As a resident of the Icehouse with another of my businesses, I was lucky to have the opportunity to attend the recent Ice Ideas conference.  The entrepreneurial line up had a host of international and national businesspeople, ranging from Peter Thiel (Co-founder PayPal & first external investor, Facebook - as seen in the film The Social Network) to James Madelin, local inventor of The Orbis.

Some of the highlights for me were:

Rob Adams - Rob is the author of two books on innovation, Good Hard Kick in the Arse and If You Build it Will They Come? Unfortunately his talk was a bit short... it would have been great to hear more from him (although I got the opportunity to hear him speak in a private session at The Icehouse for an hour - which was both inspirational and motivating).

Peter Thiel - Co-founder PayPal & first external investor, Facebook. Just hearing him speak was a major opportunity. Great to see businessmen of that nature being motivated enough to come to New Zealand.

James Madelin – Founder of Enlight Photopro. Although not the most well-known or successful entrepreneur in the lineup... was certainly one of the best speakers.

Candace Kinser – CEO of Biomatters. I have heard Candice speak before so was excited to hear her again.

Rod Drury – CEO of Xero, co-founder of Pacific Fibre, Board Member of NZX and champion for New Zealand High Tech community. Rod was a great speaker & an inspiration to all.

Obviously other than this, there were lots of brilliant speakers... and the networking opportunities were also great.

A big thank you to Andy Hamilton & the team at The Icehouse.