We have received amazing feedback from this year’s Craigs Investment Partners and Cooney Lees Morgan Regional Business Women’s Conference held on May 19 and 20 at Trinity Wharf, Tauranga.  Women from all walks of life and different work environments attended the event. This year’s theme was No Grit, No Pearl.

Toni Palmer did a fantastic job as MC throughout the conference with witty speaker introductions and meticulous timekeeping.

Tania Waikato from Cooney Lees opened the conference with the inspirational story of Wairaka who defied tapu to save herself and fellow women from drifting further out to sea by seizing the paddle of the waka they were in. She paddled to shore crying ‘Kia Whakatane au i ahau’ – I will act the part of a man, which is said to be the origin of the Bay of Plenty town’s name.

The first speaker of the evening was Sir Ray Avery, scientist, inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Sir Ray was a charismatic and entertaining presenter sharing his life story and experiences.  His message around the power of observation and to think about “Who can I help today?” resounded with many of the audience.

CEO of Trilogy, Angela Buglass completed the Friday night line-up. She took us on the journey of her career progression and experiences.  She shared the quote “Growth and comfort do not coexist” which many of us reflected over as we left the conference for the evening, wondering what the next day would have in store.

Attendees arrived on Saturday morning to receive a goodie bag bursting with contents. Also there was a candy station set up in the conference room to tempt those with a sweet tooth!

Inspired by Sir Ray’s presentation from the previous evening, the day started with attendees being spontaneously invited to donate towards a “life pod” for the Medicine Mondiale Trust. The amount collected exceeded expectations with over $4,500 raised – enough for 2.5 lifepods, saving over 1,000 children’s lives.

The first speaker for the day was Tim Murphy. Tim led the editorial team at the New Zealand Herald for 14 years and his session was titled “Modern Day Media – Is Facebook the New Overlord?”. He spoke about the state of the media industry that has currently been facing unprecedented change and how we must be careful to discern between “real” and “fake” media.

Mark Lister from Craig’s Investment Partners, followed Tim’s presentation. Mark gave us an informative easy to understand insight in to the economic trends we are currently seeing and made us consider the implications this may have on us in the future.

After morning tea, Mary Hill led a panel discussion on “Flexible, Female Friendly, Firms – how are we tracking?” with her co-workers Sally Powdrell, Sam Curtis and Tanya Drummond from Cooney Lees Morgan. They shared their own experiences how flexibility/part-time work hours options were of benefit to both employers and employee in order to achieve a positive work/life balance.

The next speaker was Dr Ang Jury. The CEO of Women’s Refuge has worked at the coalface of the domestic violence area for over 20 years. In a very inspiring, raw and uplifting session Dr Ang shared her own personal story showing that with determination and support anything is possible if we strive to achieve.

After breaking for a delicious lunch, Pam Roa of Longveld shared how good old kiwi grit and determination can enable you to successfully run a business, maintain a marriage and raise a family. Pam had an inspirational leadership approach equipping not only her staff but also local community organisations with the necessary skills and tools to achieve progression and innovation.

Gemma McCaw followed speaking about resilience, and her new business, The 100% Project. She showed us how we control happiness with our own hands, and need to be helping the next generation be innovative and happy. A great lesson she shared with us all from her husband’s experience was “Stop and take in the view along the way so you don’t wish you had had more fun over your life/career!”

Our planned final speaker Billie Jordan was unable to make the event as she had been snowed-in in Queenstown. Instead we had Allie Mooney who seamlessly followed on from Gemma’s presentation, entertaining us with her four different personality types and how to tolerate the differences with understanding. Also sharing how we need to look after ourselves and others in order for us all to be the best we can be!

It was a fantastic evening and day out, with new friends made and attendees leaving inspired to follow their dreams and keep persevering to get to where they want to be. For those that missed out, we hold this conference on a biennial basis so look out for next conference details in early 2019.