Nick is the Venture Manager at startup incubator Creative HQ. He hears ideas pitched at him every day, and helps prep startup founders to pitch for everything from a new employee to a tranche of seed capital. With pitches under his belt to company boards, government dudes, startup wannabes, startup success stories, and having given an impromptu song to a packed Wellington Town Hall, he’s crashed and learned a few times over.

Mingle and Pitch:
What’s it about?
Understanding the power of persuasion, pitching and projecting is critical to getting the cut through and the support you need to do anything.

What will you walk away with?

• Understanding of the different situations you will be required to make some convincing noise about yourself/your project.
• Understanding what convincing noise looks and sounds like.
• Understanding the audience, and how to prepare for them.
• How to build a pitch with punch.
• The key elements of pitching.
• Tip top tips for networking.
• Ideas on turning Fear into Fearsome!
• Some practice under your belt.

Nick, you sound pretty awesome and our good friend Michael Elwood Smith let us know your pretty special.  We look forward to seeing you.

To register go online www.enspiral.eventbrite.com or www.chalkle.com

Waged $30 Unwaged $20

Look forward to seeing you there

The tool of using a lean canvas enables us to utilise a one pager that can plot out the most important parts of a business idea.  To test whether the idea can work and what key resources are needed to make it fly.

Here are some of the tools Michael refers to, to get a clear sense of how the tool works and the way it can work in social enterprises/business development.

This is Lean Canvas explained in less than two minutes:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QoAOzMTLP5s

Startup Owners Manual, Steve Blank and Bob Dorf

If you build it, will they come?”, Rob Adams

 

Thank you for sharing your gifts with us Michael and we look forward to the possibility of your return to (fingers crossed) do our Customer Validation workshop Thursday April  11th – Customer Validation – Market Research.

Biggest thanks to you from the Internship Crew and the wonderful participants from Good Enterprise

We’ve now had three workshops as part of our Good Enterprise Workshop Series.  We are also glad to note that due to the wonderful support provided by many supporters including the JR McKenzie Trust, Wellington City Council, attendees and those who have contributed to our Pledge Me Campaign we have been able to provide free and/or affordable access to a range of members from across our community.  Here’s some feedback we’ve been able to collect from our crew who have attended the first two workshops delivered by Viv Maidaborn

“I loved understanding that ideas come from dancing on the edges of possibility and continuing to push the boundaries”

“Being able to understand the definition of Social Entrepreneur and Entrepreneur and the key differences between the two”

“Bringing together of diverse peoples with different views and perspectives and connecting them to the kaupapa of social entrepreneurship”

“I will take away the fact that I believe in the importance of social entrepreneurship in creating sustainable social change”.

“I enjoyed the interactive informative style Viv brings to her workshops”.

“The first workshop was great for me as it grounded social entrepreneurship within a context. I felt like I had all these notions floating around in my head and what Viv said identified and organised these thoughts. It really confirmed my enthusiasm for social entrepreneurship”

“Meeting people interested in social entrepreneurship and learning more about it together. Vivien’s presentation was really easy to understand and practical. It made so much sense and was a great introduction to the topic. Easy to understand and useful explanation of social entrepreneurship. The continual cycle of development, growth and learning required in this process. Viv was awesome! Nice mix of content delivery and conversation to learn from others too!”

“Viv has such a clear and confident way of presenting her material. She make everything incredibly accessible and exciting. I loved her defining personality traits of a social entrepreneur and the exercises she got us to do. Particularly the ‘sweetspot’ finding where aspirations, assets and market reality meet. It enabled me to get clarity on social entrepreneurship and where I might want to go with it, loved it!”

All in all it seems this has been a wonderful start to an amazing series, giving us an opportunity to connect with these amazing presenter and the wisdom and resources they have.  Thank you!!

We are looking forward to bringing Good Enterprise to Wellington and support the ongoing growth and development of self-sustaining social entrepreneurs for the benefit of our community and our country.

