Frequently Asked Questions
What does Bird Island do?
Bird Island is an Indigenous-led innovation consultancy based in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. We work at the intersection of strategy, innovation, imagination, culture and emerging technology.
We help organisations make sense of change, explore new possibilities and turn ambitious ideas into practical action. Our work includes applied imagination, strategic foresight, challenge-led innovation, innovation programme design, emerging technology, facilitation and the design of experiences that help people think differently.
What is Applied Imagination?
Applied Imagination is Bird Island’s approach to working with uncertainty, complexity and change.
It brings together curiosity, creativity, systems thinking, strategic foresight and experimentation to help people imagine possibilities beyond what already exists, then explore how those possibilities might be put into practice.
For us, imagination is not an escape from reality. It is a practical capability for seeing alternatives, asking better questions and creating different futures.
Who does Bird Island work with?
Bird Island works with government agencies, philanthropic organisations, iwi and Māori entities, cultural institutions, social enterprises, educational organisations, boards, leadership teams and innovation leaders across Aotearoa and internationally.
We are particularly interested in working with organisations facing change, complexity or an opportunity to think differently.
What services does Bird Island provide?
Our work includes innovation challenges and programmes, strategic foresight and horizon scanning, strategy and facilitation, innovation capability building, AI and emerging technology, Wonder Workshops, governance and advisory work, ecosystem and stakeholder engagement, and the design of new initiatives and experiences.
Engagements can range from a single workshop, keynote or strategic conversation through to research projects, innovation programmes and longer-term advisory relationships.
Can Bird Island work with us on a specific organisational challenge?
Yes. You do not need to know which Bird Island service you need before talking to us.
We often begin with a question, opportunity or challenge. We can help make sense of the issue, identify what is changing around it, bring together the right people and perspectives, explore possible responses and design a practical way forward.
Sometimes the most valuable starting point is simply a good conversation about the problem you are trying to solve.
Can Bird Island design and run an innovation challenge?
Yes. Challenge-led innovation is one of Bird Island’s core capabilities.
Rather than beginning with a predetermined solution, we start with a meaningful problem and bring together different perspectives, expertise and lived experience to develop and test new responses.
Our experience includes the design and leadership of innovation and entrepreneurship programmes including Mahuki, Lightning Lab, Magnitude 7, the Respectful Ageing Innovation Challenge and innovation challenges addressing health, technology and social change.
Bird Island can help define the challenge, design the process, engage participants and partners, facilitate co-design, select and support ideas, and move promising concepts towards implementation.
Does Bird Island provide strategic foresight and horizon scanning?
Yes. Bird Island helps organisations identify and interpret signals of change that could reshape their operating environment.
Our foresight and horizon scanning work explores emerging developments across technology, society, culture, economics, policy and human behaviour.
The purpose is not to predict the future. It is to notice important change early, explore what it could mean and identify the choices, opportunities and risks it creates.
We translate foresight into practical strategic conversations, provocations, recommendations and opportunities for innovation.
Can Bird Island help organisations understand and respond to AI and emerging technology?
Yes. Bird Island works with organisations exploring what artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies could mean for their strategy, people, customers, communities and future.
Our approach goes beyond introducing people to AI tools. We are interested in how technology intersects with people, systems, trust, privacy, governance, workforce capability and changing expectations.
Bird Island can support executive and board conversations, strategy, workshops, horizon scanning, innovation projects and practical experimentation with emerging technologies.
Does Bird Island offer keynote speaking, workshops and facilitated sessions?
Yes. Bird Island designs and delivers keynotes, workshops, facilitated conversations and immersive learning experiences for boards, leadership teams, organisations and communities.
Topics include innovation, applied imagination, strategic foresight, artificial intelligence and emerging technology, leadership, systems change and designing for the future.
Sessions can be designed around a particular organisational challenge or adapted for conferences, leadership programmes and sector events.
What are Wonder Workshops?
Wonder Workshops are practical experiences designed to help people see differently, think differently and discover new possibilities.
They use ideas and tools drawn from innovation, experience design, creativity and strategic foresight to strengthen curiosity, noticing and imagination as practical capabilities.
They are designed to create fresh perspective, energy and ideas that participants can take back into their work.
Does Bird Island have specialist expertise in arts, culture, heritage and culture tech?
Yes. Arts, culture, heritage and the creative industries are specialist areas of Bird Island’s practice.
Founder Tui Te Hau has worked across the cultural, creative and innovation sectors in senior leadership, governance and programme design roles. Her experience includes leading public engagement at the National Library of New Zealand and establishing and leading Mahuki, Te Papa’s world-first innovation accelerator for the culture and heritage sector.
Bird Island combines an understanding of cultural institutions with expertise in innovation, technology, audience experience and new models of participation. We are particularly interested in culture tech and the possibilities emerging technologies create for museums, galleries, libraries, performing arts organisations, creative practitioners and cultural experiences.
Does Bird Island have governance and board experience?
Yes. Founder Tui Te Hau brings extensive governance experience alongside more than 20 years of executive leadership, strategy, innovation and organisational development.
She is a Director of the Institute of Directors New Zealand and has held governance roles across the arts, health, community and for-purpose sectors.
Through Bird Island, Tui works with boards and leadership teams on strategy, innovation, strategic foresight, facilitated decision making and the implications of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
A particular area of interest is helping boards move beyond oversight of the present to think more deliberately about the organisation they are governing towards.
Who is Tui Te Hau?
Tui Te Hau is an innovation strategist, governance director and founder of Bird Island.
Her career spans innovation, entrepreneurship, culture, technology, international business, public institutions and organisational leadership. She has led nationally significant innovation programmes and organisations including Creative HQ and Mahuki at Te Papa, alongside senior leadership and governance roles across Aotearoa.
Her work is grounded in a belief that imagination, curiosity and human judgement are increasingly important capabilities for navigating complexity and creating better futures.
Where is Bird Island based and does it work outside Wellington?
Bird Island is based in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, and works with organisations across New Zealand and internationally.
The nature of the work determines how we work together. Some engagements are best experienced kanohi ki te kanohi, while research, advisory work, strategic conversations and programme development can also be delivered remotely or through a combination of both.
What are Bird Island Insights and Rere Atu?
Bird Island Insights is our collection of essays exploring innovation, imagination, technology, culture, experience, signals of change and the things that make us human.
Rere Atu is the Bird Island dispatch, where new writing is shared with subscribers. Essays can be read through the Bird Island website, and readers can subscribe through Substack to receive new writing as it is published.
How do I get in touch?
We would love to hear from you.
Email tui@birdisland.co.nz, or get in touch with Tui through LinkedIn.