Mr Nesdale said the dedication of speakers was underlined by how Rotorua's Michael Quintern spent every spare moment over the last two weeks perfecting his speech.
He developed industrial vermicomposting (worm) technologies for primary industries and municipal organic wastes.
"That is fairly typical of the effort that speakers put in," Mr Nesdale said.
Tauranga speaker Ellis Bryers opened the morning session on the topic of "Kiwitanga: Where to from here." Hamilton's Dr David Pattemore then challenged people to think how society could thrive by continuing to increase beehive numbers while protecting endangered flora.
Catherine Iorns (Wellington) urged a simple change to New Zealand's constitution to protect the environment while Sir Ray Avery outlined the three reasons he thought New Zealanders were better at turning dreams into reality.
Dr Bronwen Connor (Auckland) described how to turn skin cells into brain cells to help cure mental conditions like Parkinsons and Dr Harold Hillman (Auckland) posed the question "should you fit in or stand out?", saying people should find their authentic voice.
Tauranga's Jason Edgecombe asked "do you always read the label?" His life saw him overcome a diagnosis that would have limited him, using video games as his inspiration to go beyond labels.
Tauranga nutritionist Rachael van der Gugten spoke about how people needed to throw out the current food pyramid and eat differently in order to be "fart free for life". She talked about the causes of flatulence and how stomach acids changed as people aged.
Auckland school principal Stephen Lethbridge talked about how his school was creating a workforce that could answer "ungoogleable" questions.
