On 28 November, the NetSquared groups from Auckland, Wellington, Adelaide and Melbourne came together to host a NetSquared Down Under meet-up (#Net2DU).

Hosted by Tom Dawkins of StartSomeGood, NetSquared Down Under brought together an impressive line-up of speakers from the four different cities involved. 

Adelaide: Evan, Our World Today. Our World Today is a news organisation aiming to redefine what the world sees as news media. They aim to generate meaningful topics for discussion and reflect a news agenda that inspires our readers and members to positively change the world around them. 

Auckland: Will Watterson, Global Poverty Project. The Global Poverty Project an organisation that aims to increase the number and effectiveness of people taking action on extreme poverty. 

Melbourne: Will, Clarity Engine.  Clarity Engine is a new online giving platform to help charities market themselves to younger audiences, provide a simple way to transfer money to charities and also connect with other users. 

Wellington: Jon, Loomio. Loomio is an online tool for collaborative decision-making, enabling all people to have a say in decisions that affect them in all aspects of life - in their community, their workplace, and the world. 

The virtual meet-up took-place via Google Hangout, and was live-streamed out to the world-wide-web on Youtube. Despite a couple of technical hitches at the beginning, this meant that for the first time ever, it didn't matter if you couldn't physically get along to one of the events. As long as you had a computer, and internet connection, you could join in and hear the stories, insights and learnings from the speakers. 

To find out more about the NetSquared Down Under virtual meet up you can read thoughts about the topics and tech from Adelaide organiser Ben Teoh, read a wrap up of the event from Wellington organiser Stephen Blyth, or watch the live broadcast via YouTube.

NetSquared events happen regularly in Auckland and Wellington. Each event is free, and provide great opportunities to learn what others are trying, see successful projects and platforms, hear about developing technologies, make new friends and collaborate on new projects.

Auckland:  

• The next event is planned for Tuesday 29 January.
• For more information, you can sign up via Meetup or follow the organiser, Lindsey on Twitter and look out for the hashtag #Net2Akl. 

Wellington: 

• Organiser Stephen Blyth runs a NetTuesday networking event each month, however the date for January/February is yet to be set.
• For more information, you can sign up via Meetup or follow the organiser Stephen on Twitter.