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AI Training – Christchurch

Sudima Christchurch City

Tuesday 22 September

9am to 5pm

Building AI Capability in Contaminated Land and Groundwater Practice. A practical introduction for beginner to intermediate practitioners

This full-day, hands-on training is designed specifically for environmental and contaminated land professionals. It moves participants from AI curiosity to AI practice — with a focus on responsible use, professional defensibility, and real application to the work they do every day.

The day covers four interconnected areas: the ethics and disclosure obligations of AI use in professional reports; how to choose the right platform for your work and constraints; how to get reliable, high-quality results from AI for technical tasks; and how to verify AI output to a standard you can stand behind in a regulated environment.

The afternoon is hands-on in the Datanest enterprise environment. Participants apply what they’ve learned to real contaminated land and environmental workflows, including report writing, data extraction, and site history analysis.

Participants leave with frameworks they have built, verified, and own. Not a folder of slides.

Click here if you are interested in our Auckland Training!

PROGRAM

Earn 13 CPD Points

Welcome and Scene Setting

9.00am – 9.15am | 15 min

  • Who is in the room and where they sit on the AI adoption spectrum
  • How the day is structured and what to expect
  • The intent: deciding where AI fits in your work and doing it defensibly
  • Set expectation: bring your own deliverable for the afternoon

Morning Session — Licence to Operate

Module 1: Ethical and Responsible Use of AI at Work

9.15am – 9.55am | 40 min

CONTENT

  • Where AI has been used and how to disclose it in reports
  • Professional responsibility in contaminated land and environmental consulting
  • What disclosure looks like for different roles: field scientists, report writers, technical reviewers, regulators, laboratory staff
  • Ethical challenges specific to this sector
  • What responsible use means in practice — a framework, not a prohibition

Module 2: Choosing the Right AI Tools

9.55am – 10.55am | 60 min

CONTENT

  • Open-source vs. closed-source platforms and practical implications for professional work
  • Data confidentiality, IP considerations, and organisational access policies
  • Choosing the right AI tool for the right task

10.55am – 11.15am MORNING TEA

Module 3: Getting Useful Results from AI

11.15am – 12.15pm | 60 min

CONTENT

  • What AI actually needs from you — context, not commands
  • How to frame general, environmental, and technical tasks for reliable results
  • Sector-specific context relevant to contaminated land and groundwater projects
  • Common framing failures and how to correct them

12.15pm – 12.45pm LUNCH

Afternoon Session — Defensibility and Application

Module 4: Verification and Quality Assurance of AI Outputs

12.45pm – 2.15pm | 90 min

CONTENT

  • How to assess whether AI output is defensible — not just whether it looks right
  • Evidence-based validation, source checking, and logic tracing
  • Red flags in AI-generated content and what technical reviewers should look for
  • Role-specific verification responsibilities across consulting, regulation, laboratories, and technical review
  • How to document AI use and verification steps in regulated reports
  • Real-world examples of AI-generated PSI content and what needs to be identified and corrected

2.15pm – 2.30pm AFTERNOON TEA

Module 5: Hands On, Applying AI to Your Real Work

2.30pm – 4.30pm | 2 hours

WORKSHOP

Delivered by Jed Watts and Brijesh Vishwanath, Datanest

Closing Conversation

4.30pm – 5.00pm | 30 min

Thank you to our Supporting Sponsor

Register Now

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE!

ALGA Member $630
Non-Member $730
Concession (Member only)* $315
Student** $50

All prices are in NZD and include GST.

Email Information: If you are a member, make sure to use the email address linked to your membership. Using the wrong email can stop membership recognition, trigger duplicate checks that may cancel a booking, and overwrite information linked to that address.

Why Should You Attend?

AI tools are increasingly present in every part of the contaminated land and environmental workflow, from site investigations to report writing to data analysis. The professional and regulatory landscape has not kept up. Most practitioners are navigating this gap alone, without a framework, without disclosure guidance, and without a verification standard they can stand behind.

This training provides exactly that. Attendees will leave with:

  • Clarity on their disclosure obligations – what to say, when to say it, and to whom
  • A defensible method for choosing which AI platform to use for which type of work
  • A repeatable framework for getting reliable results from AI on technical tasks
  • A personalised verification framework built during the training, ready to apply immediately
  • Hands-on practice in the Datanest enterprise environment using real contaminated land and environmental workflows

The training is built for this sector, not adapted from a generic AI workshop. Every exercise uses environmental and contaminated land examples. The frameworks reflect the professional standards, regulatory requirements, and client relationships specific to ALGA members.

 

*Concession – must be a Member to receive this pricing.
Concession Ticket includes: Parental leave, Retired, Unemployed, Early Career Professionals with less than 3 years of experience in the contaminated land and groundwater industry.
To receive your dedicated 50% off, please contact events@landandgroundwater.com

**Student – Members and Non Members are eligible.
To get that pricing, you need to upload evidence that you are a student (ie. student card)

Keynote Speakers

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Bruce Ross

Founder
Ignite Business Leadership

Bruce Ross is the founder of Ignite Business Leadership, a New Zealand-based AI capability training and leadership development practice. He works with professional associations and their members to build sector-specific AI capability that meets the standards of their industries — not generic awareness training, but structured, defensible professional practice.

Bruce's association training model is built on one principle: that AI capability is only valuable if it can be defended. Every programme he designs produces working frameworks participants can apply immediately and stand behind professionally. His clients span environmental consulting, engineering, planning, franchise management, and executive leadership.

For the ALGA AI Training Day, Bruce has designed the full programme architecture in close collaboration with Tom Davies and Matthew Potter, drawing on Datanest's deep sector expertise to ensure every exercise reflects real contaminated land and environmental workflows.

July Release 2026 (23)

Jed Watts

Engineer
Datanest

Jed Watts is a Chartered Engineer with over seven years of experience in environmental consulting and is Client Manager at Datanest. Combining his consulting background with hands-on experience supporting environmental teams, Jed has a strong understanding of the challenges consultants face in their day-to-day work. He is particularly focused on the practical application of AI in environmental consulting, exploring how it can improve efficiency, consistency and the way consultants interact with their data.

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Brijesh Vishwanath

Lead AI Engineer
Datanest

Brijesh brings a rare combination of deep technical expertise and practical innovation to the evolving field of Artificial Intelligence. With a background in Electrical Engineering and an extensive career in Software Development, he has built a strong reputation for translating complex machine learning and AI concepts into real-world solutions that deliver measurable impact. Following early entrepreneurial experience developing non-invasive neonatal diagnostic technology in the MedTech sector, Brijesh transitioned into formal AI research and advanced software architecture. Today, he plays a leading role at Datanest , where he works at the forefront of AI-assisted environmental data management, automation, and intelligent reporting systems for the contaminated land and environmental consulting industries. Known for his ability to bridge the gap between cutting-edge AI capability and practical industry application, Brijesh specialises in machine learning workflows, AI governance, prompt engineering, and scalable software systems. His work focuses on helping consultants harness AI in a way that is traceable, defensible, and aligned with professional judgement. Outside of technology, Brijesh can usually be found in the gym or the pool, still attempting to convince himself he is a professional athlete, despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

Sudima Christchurch City,
49 Salisbury Street,
Christchurch Central City,
Christchurch 8013, New Zealand

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