Ross is the Managing Partner of Ross Newman Education and Training - a consultancy established in 1993 to provide training and development services to industry. Ross has experience as a business owner and company director. He has worked with local businesses identifying training and development needs, setting performance standards and providing training to achieve those standards. He holds an Advanced Trade Certificate in Carpentry, a New Zealand Certificate in Building, A National Certificate in Adult Education and Training, and a Diploma in Tertiary Education Administration.  Ross is presenting the Going Into Business workshop

Keith specialises in marketing and business development strategies, a field in which he has over 30 years experience locally and overseas as both a trainer and practitioner. His particular interest centers on achieving target levels of commercial performance in small and medium-sized enterprises by using well-grounded management practices. Keith presents a range of workshops including Product Development and Innovation; Marketing Planning; Marketing Management

Cher is the Managing Director of Conflict Management Ltd. Previously, Cher worked for the Sealord Group Ltd in roles of HR Manager and as Organisation and Staff Development Manager, training hundreds of leaders in the skills for leading people and managing teams. She presents Leading Your Staff- Managing Staff Performance

Ali has a wealth of hands on experience having worked in advertising and media management for over 15 years including five years as the Programme Co-ordinator and Tutor on NMIT’s specialist Radio course.

Ali has a wealth of hands on experience having worked in advertising and media management for over 15 years including five years as the Programme Co-ordinator and Tutor on NMIT’s specialist Radio course.

Angela has worked extensively as an advertising writer, from radio to newspapers and plenty in between. With a passion for small business and a BCom majoring in Marketing, Angela is keen to assist business owners to employ practical and affordable ways to lift their business profile. She currently works as a Marketing Consultant to small to medium-sized businesses and supports the NMIT Student Association with Marketing and Events Management

Kathy is an experienced performance consultant and trainer working with a variety of New Zealand organisations, helping them to develop great people and business results. She brings expertise in training design and delivery, competency based recruitment and performance development practices. She is also a certified practitioner of whole brain thinking using the HBDI thinking preferences tool, and a proponent of the HPT system of performance diagnosis and solution development. Kathy presents Leading your Staff - Building Strong Teams and Coaching your Staff

Craig Wilson, Managing Director of Quality Tourism Development, has been involved in a number of significant tourism development projects over the last twelve years, including contribution into developing Qualmark’s new quality assurance systems. In addition he has vast experience in the corporate/consulting environment in both New Zealand and Australia. As a result, Craig is both knowledgeable and passionate about the development of higher quality and higher yielding tourism experiences in New Zealand.

Denise is a Human Resources and Organisational Development consultant with 17 years experience gained internationally in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.    Possessing strong commercial awareness with a focus on organisational performance, areas of expertise cover strategic HR, organisation development, employee attraction and retention, employer branding, employee engagement, performance management, change management and the Investors in People (IiP) standard.    Passionate about the link between effective people management and business success, her interest centres on creating high performing workplaces.  As she puts it “you don’t have great organisations, you have great workplaces"

With over twenty years experience in the publishing and printing industries, Karen has a good understanding of selling and marketing of both products and services. Positions she has held include management roles in advertising sales, editorial and production management. For the past 10 years she has been self employed and currently is Director of Contexo, a Nelson based graphic design company. She has also been a mentor for the national Business in the Community Mentoring Scheme, providing advertising and marketing advice for businesses within the wider Nelson region since 2003.

With over 20 years experience in senior management roles across the transport, tourism, hospitality and commerce sectors, Sharon has great insight into the many industries of the region and the challenges they face. Her recent appointment as Business Development & Relationship Manager at NMIT sees her giving further focus to strategic relationships and ensuring the right people are skilled for the right tasks. As a presenter with bdc Sharon provides strategic business advice focussing on improvements and positive results. Check out 0800 Customer Help

Beverley has a wealth of experience in the marketing, communications and public relations sector over many years. She understands the value of building strong business relationships, developing strategic plans, ensuring customer needs are well understood and making tactical linkages to maximise opportunities. Involvement in the development and execution of award-winning national marketing campaigns, international off-shore conferences and brand positioning are just part of her background. For the last three years Beverley has used this vast experience to provide support and advice to small local businesses through Business Mentors New Zealand.  She and her husband set up a single party boutique accommodation business in Upper Moutere which they have operated successfully for the last two summers with Qualmark's 4-Star rating and an Enviro-silver award. Beverley is also a trained teacher. Check out Focus on Tourism

Tim has had extensive experience in the retail and service sectors including owning and operating a multi million dollar service organisation, which included three retail stores in California, during the 1980s.
He is passionate about giving and receiving exceptional service and has designed and delivered customer service programmes for NZ Home show Expo stall holders as well as to multi-national corporations.  Tim is based in Nelson and is the Director of the Inova Group. Check out Exceptional Customer Service

David specialised in the Business sector of the Finance industry for over 25 years in business relationship and senior management roles.   He is Director of Business Forte Ltd – an independent business advisory practice with a focus on enhancing business success in an Advisory or Directorship capacity.

Correne has a background of over 20 years experience in office administration and staff training, progressing into management. She has been a Business Administration tutor with NMIT since 2007. As an active member of the Association of Administrative Professionals New Zealand Inc in Nelson for 14 years, Correne’s long-term career-passion has been working with administrators in achieving success in today’s fast-paced and demanding office. Correne is an energetic presenter who believes that learning needs to be practical and enjoyable.  She presents Business Skills for Administrators

Chris Butler is the owner of CB Marketing which is a company that assists businesses with their Marketing Strategy. He has over 16 years experience in business and event promotion.  As well as his own freelance contract projects, Chris has had many years experience working for and running business in the real market place and understands the challenges faced today. He presents Building Your Brand

Tim Savill is MBA qualified and has a background in consultancy, business research and education. Recent projects involved quantifying the financial benefits of hosting a major sporting event and designing and implementing volunteer support and management programmes. Immediately prior to emigrating to Nelson from the UK in 2009 he was instrumental in setting up the research methodology for a management study of the Solent area investigating the nature of recreational and commercial usage of this busy waterway. His previous career path includes the Royal Navy, environmental survey and project management. Tim is presenting Performance Controls and Benchmarking

Craig Cochrane's passion for designing and managing websites stems from his interest in what makes things work online for his clients’ businesses.  For more than 10 years, programming and fine-tuning website designs, improving conversion rates, website enquiries and page rankings, and search engine optimisation have been an endless source fascination to Craig.  His website design and internet marketing business is renowned for achieving great results from the websites they design, thanks to constantly testing and measuring work, and using Craig’ own websites as testing sites.