  She is a Patron of Women in Film & Television (WIFT) New Zealand, and is on the Honorary Board of Women in Film and Television International (WIFTI). 

Pete Rive
Chair of the Advisory Board

Founder / CEO of RainRaker. Pete is a futurist who has been researching and consulting in innovation, knowledge management, and collaboration since 1999. He has over 25 years experience in production and post production in the screen industry, and has worked in new media, including virtual reality for the last ten years. For over a decade he ran a successful boutique editing house, The Original Cut, that edited high end commercials for many international and top New Zealand companies including Telecom, BNZ, ASB, Lion Breweries, AirNZ, BMW, Audi. Pete is the past President of Film Auckland (www.filmauckland.com), and led a trade mission to China and Korea in 2007. He is currently the Chairman of Film Auckland's Innovation and Digital Content Cluster subcommittee. He has been a futurist for an upcoming TV series and consulted to Auckland Plus, and the Auckland Metro Project's Innovation and Leadership group; Auckland City Council's broadband advisory board; Clemenger BBDO; Education NZ, and Saatchi & Saatchi  Worldwide.

Pete has a MA (hons) in Political Studies from Auckland University, where he studied the English forerunner to the Internet in 1984, and was one of 6 selected for a post graduate Diploma in Broadcast Communications. He is currently enrolled as a PhD candidate, with a scholarship, at Victoria University's School of Digital Media Design researching innovation and knowledge collaboration in the virtual world, Second Life. He has presented at an international conference of the IEEE in the Knowledge Economy and has been published in the Hand book of Research on Virtual Workplaces and the new nature of business practices, (2008). In 2009 he presented at the 2nd Digital Media Summit in Auckland on Crowd Sourcing and Innovation. His latest venture RainRaker is an innovation and collaboration suite of products  and services for the Enterprise.