Basestation recently hosted a social enterprise workshop, run by the wonderful thought leaders from Ākina Foundation.

It was well-attended by a range of people from throughout the community, including one all the way from Maketu and one from Hamilton. We spoke to Kim Cleland (pictured second from right), who runs Night Owl Cinema, Cult Cinema Club and was the producer for this year’s Tauranga Arts Festival.

Kim said it was a great day and well worth her time. “It was a really thorough and inspiring day,” she says.

“We went through the basics of what makes a business a social enterprise, then covered some basic steps to determine the business and impact models.”

Night Owl Cinema hosts outdoor cinema over summer at Mt Drury Reserve and at local parks and reserves throughout the Bay of Plenty in our Neighbourhood Cinema series. Night Owl Cinema also produces other community events in local reserves, documentary screenings and other unique cinematic experiences. Meanwhile, Cult Cinema Club screens AO, classic cult films at the recently refurbished cinema at the Historic Village, on 17th Ave.

All Kim’s events celebrate local place, local talent and the opportunity to bring community together. She does good for the community and supports local film-making talent. She says the workshop gave her some great examples of other social enterprises to use as models to achieve her vision.

“The whole workshop was very clear and concise and I met some really interesting people,” she says.

“We also explored some examples from around the world and New Zealand. The people I met had varying interests and levels of where they are at with creating a social enterprise.”

She said the event was very well organised and the Venture Centre team did a great job hosting.

“I always find them engaging and helpful and so willing to make your dreams become reality,” she says, “they remind me what a collaborative community can really look and feel like.”

 

- Venture Centre works to connect people on enterprising journeys - with each other and the mindset, skillset, toolsets, networks and resources they need - to build an ecosystem that delivers real-world, learn-by-doing events, activities, projects and experiences, and more... This would not be possible without the support of Tauranga City and Western Bay of Plenty District Councils.

If you would like to add your support or get involved with this work to help build entrepreneurially capable, digitally and commercially empowered communities who contribute and benefit from the resulting prosperity and wellbeing, we’d love to hear from you. Feel free to email us at info@venturecentre.co.nz.