Work_Life

Double Lives of Enspiralites

October 20, 2011 By sam Leave a Comment

Some of us here at Enspiral have double lives. Some people are working on startups, some people spend time volunteering, some just love to surf. Me? Well I also work with a national organisation which focuses on connecting people to their environment - mainly through volunteering. I love this other job, and it really complements my work on Bucky Box (helping to build tools for a better food system). At the end of last week, I found myself suddenly called on, in this other capacity, in much more urgency than normal. For those of you in New Zealand, you will undoubtedly be familiar … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Opinion, Remote Work, Staff Stories, Working Life, Work_Life

Future Working

October 5, 2011 By sam 1 Comment

Our very own Sam Rye was featured in Unlimited Magazine's latest edition with a story about Future Working. Worth a read! Check out Unlimited Magazine online, or at their Facebook page. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Remote Work, Staff Stories, Working Life Tagged With: future work, magazine, new zealand, press, Unlimited Magazine

Live Below the Line and Enspiral

September 4, 2011 By WillWatterson Leave a Comment

When I returned from a trip to a Burmese refugee camp in 2001, I knew my life was fundamentally changed. It was no longer just coffee (fairtrade organic) that got me up in the morning, but a passion to see a world free from poverty… one where human beings flourished. In my ten years in community work I’ve been constantly blown away by the power that everyday people have to bend their natural creativity and passion towards fundamentally changing the world around them. There’s something special, too, about Kiwi ingenuity - that wonderful neighborliness that we are so well known for … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Reflections, Volunteer

In the pursuit of purpose

August 16, 2011 By sam 2 Comments

Sam working as a conservation team leader in NZ

A few weeks back I wrote a blog which was picked up by Nature Coast, about lifestyle working and it’s possibilities for something greater. It posed the quandry “if we’ve got more flexibility & choice over our working lives, what’s our new found motivation directed toward?”. I have been exploring this with my own life for the last 4 years. I sometimes call myself a ‘corporate refugee’, but really my time was only slight compared to many who’ve escaped the realm later in life. I left the UK with the assertion that I was ‘off to work on something which I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Big Ideas, Opinion, Reflections, Remote Work, Staff Stories, Working Life

Tips for non-profits needing a website

August 5, 2011 By rita Leave a Comment

A web presence is the first place to start raising awareness for a cause right now. Organisations are able to engage directly with the people who can support them and bring about positive change in their areas of interest, while establishing credibility in the eyes of potential donors and even bringing in donations directly with just a few clicks. It’s a whole new world where people with great ideas are empowered to make their dreams of change become a reality. Most web creatives seem to do at least some of their work for non-profits, some of whom we approach and some who approach us. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Volunteer Tagged With: charity, free website, Non-profits, sponsored development, volunteer

Enough is enough: a Duel to settle matters!

August 2, 2011 By joshua 1 Comment

Image courtesy of Dennis Burger At Enspiral, we’re committed to Live Below the Line in August, and we’re supporting our good friends at The Global Poverty Project. Over 1.4 billion people on our planet live on less than $2.25 a day, lacking basic choices in their lives that we take for granted in New Zealand. We don’t think that is acceptable and want to do our bit to help out. So for 5 days from August 22 - 26 each member of team enspiral will each spend just $2.25 (the equivalent of the International Extreme Poverty Line) on their food and drink each day to raise money and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Work_Life

New working paradigm = new possibilities

April 28, 2011 By sam 6 Comments

This is the extended post of a my guest article published in Nature Coast's newsletter in April. The term 'lifestyle working' has been bandied around a fair bit over the last few years, but has made fairly minimal impacts on the day-to-day environment in which we work, in general. Sure, perhaps we're able to leave the office with an iPhone and connect with calls and emails on the move, allowing greater freedom, but generally we still go about business in a similar way. Having done a fair bit of personal research in this area, I'm now finding a radical shift in this model is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Opinion, Remote Work, Working Life, Work_Life Tagged With: Lifestyle, Motivation, Nature Coast, Opportunity, Purpose

Learning so much from the other Enspiral Creatives!

March 27, 2011 By jamie Leave a Comment

I have been in the Enspiral Wellington office now for almost 7 weeks and am loving the atmosphere, the learning and the new opportunities arising each day! I thought I would take a minute to share something that I'm sure is going to prevent a few future headaches for me and for clients. Last week Andrew Fyfe Enspiral's senior graphic designer shared a document with me and some valuable advice. "before starting on a new creative project, give this to your client" the document is a short questionnaire asking key questions to the client with the goal of putting both the designer and the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Design, Staff Stories

Calling for rails volunteers

March 18, 2011 By joshua Leave a Comment

One of my favourite rails projects The Worldwide Permaculture Network is looking for rails volunteers to lend a hand. The vision for the site is to be the Facebook for Permaculture practitioners around the world and they are off to an excellent start with nearly 1000 people and 300 projects on the site so far. The Permaculture movement is possibly one of the best chances we have of feeding the planet in an energy constrained world feeling the effects of climate change. These guys can literally green the desert and by helping them connect and strengthen the community we can really help … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Volunteer, Work_Life Tagged With: rails, ruby, volunteer

The Bucky Box Startup Story

March 4, 2011 By Will L. 3 Comments

The sign says, "Humans and Animals must keep out. Don't let your dog eat anything from the river bank or go in the river"

My big project last winter was kickstarting the "Ooooby Box" with Pete Russell and James Samuel (of Transition Town fame). What's an Ooooby Box I hear you ask? It's box of local veges, mainly organic, delivered to your door of course! Now that's all good and that, but what I didn't expect to see quite so clearly was the reason why we mostly have mega farms and chemical food on the table. Let me bring up Neil who I met along the way. He hated his job a dozen years ago. That's because his job was to say to farmers "Sorry we can't take your produce anymore, you're too small, the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Companies, Work_Life Tagged With: bucky box, environmental, green, startup, webapp