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In Auckland the great and the good have gathered to surf the knowledge wave, but in Manukau the first steps to knowledge are often taken on bare feet and an empty stomach.
The three-day Catching the Knowledge Wave conference is hosting some of the best minds New Zealand country and from overseas, a forum intended to spark new ways of using creativity and innovation to lift the country's economic performance.
The lavish talkfest does not come cheap, at around $900 a head for the 450 invited guests. It is unclear how much of the tab the government will pick up.
For a conference which is meant to include New Zealand in the world-wide knowledge wave, some are saying it is a very exclusive place to be.
"It's no representative conference in any way shape or form, and it doesn't feel very democratic, it feels rather elitist to be honest," says political commentator Chris Trotter.
Some of the uninvited argue that the scope of the conference is too narrow.
"It's a knowledge conference - it's supposed to be about being smarter and learning to do things better and to be smarter and do things in terms of food production we need to be GE free," says pro-organics activist Tim Hanna.
But the government sees it in the broadest and most basic terms.
"When you hear people say that they get concerned about their grandchildren growing up overseas, what they're really expressing is that New Zealand mightn't have the sort of economy that can retain people to build their lives and their family here," Helen Clark says.
But will New Zealand's younger generation catch and embrace the knowledge wave?
Scores of children in poorer areas up and down the country are bound not to, if teachers' testimonies are anything to go by.
Health workers agree that as long as youngsters continue to arrive at school hungry and in soiled clothes, learning is made difficult.
"It's not just the problem of poverty, it's a poverty of knowledge, it's a poverty of spirit," says public health nurse Lizzie Farrell of Kidzfirst, South Auckland Health's Child and Youth service.
South Auckland is just one area renowned for its lower decile and poor schools. Principals in the area acknowledge that unless changes are made, the knowledge wave will pass many children by.
It is tough talk from the education coalface, where some children come to school so hungry they are picking through rubbish bins.
While poorly nourished kids make up less than ten percent in class, transient youngsters - those whose parents shift them from school to school - are emerging as a big concern.
"We did a survey of a standard four children who we considered to be at risk and we had ten children and seven of those had been to more than five primary schools by the time they hit year six," says teacher Jill Evans of Mayfield Primary school.
Part of the problem comes from parents from dysfunctional families themselves who lack skills.
And Manurewa South Primary School's principal stresses it is mums and dads of all nationalities.
"Do we have enough parenting programmes, do we have enough assistance for our young parents... I think perhaps the answer to that is we don't," Nola Hambleton says.
The government argues it has allocated an extra $30 million over four years for more dedicated social workers in schools, and programmes like parents as first teachers.
But for that investment to pay off in the schoolyard, teachers say initiatives need to become a lot less fragmented.
