Are you new to Tauranga?

Between 2013 and 2023, the population of Tauranga grew by 32.73%!

The city’s annual average growth rate, between 2.1% - 2.3%, is above the national average, which is 1.3%. So we definitely have some new faces coming in. 

This is reflected in our residents at Basestation, a good handful of them have moved to the area in the last five years. Some are originally from the region, but have returned from an extended overseas venture, or they have young families and chosen to be closer to extended family. Others have just moved out of the rat race from other bigger cities and are looking for more work/life balance. 

We would love to introduce you to Ben Thomson, who works for Lumen. Ben’s been with Basestation for a while now, so we thought it was high time we did a Resident Shout Out with him! 

As school holidays have just kicked off, we thought now would be a good time to sit down with one of our parents and resident of Basestation, to talk to them about how they judge their childcare and parenting alongside a professional career. 

Meet Jasmine Morgan, Senior Account Manager at MOCA. Jasmine has two young children, Lucy, 3 (soon to be 4) and Oliver, 1 (soon to be 2). 

As it’s the start of Techweek this week; Aotearoa’s festival for tech that’s good for the world - we thought it would be a good excuse to catch up with some of our residents in the technology sector at Basestation. One of the longest standing companies here is TechnologyWise, we sat down to kōrero with Randal Hyde, one of the technologists on the team.  

As part of Basestation’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) we sponsor or offer in-kind support to initiatives, events or groups that align with our kaupapa. One of the groups we sponsor on a regular basis is Tauranga Repair Café organised by Tinkd Makerspace. 

Repair Cafés are a global movement that looks to fix domestic items so that they can be saved from being thrown into landfill. 

Workplace wellbeing can cover a whole raft of issues, from mental health, physical health, a sense of belonging, eating well, and everything in between. 

The definition of “wellbeing is the experience of health, happiness and prosperity.” Good health and wellbeing is one of the United Nations Sustainable Development goals, so it must be important - right?

It’s estimated we spend one third of our life at work - therefore it makes sense that workplace wellbeing should be high up there on the priority list! The World Health Organization (WHO) actively promotes healthy, safe and resilient workplaces for all.

At Basestation we have two fully equipped modern kitchens - this means that if you’re a resident, working at a hot desk, or using one of our meeting rooms you can BYO food in. We have microwaves, a toaster, and panini maker - so there are a number of options when it comes to preparing food and drinks.

That being said - every now and again our residents like to venture out and sample some locally prepared kai (food) from the local cafes, restaurants and eateries. 

Coworking has its roots in the tech space. Many people see the independent c-base in Berlin, Germany as being the ‘origin story’ for the coworking movement. Formed in 1995, c-base saw itself as the hub of the Berlin hacker scene with a purpose to increase knowledge and skills pertaining to computer software, hardware and data networks. This type of setup then became copied and replicated globally, especially in San Francisco where Silicon Valley had become well established and was growing from strength to strength. 

Back in January this year, the New Zealand government announced that the rules for visitors are changing and people arriving on a visitor visa or NZeTA can now work for overseas employers whilst visiting New Zealand.

This is great news if you are a “digital nomad”, or you are able to work remotely for your employer or client. 

For this year's IWD blog we sat down with Stacey Canham from Egis, she has been part of the Basestation whānau since July 2023. She works in one of the larger offices on our first floor alongside the rest of the Tauranga Egis team.