Our Vision
To host an inspiring, high profile workshop series this contributes to the growth of, and leaves a legacy for, the social entrepreneurship community.

We hope that participants of the workshops will benefit from receiving actionable advice, transferable skills, inspiration to see themselves as social entrepreneurs and a sense of belonging to the community.

Our workshop series is designed to give participants the skills needed to turn good ideas into action in order to strengthen and grow the social entrepreneurship community in Wellington. These workshops will provide participants with actionable advice, transferable skills and inspiration to develop their visions for community-focused business. Covering everything from testing and pitching ideas through to legal and marketing, this innovative and interactive series will have something of value for anyone interested in starting a business, whether social or otherwise.

A brief run down of what to expect at our workshops

Viv loves to work in places where change happens; where the best of business and community methodologies comes together to create social innovation. Vivian is passionate about working with people who are engaged in social innovation and enterprise aimed at healing the tough problems of our time, poverty, child health, clean water sustainable local economies.

www.maidaborn.com

Michael Elwood Smith – Building a Framework  - Business Plans with Flexibility

An experienced strategist and entrepreneur with electronics engineering degree from Canterbury; Michael’s career in ICT in NZ, UK and Switzerland, and work at Creative HQ with many successful entrepreneurs provides a rich background to help people working in startups and high-growth companies. Michael is a practitioner of ‘lean startup’ and ‘business model canvas’, and continues to exploring new ventures with great people.

Kaye-Maree Dunn Mingle and Pitch

Kaye-Maree has a background in Toastmasters, NGO and Community Development and finds that engaging support for one’s project or idea requires preparation, clarity, quality communication and loads of practice. Kaye-Maree believes in the importance of clearly articulating your idea and being able to grab someones attention in less than 60 seconds. Prepare to step out of your comfort zone as she will set a range of interactive activities and share key tips and tricks on how to refine your pitch, get noticed and be remembered in a crowd.

Yoseph Ayele – Get Stuff Done
http://nz.linkedin.com/in/yosephayele

Yosef is a problem solver and he focuses on solving critical social & environmental problems society faces today.  He believes he adds value mainly by building organizational capacity and developing leaders to achieve shared purpose.  His various contributions so far include promoting the use of IT to improve Tanzanian education system, building a leadership institute at Harvard University to develop world-class leaders, and expanding the organizational capacity of a Silicon Valley startup to achieve fast growth.  Yosef is currently in the eco-technology space and he is undertaking research on the emergence of entrepreneurial communities in New Zealand.  Yosef is also passionate about sustainable living, storytelling, mentorship, and cooking.  Originally from Ethiopia, he has been blessed with opportunities to live, work, and study in Tanzania, Kenya, England, the United States, and now New Zealand!

Helen Baxter – Spreading the Word

Helen Baxter sits on the advisory board of Creative Commons Aotearoa, and is a regular judge in the Yahoo!NZ Digital Strategy Awards. She writes about tools for creative entrepreneurs in the MsBehaviour Files at the Big Idea, and is a mentor for XMediaLab, and Wellington Startup Weekend.
Alex Tannant & Joshua Vial-  Make it Rain

Alex Hannant is the Executive Director of the Hikurangi Foundation. Before joining Hikurangi, Alex was Director of Programmes at Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) – a global network focused on leadership development and learning for sustainability. Alex was also the Head of Partnerships at the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) – a UK and Dutch Government funded initiative providing technical advice and services on climate compatible development to decision makers in developing countries.

In his current role with Hikurangi, he aims to help build and support a culture of green innovation in New Zealand through the development of talent, learning networks, and game-changing initiatives.

Joshua is an entrepreneur with a passion for business, technology and social change. He has been running web development businesses since 2003 and is the founder of Enspiral, a professional services collective that helps launch social enterprises.

As well as managing the rapid growth of Enspiral, Joshua is currently hands on helping to launch two social enterprises - Bucky Box which builds software tools for healthier food systems and Loomio, an online tool that helps groups make decisions together.  Pitching these ideas to potential investors all require a honed and practiced approach so supporters/investors can support and invest in your idea quickly.

