We were very excited to host our first Forum for 2022 on Workplace Wellness.  Having businesses return to these types of events was encouraging and what a turn out it was!  Over 100 businesses started their morning at 7:30am with a light breakfast & networking and finished at 2pm with a great deal of insights, connections and from what we heard satisfied bellies from breakfast, morning tea and lunch.

Allely Estate and their sister company WineTime sponsored this event and we got to hear from their Director, Peter Cooke, on his journey from corporate to business and the benefits of WineTime impressing guests and customers with their personalised wine. 

We all loved Peter’s rounding up of how his focus is on happy employees = happy customers.

Catherine Cooke, our Founder and Leading Business Advisor of The Engine got to tell the audience of her own journey personally and in business with success & adversity.  While she has helped 100’s and 100’s of businesses nationwide as a Business Advisor her key pearls always were “know who you are and use it to your advantage”, “delegate to elevate but don’t abdicate” as well as 10 words “if it is to be it is up to me”.  Catherine also gave away her 3 trade secrets for marketing and branding across the event too.

The event had great Keynote Speakers such as Charlotte Lockhart – 4Day Week Global who champions ‘Working less is our future. The 4 Day Week conversation, together with flexible, reduced hours work, has reached the tipping point. We are excited to be leading and supporting the journey for 100’s of businesses around the world with our Global Pilot Programme.’ Charlotte was talking about paying your staff 100% for 80% of their time and how we borrow our Employees from their lives so we should be looking for the balance between keeping your business, clients and people happy.  We were really intrigued by the contents of their book, written by Charlotte’s life Partner, Andrew Barnes that presents a radical, convincing case for a sustainable, profitable future in which we work less, but are more productive, engaged, and satisfied.  A wee break to morning tea had attendees with an array of more cuisine from the Chefs along with an opportunity for more networking.

After morning tea we had 3 of our clients on the couch discussing their Business Journey from Kelly Young, Co-Owner 9Round Albany, discussing the benefits of having a Business Advisor in your business, to Sarah Donaldson and rebranding her business Fitworks Health and the koru meaning on her new brand, to Curtis Stowers and the creation of his new business with his wife Monica Moore, Conference In A Box that brings incredible speakers to Events – speaking of which we had the most amazing hour from 3 speakers he will be offering – the ladies from Organised Chaos.

Following the couch we got to hear from sought after Tony Alexander which was not only insightful but had the audience laughing with his comedic delivery.  Tony has a way of drawing the audience in, however his insights provided an order of calmness to all attending to hang in there, we may be seeing a peak and a drop by the end of the year in interest rates. 

It was a working Buffet lunch as the audience got to hear from the ladies at Organised Chaos who each individually spoke and performed. From Julia Grace  who introduced us to the theory of lizard, mouse and monkey brains.   You see when stressed out brains are offline brains, we are all on a wellbeing spectrum and we can always get weller, when we are mentally unwell.  That we’ve all had those moments of thinking we are pulling the handbrake and find ourselves flying back in the seat as we have just lowered the car seat, not pulled the handbrake. As we are usually the last to know we are unwell she cautioned never book flights under pressure – you may end up somewhere else! And last but not least what an incredible voice and heartfelt version Julia sang and strummed with her guitar for the song True Colours.

Next up was Christine Rankin who came back from the most awful public office treatment to working with businesses on transformative leadership.  That when facing extreme adversity, we need to lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way!

And if we thought we had been truly inspired Monica Moore took to the stage with her hilarious props of cardboard boxes and encouraged us to change our world, change our stories, and FLIP your thinking – FLIP = find life in problems. We strongly recommend you look to buy Monica’s book – Buy the Damn Dress which is not only hilarious but has practical tips for you to practice.

The Engine Specialist Provider Business Community and Sponsors kindly donate $7000 + in prizes from branding, copywriting, tax reviews, a legal review, wine, more wine … and more that were won on the day.

Gift bags were also distributed to all attendees with flyers from 9Round Albany, Fitworks Health, Sassy Mamma, WineTime and The Engine along with yummy chocolate from Rapt about Gifts and NZ organic rub from It’s Organic Darling, pads and pens by The Engine, Walker Wayland & Martelli McKegg.

If you would like to connect with any of the Keynote Speakers: 

– Tony Alexander – Leading Economist

– Charlotte Lockhart – 4DayWeek Global

– Christine Rankin, Julia Grace and Monica Moore – Organised Chaos