Devising market entry strategies and solving the future of the tourism industry no big deal for New Zealand’s brightest
teen entrepreneurs
Over the weekend 80 secondary school students participated in Young Enterprises ‘Entrepreneurs in Action’ (EIA) business
competition. In 48 hours, the students tackled two back to back business challenges harnessing their innovative thinking
to solve real-world problems.
Over the course of the weekend students were mentored by 1 of 12 leading organisations such as Air New Zealand, Asia NZ
Foundation, Spark and Xero to help them navigate the challenges. For the first time ever, EIA was held as a dual city
event hosted in both Wellington and Auckland to reduce travel for the selected Auckland students.
Challenge one of the weekend was sponsored by New Zealand Trade & Enterprise and tasked the students to provide business development advice to the fictional company, Kainui on exporting
their food products and services into the United Arab Emirates. The winning team, Angus Henderson (Otago Boys' High
School), Cecilie Ward (Rangi Ruru Girls School), Connor Howard (Hauraki plains college), Finn Griffith (Waimea College),
Marisa Raymond (St Mary's College Wellington), and Miguel Manaig (Rotorua Boys' High School), mentored by Sharesies
impressed the judges with their thorough plan and pitch on Friday night.
On the back of pitching their response to challenge one the students were presented with their second challenge of the
weekend, the Go with Tourism Challenge. Students were asked to develop a business plan on inspiring young people to
choose a career in tourism. The teams blew the judges away with their innovative solutions to breaking down the current
stigmas which exist around pursuing a tourism-based career and highlighting the opportunities this industry can provide.
Representative judge Matt Stenton from Go with Tourism commented on Sunday how each of the 14 presented ideas could all
be implemented in the real world to effectively help solve this problem. Cecilia Gardner (Mount aspiring College), Dylan
Wijaya (St John's College, Hastings), Eva Thornley (Cashmere High School), Georgia Wills (Aotea College), Tim Coulson
(St. Peter's College), and Tom Leonard (Hauraki Plains College) mentored by Air New Zealand took out the Go with Tourism
Challenge with there proposed in-school tourism initiative called Hāpai, a theoretical and practical based course to
educate students on the nine sectors of the tourism industry.
Members of the winning teams were awarded a $3000 scholarship to Massey University, and the winning team of the Go with
Tourism Challenge also won a ‘Big Aotearoa Experience’ in Queenstown for the whole team kindly donated by Go with
Tourism.
EIA participants were chosen from the 4000+ participants in The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme programme that
spans the entire school year. Of those 4000+, 134 applied to compete in the event with only the top 80 students being
selected from across New Zealand.Company hosts and location of their team:
Air New Zealand (Wellington)
Akina Foundation (Wellington)
Aro Digital (Wellington)
Asia NZ Foundation (Wellington)
EY (Auckland)
Go with Tourism (Auckland)
NZTE (in both Auckland & Wellington)
Sharesies (Wellington)
Spark (Wellington)
Uprise Digital (Wellington)
Vaka Interactiv (Wellington)
Xero (in both Auckland & Wellington)