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MAKING MARKS IN THE NZ STARTUP COMMUNITY – TAURANGA STARTUP WEEKEND 2019

Written by Georgia McConnon...

PARTICIPANTS TAKING ACTION BY TAKING ACTION #TGASW19

Written by Georgia McConnon...

TAURANGA CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES AT #TGASW19

Written by Emelie...

THE BEST THING WE CAN DO IS TO START! #TGASW19 SDG

Before this weekend, never in my life had I participated in a Startup Weekend. I’d seen the Tauranga one being promoted for a number of years now and every time I saw it I was interested but for every reason under the sun, I’d never shown up to one. Until this year. You know that feeling of nervous excitement you get before starting something new, walking into a room by yourself full of strangers and just praying that someone adopts you as their friend? Well, walking into TGASW very quickly ...

CASE STUDY - WIDER HORIZONS - TWO YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT, GROWTH AND LEARNING

A group of Bay of Plenty college students have earned national recognition by developing and selling thousands of dollars worth of educational cards. They say the experience of building a business has been priceless - and a big opportunity could be in their future. The trio from Otumoetai College called Wider Horizons has taken their product, Tau Mohio Number Knowledge, through two years of growth - from inception, to development, to sales and marketing, as part of the Young Enterprise Scheme (o...

CONNECTING AND ENGAGING A COMMUNITY TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT AND ADDRESS SOCIAL ISSUES

Choice and Squawk Squad are Social Enterprises that are addressing significant social and environmental issues. Both are founded by Alex, who will be at next week's Social Innovation Opportunity and Tauranga Startup Weekend  Choice is looking to empower the consumer to address some of New Zealand's most significant social issues, you can watch more about it here: Pay with impact - Choice Squawk Squad aims to connect and engage a country in the protection and growth of our native b...

SAFE INTERNET DEVICE PROVIDES FIRST STEP TO A SAFE WORLD FOR ALL CHILDREN

Safe Surfer is a Tauranga-based social enterprise established in 2016 by Rory Birkbeck and fellow IT expert Aaron Sinclair. Safe Surfer's "Lifeguard" device can be attached to any modem and blocks websites containing pornography, violence, gambling and other harmful material. Earlier this year they won "Tech Innovator of the Year" at the 2018 NZ Charities Technology Awards. Safe surfer makes the world a better place by providing safe internet to families. The Safe Surfer Charitable Trust creates...

ANGEL GROUP LEADS THE WAY TO A NEW APPROACH TO INVESTMENT IN NZ

What does social innovation mean and what is the potential of social innovation to help us tackle pressing social and environmental issues and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? What social innovation, trends and social impact are we seeing globally and locally that highlights the potential of social innovation to make positive change here in Tauranga Moana as well as globally? What is the potential for investment and investors in the context of social innovation? These are some o...

HIGHLIGHTS FROM BETTER RULES HACK TAURANGA

Venture Centre hosted Better Rules Hack over the weekend of the 28-29 July. The ‘hack’ was a two-day learn-by-doing workshop-style event. It gave people a chance to turn government policy and legislation into reusable code that can be used in multiple apps to reduce the time, cost and complication involved in dealing with government today. It was a Tauranga first and attracted a small but perfectly formed group of people from within and outside our local community. Lawyers, de...

ENTREPRENEURS GET CLOSER TO SOLVING SERIOUS SOCIAL HOUSING ISSUES

Last year, as part of Tauranga Startup Weekend, a group of social entrepreneurs formed a company and became known as CLOser. They pitched an idea to solve one of the most critical problems facing a large number of New Zealanders now, and in the future – housing. Over the weekend they worked on and pitched their solution for alternative housing, centred around creating community, sharing resources and connection, using co-housing principles. It’s been a year since the event and Venture Centr...

WHY BUILD AN ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM FOR OUR COMMUNITY?

We often get asked why Venture Centre is so focused on building an ecosystem for entrepreneurs to support them to start new enterprises. Here’s a wee slice of an explanation why. When it comes to education, for the most part, we’ve basically been working along the same lines and similar styles for too long. We learn from textbooks and worksheets, memorising formula or facts by rote, in order to be tested on stuff we may never use again – if a bus has seven people in it and it’s travellin...

THE SOCIAL INNOVATION OPPORTUNITY IS HERE!

The Social Innovation Opportunity is right now. And so is your chance to gain more awareness of social innovation and how it can be fostered locally to address the big issues our world is facing. The Social Innovation Opportunity, co-produced by Ākina Foundation and Venture Centre, is a three-part event designed to inspire, showcase and practice. Starting with a presentation by Kristen Joiner, Social Innovation Expert and Director of Impact Investment at Enterprise Angels, you will then ga...

WHAT DID YOU DO LAST WEEKEND?

In the same amount of time, I started up a new business with a team of strangers … and more than 210,000 others have done the same all over the world. While there are many reasons to join this growing number (see the blog 7 reasons why you should come to TGASW), here is a more personal story on why I have participated in Startup Weekend not once, but twice. But first, for those of you who don’t know Start Weekend, here’s the gist of it: 54 hours of networking, discovering, and develop...

