Event details
Join hundreds of women from across New Zealand and the world as the Business and Professional Women New Zealand National Conference returns to Gisborne for an unforgettable weekend of inspiration, connection and opportunity.
Whether you're building a business, leading a team, growing your career, studying or simply looking for your next spark of inspiration, this is your chance to invest in yourself. Leave with new ideas, valuable connections and the confidence to take your next step.
Featuring 14 inspiring speakers, this year's programme has been carefully curated to tackle the conversations that matter most. From AI and managing burnout and stress to confidence, conflict resolution and scaling your business, every session is designed to leave you feeling equipped and ready to put new ideas into action.
Hosted in the first city to see the sun, this year's theme Together We Rise celebrates the power of women supporting women. Just as every sunrise marks a new beginning, this conference is about creating new opportunities, sharing knowledge and lifting one another up. Together, we'll empower women from across Aotearoa to learn, lead and rise together.
Between sessions, explore the Rose Rooms, where local businesses and artisan makers will showcase the very best of Tairāwhiti. Network over morning tea and lunch or discover the popular Gizzy Monthly Market taking place just outside.
As the sun sets continue the celebrations at the BPW New Zealand Awards Dinner, featuring keynote speaker Nadia Lim, delicious food, live music and an evening celebrating the outstanding achievements of BPW New Zealand members from across the country.
The conference continues on Sunday, 2 May, with the BPW New Zealand Annual General Meeting, a members-only event where delegates will reflect on the year that has been, help shape the future of BPW New Zealand and strengthen connections with members from across the country.
More than a conference, this is your chance to experience everything Gisborne has to offer. Stay by the beach, explore our wineries and coastline, connect with incredible women from across New Zealand and return home feeling unstoppable.
Come for the speakers. Stay for the experience. Leave inspired. Together We Rise.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Please get in touch if you would like to support this event.
PLATNIUM
GOLD
Saturday 1st May
Open to the public, the day will bring together women from across New Zealand for a full day of speakers, networking and stalls. Whether you're looking to grow your business, develop your career or simply be inspired, you'll leave with fresh ideas, new connections and the confidence to take your next step.
Schedule
8.15am
Registration opens - Networking - Stalls
9.00am
Welcome - Conference opening
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Rehette Stoltz
Mayor of Gisborne
Janet Gibb
BPWNZ President
Alice Kibble
Event Organiser
Seda Naden
Event MC
9.25am
Guest Speaker - Know Who You Are. