FAQs

Yes. Morning tea, lunch and light snacks are provided across the day, plus an afterparty to close things out.

Yes. Email sunrise@blackbird.vc from your student email address, and we'll sort you out.

Sunrise isn’t a business conference. It’s not exactly a tech event, either. It’s a cultural celebration. One where you’ll be exposed to big ideas, meet new people, and learn something new. At Sunrise, we promise:

• You will be inspired: by stories of triumph and failure. By visions of futures just out of reach. By exceptional creativity and ambition.


• You will meet new people: be it your future co-founder, next boss, teammate, collaborator, or fellow Traveller.


• You will learn new things: fresh tools, frameworks, and mindsets to level up your journey.

Join us. Be part of it. Shape the future.

Discounted Earlybird tickets go live late July 2026. These are limited and will be available for just 2 weeks (unless sold out earlier), before switching to General Admission tickets in mid-August.

Sunrise Aotearoa is on Thursday 29 October 2026 at ASB Waterfront Theatre, Auckland.
- Registration Opens: 8.00am
- Sunrise Event Times: 9.00am - 8.00pm

We have a number of new speakers and program drops in the lead-up to Sunrise Aotearoa 2026 via Sunrise emails, and Blackbird LinkedIn, Instagram and X. The full program and schedule will be released in early October.

Each Sunrise, we work with a small group of partners who are as committed as we are in creating an extraordinary event. We're deliberately pretty picky about who we work with, but if you work with a company that wants to champion startups and the people building them, then flick us an email at sunrise@blackbird.vc and we can chat there.