By now we have established a series of regular events, despite the continual disruptions through 2020 and 2021 with Covid and we kicked off the year by being part of the Whale Tales 2022 trail as well as with our now regular start of year breakfast networking at Red Beach.
A huge thank you to the sponsors of our events during 2022 -
With Whangaparaoa being the "Bay of Whales" we were keen to be part of this Auckland-wide art trail project which was, not only a driver of visitors to the area so a good opportunity to involve our local businesses, but also a huge fundraising project supporting projects in the Hauraki Gulf by WWF.
We were able to host a whale tail at Whangaparaoa library with a host of local activities designed to support local business including a business scavenger hunt, kids colouring competition, local business specials (eg The Beer Spot Whale Tales Coastie Cocktail, Club Physical fitness classes, clothes swap, beach clean, etc). Culminating in the purchase of a whale tail sponsored by New World Whangaparaoa to be used in our own proposed tourism incentive coastal trail.
It was a big project but had a great reach and we also worked in conjunction with a number of business associations across the North Shore promoting great places to eat in a "The Shore Tastes Good" incentive.
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Organised in collaboration with Waka Kotahi for information and feedback on the proposed tolling for Penlink. We ended up having to make this an online meeting.
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We also worked alongside Hibiscus Coast Zero Waste in their launch of their Green Scheme around helping increase efficiency around food waste in businesses starting with their first 5 test clients and we headed out and presented them with their Certificates.
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After 2 postponements firstly from a February 17 date and subsequently from a 7 April date we finally held our first network event of the year.
With a beautiful sunrise as the backdrop, we had a good turnout considering there was still a little hesitancy for attending events in person.
We had an excellent buffet breakfast from Krave Catering at $19.00 per head. In the introduction Whangaparaoa College spoke and asked for support for their Gateway programme.
Sean spoke very well, with an interactive worksheet. Comparing the hare and the tortoise.
The good guy in the story is the Tortoise. ‘He’ was a little more modest, yet confident and was clearly the underdog, yet was victorious. From a business perspective, when we are thinking rationally, we have to think that we should be just like the tortoise. Not necessarily slow, but just to be methodically working away on the things that really matter.
Well, the real world just ain’t that kind to us! Especially for the entrepreneurs, the lure of the exciting life that the Hare lives, is overwhelming. Even though we know that our ‘busyness’ is not always great for us, we continue to tolerate being time poor, always on the go and enjoying the high pace of running our business. Yes, I know you also complain about it, but so to, do you also perpetuate the situation.
Sean gave us tools on how to make changes and improve our actions within our business.
This event was sponsored by Hibiscus and Bays Local Board, ABA and G J Gardner and once again it was a beautiful morning with a magnificent sunrise over Red Beach and was enjoyed by all attendees. This event attracted 35 attendees.
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Another Town Centre Meet Up was held at, and supported by, Paraoa Brewing Co. Our community constable gave a good presentation. We had a good turn out of 21 people and the event had a good dynamic vibe with some robust discussions.
Again these are good touch points to reach out to local businesses in a specific area. Many attendees made good contacts, and everyone enjoyed the evening. We didn’t wind up and finish pack down until about 8 pm.
The whole exercise was an excellent success for Business Whangaparaoa awareness and hopefully potential future.
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After securing funding from Auckland Unlimited and purchase of the whale tail sponsored by New World Whangaparaoa, work commenced on the development of the Coastal Trail including a Blessing of the start and end points at New World and Gulf Harbour Marina by local community iwi from Te Herenga Waka o Orewa on 4 July. This is an on-going project.
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This event had to be rescheduled to November.
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Once again we enjoyed an evening of nibbles, drinks and casual networking at The Beer Spot. We had a good turn out and steady flow of people coming in and we did a sit down and sharing session telling each other about who we were and our business.
The event was open to all local business owners but Members are entitled to discounted drinks.
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This was a very big project for Business Whangaparaoa and was very successful especially for awareness of Business Whangaparaoa and our support for local business and the local community. Stats are as follows –
In the end we had so many great prizes that instead of 3 draws we had 6 draws and the winners were –
Laurie Spratt (Stanmore Bay), Cathy Newman (Stanmore Bay), Jamie Ando (Army Bay), Kim Kristalie (Stanmore Bay), Wunny Harman (Manly) and Shweta Sukran (Gulf Harbour)
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Another successful network evening with a good turn out post-Covid.
Rachel, from her introduction on her website is “a marketing coach, content creator, speaker and presenter (and a wife, mother, dog-lover, and far more! “ her official job title is "chief small business marketing strategist, marketing coach, podcaster, columnist and co-owner of Identify (with (her) husband Rod)" . Rachel spoke well and offered a lot of good marketing tips particularly after Covid.
The event was sponsored by Hibiscus and Bays Local Board and Bayleys Orewa and we had 32 attendees.
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Venue: Manly Bowling Club, Time: 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm, MC: Brett Fraser - Bayleys Orewa
Attendees: 10 of the 12 candidates standing for Hibiscus and Bays Local Board, all (7) candidates standing for Albany Ward, 2 Mayoral candidates and we had approx 90 members of the public in attendance.
This event was very well attended and supported. All candidates spoke well and kept to the strict guidelines. Very positive feedback. Some candidates had to leave early to attend another event in Browns Bay but the balance stayed on after, all had refreshments and answered questions from members of the public.
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Once again we subsidised business profile photo options for members only but advertise the opportunities to all local business owners/managers. The photos are again taken by Photo Carnival (BW member)
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After earlier postponements we finally held our network event with Dave Wild.
An excellent speaker and presenter who ordinarily will speak internationally at conferences. Whilst we didn’t have a huge turn out we did have a number of apologies and people who would have come if able and those that did attend took away some great information and enjoyed some great networking. The catering was excellent with there being plenty of food (and a surplus).
We held the event at Ferntinental who sponsored the catering. The event was also sponsored by Hibiscus and Bays Local Board and Telos Group and we had 26 attendees.
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We had a very successful AGM farewelling two long standing BW Executive members, Karen Browne and Dave Matthews but welcoming new Executive members as follows – Chris Norris, Betsy Kettle, David Dennis and Danni Yu (in a shared role), Ulliana and Mario Lee (in a shared role) and Leigh and David Robbins (in a shared role). Gwenda Holster-Dowler also resigned as Chair but will remain on the Executive Committee and was replaced by Chris Norris.
Christmas Casual Networking
We held our annual Christmas drinks and networking following our AGM which was again very successful with a good turnout of approx. 20.
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Monthly meeting of the Business Whangaparaoa Executive Committee. Held on the second Thursday of each month in the side room at The Archer from 4.30 pm to 6.00 pm If […]
Join Business Whangaparaoa and Forty Thieves co-founder and owner; Shyr Godfrey. From selling at Farmers Markets to supplying over 450+ stores nationwide and 3 main export markets, Shyr shares how Forty Thieves started and its journey over the past 7 years. She dives into the importance of a strong […]