WHY TAURANGA STARTUP WEEKEND 2018 IS FOCUSED ON IMPACT

Connectivity, sharing and support are all that’s needed to make change happen. And Tauranga Startup Weekend is just perfect to accelerate this. Impact, social enterprise, and social innovation… There is plenty of conversation out there using either or all of those terms, but each can be defined differently depending on who you ask. Ākina describes social entreprises as “purpose-driven organisations that trade to deliver social and/or environmental impact”. This has particularly res...

REDUCE, REUSE AND REMARKET HARDWARE AND ENABLE DIGITAL EMPOWERMENT

How might we deliver more digital and entrepreneurial youth programmes, further and in more diverse places in our community? This is one question Venture Centre have been actively seeking answers to over the last two years. On the one hand, fibre, 4g and ultrafast broadband are becoming more available in our region. On the other, there is also a plethora of engaging free or low cost initiatives, some curated by Venture Centre as part of the MADVentures programmes and plenty other tech skills ini...

CHECK OUT WHAT DIGITAL CREATIONS WERE CODED AT CODEBRITETT!

Every school holidays we hear all about Codebrite! But how did Venture Centre’s weekly term sessions of CodebriteTT go? And is it for your child?When eight children get together to code, some pretty awesome creations happen. There are games, there are websites, and there are even photo editors.. Read more to see what some of these codebriters have made! ...

BLOCKCHAIN FOR BUSINESS MEETUP: DIGITAL DEMOCRACY

How can digital democracy can make dealing with government easier, quicker, more efficient? Learn how Horizon State is tackling a key roadblock – voting – and what that means for dealing with other decisions government makes on your behalf. One way digital tools are being used to improve democracy is through something called blockchain. For the uninitiated, Forbes magazine describes blockchain as a public register where transactions between two users belonging to the same network are stored ...

YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS ARE BORN AT MASHUP 2018!

When 32 young entrepreneurs bring an idea, their team, and a passion to make a change; amazing things happen.Add to that a supportive environment of mentors and crew to help them think beyond the norm, and you’ve got IMPACT.Check out this year’s innovative products (and entrepreneurs!) born from Mashup 2018. ...

MEET LOCAL SOCIAL ENTERPRISE - SUSTAINABILITY OPTIONS

Leading Change, an event held during Techweek Tauranga 2018, explored the opportunity to do good, sustainably, by adapting free enterprise to include an important innovation. Social enterprises innovate by using the basics of launching and running commercial enterprises while committing to achieving the ‘purpose’ of an organisation as an equal business priority to making a profit. They commit to trading in order to solve social challenges. Sustainability Options has been operating as a socia...

DOLLARS MAKING A DIFFERENCE

It’s said you need to be the change you want to see in the world, but often that change costs money. Organised by Venture Centre with Ākina Foundation, sponsored by Baytrust,  WEL Energy Trust, Momentum Waikato Community Foundation for Techweek Tauranga 18...

TAURANGA PEOPLE SET SIGHTS ON CREATING A VIOLENCE FREE FUTURE

Violence Free Future is a grassroots initiative, a “movement of change” born here in Tauranga Moana by locals, for locals. How did this project come about? It is a fact that our family harm, mental health and addiction rates are soaring. In addition, it is well understood that service providers within the social sector are under immense pressure to provide programs, counselling and support with limited resources and funding. The need for some community ownership of this social problem has be...

WHY YES TEAMS SHOULD DO MASHUP

YES Alumni Andraya explains how Mashup can help you for the YES pitches coming up in June.Any business pitch can be nerve wracking and if it is your first time doing one it’s easy to feel uncertain about a lot of things … there’s lots to consider from content to visuals to speaking. But all the more reason you should consider doing Mashup! Mashup is a free weekend event where you work on clarifying and developing your YES Team’s idea that on Sunday, you...

GROWPLENTY OF IDEAS

Do you imagine a future like in the Terminator or Hunger Games movies, where survival is based on outwitting your opponent, or one where people work together, using technology to live sustainably? These are just two scenarios set out for participants of GrowPlenty - Puna Tōnuitanga - workshops at Techweek Tauranga. The event was created to help grow young entrepreneurs who’ll be willing to share their ideas with the world. Peter Salmon from SO - Future Centred Design - told an audience of inn...

GROWING AN ONLINE STORE: HOW TO?

Grant was supported by premier Google Partners from Harper Digital to present specifically on paid digtial advertising options. Here, we’ve summarised the best bits from the workshop. What’s in a website?It’s really important that you make a great first impression with your website because that impression will last. Your homepage should be like a  tasting platter to lead people deeper into your website - with previews  to products, blogs, and listed categories. Remember tha...

GROWPLENTY; WHAT’S OUR FUTURE? PT 2

What can you do in 30 minutes? A drone can pick up a package and deliver it to your doorstep. And this is not a distant idea but rather something of the very near and very exciting future. Delivery Drones are currently being experimented overseas by companies such as Amazon, Google and United Parcel Service. With the drones already being built, programmed, and launched, the focus is now around how these companies can make the drones as safe and environmentally friendly as possible. Already this...