Deputy PM to close Entrepreneurial Summit

Deputy PM to close Entrepreneurial Summit – May 21:

Hunter, Powell to chair

Power pair Sharon Hunter and Tenby Powell will chair New Zealand’s bold ideas brainstorm, The Entrepreneurial Summit being held on May 21 at the Ellerslie Event Centre in Auckland.

Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Bill English will officially close the day and receive the top five to ten ideas.

The Entrepreneurial Summit is being sponsored by ANZ, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bartercard New Zealand and the AUT Venture Fund. The Summit board seek gutsy ideas for ownership by all New Zealanders that could be implemented throughout the country at local, central government or community levels.

Final submissions close this week. Ideas can be sent to: ideas@entrepreneurialsummit.co.nz.

Husband and wife team, Hunter and Powell have founded a string of successful business enterprises and are the right people to lead the country’s most successful entrepreneurs in a business think tank, says event coordinator, Just Water International CEO Tony Falkenstein.

“Sharon and Tenby both bring career paths paved with success and their enthusiasm for New Zealand’s prosperous economic future was a key to their joint chairmanship,” he says.

Idea submissions will be judged on three criteria: ability to enable positive national and regional growth; to attract private sector funding; and to be implemented within 18 months. Ideas will be refined throughout the Summit with the top reworked ideas presented to the deputy prime minister at the close of day.

Powell says the Entrepreneurs’ Summit has a lofty vision, of getting New Zealand out of the bottom quartile of the OECD and seeking to take the country’s GDP from 0.01% to 0.02% of the global total. He adds that entrepreneurs are the right people to get us there.

“We’re wholly supportive of gathering a cluster of like-minded entrepreneurs,” he says.

“As entrepreneurs, business leaders and advisors, it’s our job to deliver tangible ideas to stimulate growth and productivity. This event is about achieving economic growth, it’s about a can-do attitude.

“The people involved can add some punch, graft small ideas onto bigger ideas, and bring their energy, pragmatism and sustainable value for the country. And we know we have a government who listens to business.”

The Summit team has received ideas from some of New Zealand’s strongest entrepreneurs. This includes individual businesspeople, in-house entrepreneurs from large organisations and from those at the helm of New Zealand SMEs.

Falkenstein says SME support is vital as they are a major force in New Zealand’s economy, in particular with their contribution to the country's employment.

“They are nimble, able to react, and can initiate and drive ideas into more detailed plans and implementation,” he says.

“And they’re made up of passionate New Zealanders who can show up and bring their entrepreneurial spirit on the day and turn ideas into something real for the greater good of the whole country.”

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