Boswijk's Bossweek: What did the Chamber CEO get up to in August?

Following our last month's meeting with Liz Thompson, Project Manager of the Nelson Hospital redevelopment, Fiona Wilson (NRDA) and the Chamber will be hosting an event for potential suppliers in October. Liz will present and the invitation will be open to everyone involved in various stages of construction. Builders, electricians, plumbers, but also ancillary organisations, like those in health and safety and traffic management. The date is locked in for 10th October so make sure to register if you are keen.

I met with Datacom to talk about what's happening in their world and about the possibility of getting involved in Aspire next year as the theme is going to be innovation, which they live and breathe. If you know of an engaging speaker or business leader who can talk to that theme, please get in touch with me. 

I went to the mihi whakatau for the Te Tauihu Community Development Agency (TTCDA) led by Leigh Manson. This gathering was to welcome the first board of trustees for this newly formed agency. Myself and Venus Sood, our Chamber President, have both been part of the wider establishment group that's been helping to put in place this community development agency. Its purpose will be similar to the Chamber of Commerce, except it will be supporting the not-for-profit sector. They also want to work closely with the Chamber because they can see that we've got a network of businesses and people that might align with their objectives.  

Every couple of months I catch up with the Chief Executives of Marlborough and the South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. We have similar sized member bases, so our challenges are comparable, but we also talk about different issues and initiatives. As you will appreciate, and hopefully be able to access within your own sector, it's incredibly useful to connect with people who can relate to your specific role. One of the things they do differently in South Canterbury is deliver a lot more training than we do. So, we're looking at how we can extend our training schedule, and take the lead on things that South Canterbury has found to be impactful for their local business people. We all share some advocacy issues - immigration for example. Working visas are currently slow to be approved, which means employers are left waiting and people cannot work. We know that has been quite difficult for everyone, and the Department of Immigration acknowledges that they are taking more time than is helpful; but it looks like they are trying to reduce the backload on that. So, the three chambers work quite closely on certain issues, and we feed our insights and concerns to the wider Chamber network as well. 

Speaking of New Zealand Chambers, we had a Zoom session where we discussed events, primarily the business awards and how everyone is tracking with their entries, bearing in mind, we’re all at different stages. Our deadline has just closed so entries will be revealed very soon. I can guarantee that you’ll learn about businesses that have been flying under the radar. In a provincial region, this can at times feel like a major discovery, especially for the Chamber team who meet a lot of people. It's good to see that nationwide, the business awards are getting a lot of interest from organisations who see them as vehicles for reflecting and consolidating their achievements, seeking wider recognition from their peers and also saying to their teams that they are working for an organisation that they should take pride in.  

I spoke with Florence Van Dyke about Businesses for Climate Action (Mission Zero). They've been awarded some funding through Nelson City Council to look at commuter habits of businesses in the region. They want to be able to look at about 1000 individuals through their businesses, work out how they're commuting, and what impacts they’re having on the carbon emissions of that business, as well as the whole region.  

Kim and I met with John Ridd (Head of Strategy) and Pip Jameson from TDC as they are keen to work more closely with us. They are interested in the work that Mission Zero are doing as it supports their focus on carbon reduction. If they can also work with Mission Zero on that, then that will help to get them that a little bit further forward. A great example of connecting dots - which is part of the Chamber’s role, so we are happy to help with that. 

I also attended a meeting of the Kokiri Forum. This was set up as a result of covid, and it's the regional leadership group including both mayors, CEOs, head of the hospital, and head of DOC. I'm in the group, representing small business, and these forums happen every three months and this one was out in Richmond, chaired by Tim King. It is an opportunity to share what we're all hearing, and discuss what the impact is. This session was all about the economic impact of what's happening in the region at the moment and we discussed the fact that businesses are still struggling because of the high cost of living. We also get information from different government agencies and we're seeing the impact now of the Government’s change of focus, for example with Kāinga Ora. Six months ago they were looking at a pipeline of 400 new properties in Nelson Tasman now they're looking at 70 because the build has been put on hold. It will happen at some point, but that will have an impact that flows down into our construction sector, and obviously we need to be very aware of those things. Government is looking at delivering them in different ways, such as through community housing trusts, but there will be a time lag that will have an impact, and we all need to think about how we can insulate large infrastructure projects from the political cycle. 

I attended a meeting with the NMIT advocacy group that's been set up by Mayor Nick Smith. This is the group that's been brought together to advocate for NMIT going back to being a standalone entity as Te Pūkenga is being disestablished. This is open for consultation, and we're encouraging businesses who work with NMIT and hire graduates of NMIT or do work based training through NMIT to support this as well. We've worked on a submission template for people to add their voices and support. Submissions close 12th September. 

With Fiona Wilson (NRDA) and her colleague Anna Crosbie, we went to the Beehive and met with Minister Todd McClay in his capacity as Ministry for Primary Industries, where we spoke to him about issues facing the primary sector and some irrigators in the region 

I flew home in time to go to the Cawthron Lecture, which was really great, and attended by about 350 people. It had two presenters, Sam Johnson, who was the head of the student army, and Dr Xavier Pochon, who set up the Citizens Of The Sea project. These are both citizen led initiatives which was inspiring. Citizens Of The Sea project is really exciting, and it gives anybody that is in any vessel on the ocean the opportunity to participate in capturing research data. At the moment, they're working with lots of yacht owners who are going around the South Pacific, gathering information on the DNA of the sea. 

There is a round-the-world yacht race that happens every year out of France, and they recruited one of the sailors to capture information, but the organisers then made it mandatory for anybody participating in the race to become a scientist of the sea, which is really cool. The equipment used has been made in Nelson including by our cornerstone sponsor, Kernohan Engineering. Sam talked about how if you give people the opportunity to participate in something good, they'll do it. He talked about the student army and how they've gone on to help lead people in other areas. It’s not just students who become those citizens that help when the situation is needed. They set up similar sorts of things on the east coast, where the cyclones hit. A very engaging presentation.  

Stephen Broad-Paul and I met with Sean Coleman, who is the Acting Regional Commissioner for MSD, to get a sense of what is going on and looking at how we can support people better through flexi-wage investment so they get more mentoring, rather than just getting the financial support.  

I met with Gemma Hogan, who is working in Wakatū Incorporation. She's the project lead for the next iteration of the Te Tauihu intergenerational Strategy, or one aspect of it. And Wakatū, in partnership with Massey University, have been given a grant to look at future food resilience for the country, but also specifically for Te Tauihu. They're interested in a food strategy for the region, and what that looks like in terms of our food producers. How do they get engaged, so that we know that we've got resilience around food, that what we're growing is the right things. They're right at the beginning of the project and from a Chamber perspective, it's important that we're involved. We know that if everybody's 100% export focused, then this won't work. But equally, if they don't see a return on delivering locally, local food producers are less llikely to be engaged.  

Whew. I’ll leave it here for now, more to catch you up on soon. Please let me know if you are finding these useful and/or interesting. I’ll keep these updates going if you find them worthwhile. ali@commerce.org.nz