Business Women’s Network (BWN) is hosting a panel discussion with three influential women in the tech and innovation space as part of Groundswell Festival.

This virtual discussion is designed to challenge your way of thinking, and inspire you to take action when it comes to new and innovative ways to do business.

One of those women is Ngaire Woodhams, New Zealand lead for the EY wavespace (TM): A unique, tech-centric workspace that connects businesses via digital platforms, and help organisations explore operating models and emerging technologies that can transform their businesses. Her role encompasses the intersection of her two career journeys: Event management, and design and innovation.

We asked Ngaire a few questions about her career, how she became part of EY wavespace and what role technology will play in our future.

You can watch the virtual discussion on women in innovation, featuring Ngaire, Rebecca ‘George’ Magdalinos, Engineer (RNZAF) and Kirstin Mead, Innovation Manager (Tauranga Chamber of Commerce) at the end of this article. 

You’ve had an interesting career journey – tell us a bit about where you started through to where you are today?

“Buy the ticket – take the ride”. This mantra is from a friend of mine and I think it sums up how my career has evolved over the last 17 years!

I got into events by chance. I was working in a job I didn’t enjoy and a friend’s mum was looking for an event coordinator for a nationwide charity event. The OE then came calling, and I ended up in London for over five years – predominantly working for the Financial Regulator. That was a really transformative part of my ‘first’ career as I worked through the GFC very closely with the people who were trying to make sense of it and fix it. I was managing events that gained significant media interest and were of reputational significance for the Regulator.

I then came back to New Zealand and hit a bit of a wall – no one was really interested in the experience I had gained while I was in London (mainly because there were no roles like the one I had!). I did a stint working for Allpress Espresso managing their retail store in Auckland.

After I had my first child – I took a chance on a role pitched as an event coordinator. It was 20 hours a week and suited where I was at personally. That role was at NZ Trade & Enterprise working in the Better by Design team – the start of my ‘second career’. This is where my exposure to design thinking, innovation and all things human-centred’ took place. I worked with some amazing people, met some of New Zealand’s leading design practitioners and helped build design capability with some of our most well-known exporters.

Fast forward to 2019, and I had an opportunity to merge both my careers; event management experience with design and innovation. At that time, EY wavespace was in its formative stage – it was too good an opportunity to miss out on. Five months after joining EY, I became the NZ Lead for EY wavespace.

What were some of the highlights of your career and what were some of the challenges?

One of my biggest challenges was also one of my biggest highlights: Since having my second child, I struggled with finding out where I belonged from a career perspective. I jumped around a few jobs, tried my hand at contracting and self-employment – but nothing was sticking. I was restless and ultimately unhappy.

I reached out to Melissa Jenner founder of STARTNow – to help me explore and understand what I wanted out of my career and my life. Through her coaching we realised that I had unfinished business with the corporate world. We mapped out my strengths, what I value and wanted out of life, organisations I wanted to work for / was interested in – and then I leveraged my network. All in service of finding that ‘next right’ career move.

It was a really transformative experience for me. And through this process was how I ended up at EY.

A final highlight has been three teams I’ve worked with during my career:

• The events team at the Financial Services Authority in London
• My first stint at Better by Design with NZTE
• The team I now lead at EY wavespace.

They’ve been influential in shaping my career journey and without them I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

How did you become involved with EY wavespace?

Again it was by chance. I knew a Partner at EY and he wanted to find out what exactly it was that I did for a job and the experiences I’d had to date.

Over coffee, he realised that the skills and background I had were what EY NZ were trying to achieve with wavespace. Fast forward five months, and I met up with Tom Osborne who was then the Director in charge of wavespace. I had the very fortunate luxury of being able to design my role and what it entailed.

What does your role with EY wavespace entail?

wavespace is EY’s global network of growth and innovation experience centres. It’s much more than just a physical space, it’s an experience. My role centres around designing the physical, digital and mental space where people can safely explore new ideas, unlock ingenuity, drive innovation and make change happen – faster.

In simple terms – I design and facilitate workshops to help teams and business reframe their thinking and find answers faster.

I also have a role educating EY in bringing new ways of working with clients (cross firm) to support better project outcomes and deepen our relationships with clients.

What are some of the common problems businesses face that EY wavespace has been able to assist with?

For the most part, it’s about helping clients navigate obstacles to transforming their business. We help them work through this by putting people at the centre, look at how they can deliver technology at speed and enabling innovation at scale. We bring together the right people from across the client, EY and beyond to help tackle these problems.

In your eyes, what is the place of design in technological advancements and vice versa in the impact new technology has on ways of designing?

For me, you really need to understand the problems and realities that humans face – an important element in design thinking. Technology can be a solution to some of those problems – usually in combination with something else (whether that’s CX / UX / or designing services and systems to co-exist with technology).

On the flip side, new technology (blockchain / AI / machine learning) has freed people up from completing manual processes and tasks. It gives us the opportunity to focus on more high-value tasks – whether it’s creative and critical thinking, developing strategies, focusing on transformation or coaching others. Technology gives us the opportunity to focus more on designing for and making sense of the fast-paced world we live in.