Rochelle Furneaux – Lock it down, Legal Set up

Rochelle is a lawyer with 19 years legal experience and specializes in commercial and business advice for the Technology and StartUp industry.  She believes that all business people need a basic understanding of the legal framework applicable to their business, and loves sharing her knowledge with people while learning about their challenges and special industry issues.  She is a Director at Enspiral Legal Ltd, and acts for many businesses and social enterprises throughout New Zealand.

Ray Wolken – Powerful Presentations

A chartered accountant for over 25 years, Ray is a highly sought after speaker on business issues and solutions and an active Toastmaster Leader helping to establish over a third of the Toastmaster Clubs in Wellington.  An avid dance enthusiast Ray likens dance to communication and leadership in the following way:  One, you need good timing and you need to take a lead, you cannot make suggestions to your partner. Lastly, there needs to be movement together, if you lead, but none follow your lead, your dance lacks communication of togetherness.

L-R Heidi Vial, Linnea Lindstrom, Rebecca Walthall, Kaye-Maree Dunn, Nina Atkinson, Noelia Portela, Beba Mclean, Sarah Adams, Chelsea Robinson

The Enspiral crew put together an internship experience tailor made for social entrepreneurs to use the tools of business to make a positive social and environmental impact, applying their unique skills & passion to the work that matters. We purposely sought change makers with fires in their belly for social justice, environmental health and economic brilliance.  Now half way though, our interns have had the unique ability to co-construct their own learning curriculum where Enspiral helped to ‘provide the ingredients, not the recipe’ for the ultimate internship experience.

Please meet our first intake of interns who, in their own right are making amazing contributions to their local community right now:

Chelsea Robinson

Chelsea is  a coordinator, facilitator & enabler. She has worked in a mixture of voluntary and professional roles to develop workshops  training and facilitate sessions from working on self, to action planning with teams. Chelsea is interested in how a society manage commons resources such as water and ecosystem services, and is interested in the potential of local government to help communities flourish.  Chelsea has a science degree in Environmental Studies and she co-founded an organisation called Generation Zero, a national youth organisation which mobilises young people to create a mandate for political action on climate change in New Zealand.
Chelsea is an Enspiral intern because she believes in the power of innovative, good enterprises and she is here to explore. Chelsea is interested in the way small, clever enterprises can change the way people think about business & how they spend time in their life, so that there is more human energy going into generating social and environmental benefits.

http://youthdelegation.org.nz/youth/2010/12/chelsea-on-counting-the-death-toll-at-the-close-of-cancun/

Nina Atkinson

Nina is inspired by young people taking on challenges, supporting people to take on new challenges and Learning.  Nina has extensive experience in organisational development and team-building, volunteer management, developing national campaigns, facilitation and political engagement.  Nina aims to use the internship to help create her own employment so she can connect and work with her passion of environmental stewardship and preserving the world’s resources for future generations.

http://salient.org.nz/columns/on-campus-the-generation-before-one

Noelia Portela

Noelia believes this internship will give her the resources and practical knowledge to help contribute to making a better society. Noelia wanted the internship because she felt that the values Enspiral holds are in line with her own. Noelia is passionate about social justice, worker’s rights, alternative communities, and helping to implement new solutions to old challenges. Noelia feels she is in a privileged position of having the opportunity to participate, which fuels her obligation to increase awareness of what’s going on in the world around us. Noelia enjoys reading as a way of educating herself and has identified that looking for possibilities of helping to create a more participative society ignites her fire.

http://www.allcorners.org.nz/~Life-Stills/Noelia-and-Lorena 

Rebecca Walthall

Rebecca is a freelance graphic designer/illustrator working in Wellington. Her commercial focusses on editorial and infographic design and she loves to experiment with tactile media – paper craft, knitting and crochet.  Rebecca feels that design has a largely untapped potential for social change and she sees the internship as a way to help her steer her life’s work in that direction. Her goal is to meet as many like- minded people and gain experience in coordinating large-scale projects and creating work that is useful to the world.

