Photograph showing a lecture theatre full of smiling complex systems researchers and practitioners.

Last week 160 researchers and practitioners gathered in Aotearoa New Zealand for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium #cccss26 #complexsystems 🧵 🧪

Keynote: Complex systems in action When models are applied to complex systems in action, they can influence decisions and trajectories, becoming elements within the systems they seek to represent.

Mathematical models are often employed as devices for prediction or optimisation. But when models are applied to complex systems they can become elements within the systems they seek to represent.

Explore complex systems in action with @hendysh.bsky.social at #cccss26 → https://bit.ly/3O4FNee

Professor Carl Bergstrom: Living with AI Internationally acclaimed scientist Carl Bergstrom on why humans are so psychologically wired for online and whether we are living with "modern-day oracles or bullsh*t machines."

"Nothing like this has existed before, and we don't quite know what it does to people."

@carlbergstrom.com spoke to Mihingarangi Forbes about living with AI on Saturday Morning this morning → www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

#cccss26 🧪

Keynote: Framing learning as a complex phenomenon A complexity framing highlights challenges for education policy.

The idea that there is a “science of learning” (singular) currently holds considerable policy sway.

Join Rosemary Hipkins at #cccss26 as she uses insights from the complexity sciences to explore learning as a non-linear, highly contextualised and nuanced phenomenon → https://bit.ly/3ZrEpVn

Keynote: The impediments to high-risk, high-return science Scientific researchers may be driven by curiosity, but they are constrained by the realities of the scientific ecosystems in which they operate and motivated by the incentives with which they are confronted.

For his keynote at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium, @carlbergstrom.com will present a trio of mathematical models to explore why scientists are reluctant to propose and conduct high-risk research → https://bit.ly/4r0UM7s 🧪

#cccss26 #complexsystems

Keynote: When Te Ruru calls, the system must listen Seeing the unseen in complex systems.

Health inequity, climate breakdown, and institutional failure are not simply products of flawed systems.

Join us at #cccss26 to explore how place-based Indigenous frameworks, particularly those grounded in Māori knowledge, are reshaping the study of complexity → https://bit.ly/3MypHcf

The registration deadline has been brought forward to Monday 16 February #cccss26 #complexsystems

Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 24-25 Feb 2026

Registrations for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium close on Monday 16 February at 12pm NZDT.

There's not many tickets left, so get in there if you want to come → www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/conferences/...

#cccss26 #complexsystems

Keynote: Confessions of a recovering reductionist Join Diane Finegood at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium.

While there are many definitions of systems thinking, most ignore the “thinking” part.

Join us at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium to hear Diane Finegood explore what it means to apply systems thinking in practice → https://bit.ly/4rFTBKr

#complexsystems #cccss26

Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026

Registration deadline: February 23

#CCCSS26 #ComplexSystems #HolisticThinking #ComplexityScience #symposium #transdiciplinary ./11

www.complexitycat.org/posts/CCCSS26/

Covid-19 Policy | Te Pūnaha Matatini Te Pūnaha Matatini has a simple policy in place at our events to keep participants safe from Covid-19 and other respiratory diseases:

If you're planning to attend the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium next month, it will be operating under our simple Covid-19 Policy to reduce the risk of attendees getting sick → www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/our-policies...

#cccss26 #complexsystems

Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 The Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 explores cutting-edge knowledge of complex systems & complexity & how this knowledge is used to drive system change.

We've just published the programme for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026, and registrations are open 👀

#cccss26 #complexsystems

www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/conferences/...

a cartoon character is holding a stack of paper Alt: A cartoon duck walks down the stairs with a teetering pile of paper.

Thanks for all your abstract submissions for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026! Now to make a programme.

#cccss26 #complexsystems

Renata Muylaert presents at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium.

🚨Deadline extended 🚨 Get your abstracts in for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 by Tuesday 7 October → forms.gle/vdMooRs2srtz...

#cccss26 #complexsystems 🧪

Social slide showing Bill English as a keynote speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

Sir Bill English is a former New Zealand Prime Minister and co-founder of Impact Lab, which uses data to support better decision making by measuring social impact.

He'll be joining us as a keynote speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

#cccss26 #complexsystems

A social slide showing Simon Upton as a speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

Simon Upton is the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in Aotearoa New Zealand.

He'll be joining us as a keynote speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

#cccss26 #complexsystems

A social slide showing Kylie Reiri as a keynote presenter at the Capital City Complex Systems 2026.

Kylie Reiri is a deputy chief executive at the Social Investment Agency, where she works to improve systems to benefit our communities.

Kylie will be a keynote presenter at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 → www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/symposium/

#cccss26 #complexsystems

A social slide showing Rose Hipkins as a keynote speaker for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium.

Rose Hipkins is a leader in teaching for complex systems thinking in Aotearoa New Zealand.

She'll be joining us as a keynote speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

#cccss26 #complexsystems

A social slide showing Shaun Hendy as a keynote speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

@hendysh.bsky.social is chief scientist and a co-founder of Toha, the founding director of Te Pūnaha Matatini & led the team that won the Prime Minister’s Science Prize for their Covid-19 response

He is a keynote speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

#cccss26 #complexsystems

A social slide showing Tom Johnson as a keynote speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

Our next confirmed keynote speaker for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 is Tom Johnson.

Tom is the design lead at Whakaue Research, where he develops kaupapa Māori innovations that turn research into systems change.

#cccss26 #complexsystems

Social slide showing Brian Castellani as a speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

Brian Castellani mapped how disciplines, concepts and people have weaved together over time to create our understanding of complex systems.

He'll be joining us as a keynote speaker for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 → www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/symposium/

#cccss26 #complexsystems

A social tile showing Tanya Allport as a keynote speaker for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

Our next confirmed speaker for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 is Tanya Allport.

Tanya draws on Indigenous models of systems change to advance whānau-centred solutions for Māori health and wellbeing → www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/symposium/

#cccss26 #complexsystems

A group of smiling complex systems researchers chat at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium.

🚨 Call for abstracts 🚨 Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026. Nau mai haere mai ki tēnei hui!

You are warmly invited to the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026, 24-25 February 2026 in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Submit your abstract → forms.gle/as6ArigFQW34...

#cccss26 #complexsystems 🧪

A picture of Diane Finegood as a keynote speaker for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026, which looks a little bit like an election sign tbh.

Our next confirmed keynote for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium is Diane Finegood, whose current passion is for the application of systems thinking and dialogue to address complex problems across a broad range of topics, with a particular focus on health systems and public health #cccss26