LEARN LIKE LIGHTNING old
Submit Your Idea Today
Submissions due 24 April 2025.
Six Minutes to Ensnare, Engage, and Enliven!
Minutes to Stretch our Minds!
Remember that time when you were SO inspired about that idea that you wrote a submission for the Lightning talks segment of ASPIRE? Remember when you had an uplifting, thrilling, powerful experience being a Learn Like Lightning speaker? Remember when you set a Tupu goal to challenge yourself by stepping up and unleashing your ideas on a rapt audience? Remember when you and your story brought people together?
No? Well, then, it’s time to make some memories, because this year’s ASPIRE Learn Like Lightning submissions are now open!
2025 theme: HIKITIA | ELEVATE
Are you ready to take the next step, to challenge yourself, to elevate yourself and others?
Hikitia | Elevate signifies growth, innovation and the pursuit of excellence. It encourages us to rise to new challenges, improve our skills, and to think beyond our current roles, envisioning new possibilities for ourselves and for Waipapa Taumata Rau. It is all about taking what you’ve built, what you’ve learned, what you know, and what you do, and taking it to the next level! It is about driving your own development by using the resources around you and drawing on the strengths of your peers and teams.
Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe, me he maunga teitei
Seek the treasure which you value dearly. If you should bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain.
This whakataukī challenges us to pursue our dreams and goals, to persevere through adversity and only slow down if the obstacle is truly great. It sets a wero (challenge) to think about goals, barriers, desires and aspirations. It encourages us to step up and to elevate those around us.
Hikitia | Elevate has 3 streams:
Elevate your…Career
Do you have insights to share about skills development, career planning or crafting, identifying and building on strengths, growth, adapting to career change – planned or unexpected, how to have meaningful career conversations, or making network-boosting connections? This is your stream!
Elevate your…Storytelling
If you love weaving a yarn or two and think you have something others would find useful, this stream is for you! Think creativity in the workplace, communication skills, influencing skills, success stories (how did you, your team, or a team you admire do it?), how to find your own story, narratives surrounding our communities and how to ensure the great ones get airtime, tips on how we can better share stories across Waipapa Taumata Rau.
Elevate your…Wellbeing
Could you show others how you’ve elevated YOUR wellbeing? Perhaps you have found that elusive work-life balance, survived change, worked on your EQ or made successful healthy lifestyle changes. Are you knowledgeable about accessibility in the workplace, digital wellbeing, staying safe online, using AI to make the most of your time, supporting others facing challenges, or promoting resilience?
When writing your LLL outline, please think about:
Being clear and succinct in the summary of your topic (remember, you only have 6 minutes)
– What’s your hook? How will you capture your audience’s attention? Why will your topic resonate with or be important to them?
– How your topic relates to our theme and the University
– How your topic will look and feel on the day – any specific presentation elements you are considering such as PowerPoint slides, music, a costume, interpretive dance… We will have online and in-person (at our venue) rehearsals, during which there are plenty of opportunities to meet the other speakers and our team, practise, get feedback and feel comfortable in the environment. Let us know here if you need or would like any specific support from our team.
If you have any questions you’d like answered before you submit, please email aspireconference@auckland.ac.nz.
Submissions close: Thursday, 24 April 2025
Submission Results Notified: Friday, 9 May 2025
Conference date: Tuesday, 1 July 2025
Submit Your Idea Today
Submissions due 24 April 2025.
What's in it for me?
Learn Like Lightning is a chance not just to brush up on your public speaking skills – though that’s a great incentive! With a LLL talk, you can:
- Share a passion, idea or project of yours
- Boost your confidence!
- Meet other like-minded thinkers, or plant the seeds of new thought in others!
- Get personalised feedback via rehearsals and Toastmaster coaching
- Be part of a stellar professional development event for all professional staff!
- Brush up on your University Citizenship as part of your Tupu goals!
You will also receive free entry to the ASPIRE conference!
Testimonials
What’s so great about participating as a Learn Like Lightning speaker? Get it straight from the horse’s mouth with the testimonials below.
Learn Like Lightning gave me the opportunity to share something that is important to me. The challenge of refining my thoughts into a 6-minute session was rewarding, and the entire process was enjoyable and highly supportive. I’d particularly encourage anyone who has some passion around a subject to consider giving this a go!
Learn Like Lightning at Aspire 2021 was awesome! The support team worked really hard to help us make our presentations presentable but also relatable, memorable and polished. I definitely rate the experience and hope you decide to give it a go – it’s such a fun chance to talk about something important to you and to share that with your professional staff peers. It’s not about being perfect so if you have something worth sharing (which I can guarantee that you do), submit an application – what’s the best that could happen?
I relished the opportunity to support the kaupapa. Being a person in a new position, new department and new scope of work, I also dovetailed into my Tupu how this would crystalise (in a very public forum, I might add) the direction and opportunity that lies ahead.
I can’t speak highly enough about the positive, upbeat and empowering support from the ASPIRE LLL team. Even my technical requests were met with excitement and anticipation.
The day flew by, and it was awesome to listen and absorb the narrative and insights of our talented whānau.
Would love to do it again – so that says a lot 😊
I wanted to speak at Learn Like Lightning to help to expose as many people as possible to understanding and thinking about the pros and cons of human gene editing. It was a very well run event and I felt very supported as a speaker. I really enjoyed the day and I felt that it is a great way to make professional staff feel valued.
It was thrilling experience, and I’m definitely doing it again. The LLL team were so supportive and provided helpful guidance and the moral boost. The LLL series is a great ako space for sharing vibrant perspectives and learning from your peers.
LLL was a great opportunity to reflect on my work and network with colleagues across the Uni both in the project and on the day. I would highly recommend it!
Countdown to ASPIRE 2025 (1 July, 2025）
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For any queries, contact Event Services.
Email: aspireconference@auckland.ac.nz