http://www.rebeccawalthall.co.nz/About 

Beba McLean

Beba is a designer and design/brand consultant who is passionate about developing ideas and creating enduring solutions to community issues. Founder of Wellington’s Care, Share and Wear, Beba saw in her community children in need of basic clothing.  Beba formed the organisation to help close the divide between the haves and have nots  ensuring quality clothing items didn’t go to waste that could be reused for the benefit of children in need.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/7629141/Needy-children-to-benefit-from-clothing-hand-me-downs

Sarah Adams

Sarah is an architect and the Co-Chair of Permaculture in New Zealand Trust.  As the co-ordinator of Innermost Gardens an organic community garden in the heart of Wellington city, Sarah passionate about helping people grow and produce their own food, Sarah’s commitment to community resilience and education has led her to design and deliver a Permaculture design programme in the urban centre.  Sarah is also helping to organise a Harvest Festival at Tapu te Ranga marae aiming to draw in community groups and help to develop a deep connection to the land.

http://taruna.ac.nz/articles/a-capital-community-garden/

Linnea Lindstrom

Linnea is an experienced Permaculture teacher who has specialised in local living economies and complementary currencies. She has a lifelong commitment to the environment, spanning from growing and distributing quality organic food, to direct action for preservation of ecosystems, to setting up community governed currencies that enable we-sufficiency at a local level.
Linnea has been practicing in Europe and is now utilising the internship programme to develop a business plan to enable her to continue her activities in a new form here. She is also at the core of the team organising the Harvest Festival at Tapu te Ranga marae.

Heidi Vial

Heidi has an extensive background in Social Work and Community Development.  Heidi believes in the need for people to develop meaningful connections with one another and loves to support people towards achieving balance in every sphere of their lives.  With her diverse interests Heidi aims to create a sustainable enterprise that will enable her to help people and create her own income.

Kaye-Maree Dunn

Kaye-Maree is committed to making a difference and working in partnership with others to co-create a better way of doing things.  Kaye-Maree is passionate about the evolution of humanity and looking for ways to develop harmonious solutions in Housing, Communication and Resource Management.  Kaye-Maree is the Co-Chair for the Wellington Maori Council,  Secretary for the Wellington District Maori Council & one of the Wellington delegates for the New-Zealand Maori Council.

http://salient.org.nz/features/kei-roto-i-te-whare

Viv Maidaborn – What does it mean/Testing Ideas

What it really means to be a social entrepreneur – the intersection of passion, assets and market.  An exercise of person inquiry.

Testing ideas to understand its viability. Tools and ways to look deeper into a problem / situation and increase the chances you will design a solution that is impactful. Know how to ask the right questions.

Michael Elwood-Smith – Building a Framework

Run a lean canvas to create business plans structured to a product or service and quickly find a market fit. Deep understanding allows for flexibility in plans as well as identifying and analysing new opportunities as they arise.

Yoseph Ayele – Getting Stuff Done

Being effective, not just scalable, by making plans and sticking to it. Knowing what to do at each stage of business Focusing on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ more than the ‘what’.

Joshua Vial – Make it Rain

Sometimes just getting by is the primary issue facing social entrepreneurs, find out how to make your business viable, how you can attract funds and how others have created their ventures on next to nothing.

Do you want a new way to have a say in the way your city runs?

Are you interested in the way Wellington deals with alcohol? Liquor licensing? Pub hours? Where you can and can’t buy alcohol? Who pays for the social cost? The balance between personal responsibility and Council regulation?

Loomio is hosting a collaborative process with the Council to develop an alcohol management strategy for Wellington. Click here to get involved: www.loomio.org/collaborate

You’ll get to work on real projects and learn from people who have significant experience in the industry.

If you have experience with Rails, JavaScript or front end development then awesome – if not, we’ll teach you!

Learn more at Enspiral on Thursday March 14th, 4pm – email rohan.wakefield@enspiral.com for more details.