Hi, I'm Daz Martin

Daz Martin, engagement strategist, event director, executive producer and event host and facilitator, Auckland

and I help B2B organisations build trust, credibility and strategic relationships with their customers and stakeholders.

What I do.

My work sits at the intersection of strategy, live events, content and communications. I plan how an organisation connects with the people who matter most, direct and produce the experiences that make those connections real, and often host them too.

Think of me as a journalist, creative director, project manager, sales rep and brand ambassador rolled into one: I find the story, design the experience, keep everything on track, turn the right relationships into business and represent you in front of your audience.

  • I build strategic engagement programmes - calendars of events and content that build connection, grow reputation and get results. I start with the need, not the event: who you want to reach, why they should give you their time and what happens next. Then I plan the events, the content and follow-up around them, the partnerships and the measurement as one programme. I’ve worked inside both sales and marketing teams, so my work ties brand and reputation to the sales pipeline, and the right relationships turn into business.

  • For 15+ years I’ve directed and produced live experiences for audiences of 16 to 16,000: conferences, summits, launches, awards nights, festivals and activations. As executive producer I’m responsible for the lot: the creative idea, the programme and speakers, the budget, the partners and sponsors, the suppliers and the team. Content gets the same treatment - a panel, a video series or a thought leadership piece is cast, shaped and produced like an event. I’m the structured creative: big ideas with a detailed plan behind them, hands-on from planning to pack-down.

  • MC, panel moderator, interviewer and facilitator, on stage, on camera and online. I trained in journalism and spent two years in live breakfast television at Newshub, producing up to five live interviews a day and presenting live segments and news crosses. TV journalism taught me to think on my feet, and I still prepare like a producer: every name checked, every guest pre-interviewed and a plan for running long, short or wrong. Because I also plan and produce events, I help shape the content before the day - the topic, the panel and the questions - so the conversation is worth your audience’s time.

I design, plan, produce and host live events & media, such as…

  • Audience at the Spark Accelerate customer summit

    Enterprise customer conferences

  • GQ Menswear runway show at Melbourne Fashion Festival 2016

    Luxury experiences & hospitality

  • Honda Australia National Dealer Business Meeting 2015 on stage

    Brand & product launches

  • Students at University of Melbourne O-Week 2016

    Member & community engagement

  • Speaker at the Kea World Class New Zealand Awards gala dinner

    Gala & awards dinners

  • AM studio with presenters and camera crew during a live broadcast

    Live news and current affairs

  • Live AM cross from The Civic, Auckland, with a presenter interviewing two guests

    Live television interviews

  • Business panel discussion with four speakers

    Thought-leadership content

  • Two people in conversation at a table, filmed for online content

    Podcasts & online content

See my past work

Some of the organisations I’ve worked with.

AM Te Tari Taiwhenua Internal Affairs Design Assembly Imperial College Union Kea National Library of New Zealand Newshub One NZ Spark University of Canterbury Students' Association University of Melbourne Student Union WorkSafe

What I believe shapes how I work.

  • People don’t trust a brand. They trust people they’ve met, connected with and believe in.

    B2B organisations that will succeed in the AI era are those that build strong interpersonal connections with their customers and stakeholders.

  • Not in spite of AI, but because of it. AI can draft a document, but it can’t replace human interaction.

    When AI is used ethically and well; the reduced burden of admin enables humans to focus on what only humans can do; a conversation, a connection, in person, face to face.

  • Direct comms, marketing, social media content, the dedicated follow up - the whole campaign before and after an event is just as important as the day itself.

    To me, an event or experience is just one of many channels for messaging and content. It is this whole eco-system that turns a one-off event into an effective engagement programme.

  • The work and the experience come first. I bring my best to everything I do, but I’m not precious about it (I don’t have to always be right).

    My favourite part is seeing the experience all come together; and the speakers, the team and the guests buzz with excitement.

Got Questions?

Head to my Q&A to find out more about me and how I work.

MY STORY

What do an events manager, a caterer, a youth worker, a TV journalist, a corporate middle manager and an agency suit all have in common?

They're all me!

I often joke that I've lived many lives, but underneath it all, it's all been the same job: connecting people with a common purpose, getting them to collaborate, and delivering an experience that matters to them.

These days it has a title: engagement strategist and event director. I bring customers and the people who serve them together, then make sure something happens afterwards. The invitations, content and follow-up matter as much as the day itself. The event is the hero, but it's never the whole story.

I'm the structured creative. I come up with the big idea (a stage in a treehouse, a petting zoo on a campus, an AI photo booth that took over LinkedIn for two days), write the business case for it, then pack down the stand myself.

At Spark I established Spark Accelerate, a two-day summit for enterprise and government customers. In its second year, customer attendance grew 67% and partnerships finished 27% over target. At One New Zealand, I established the enterprise engagement programme, from a business activation at Fieldays to executive roundtables. Before that: Kea's global network, live TV at Newshub (with a brief foray into reporting!) and student unions in Christchurch, Melbourne and London.

I'm as happy on stage as behind it. I MC conferences and awards nights, moderate panels and host fireside chats, and I've learnt that a conversation only works when someone in it is paying attention to everyone else.

I trained as a chef before I moved into events, and it shows. The best business conversations happen around a table, every detail matters, and nothing goes out until it's right.

Get in touch.

Connect with me.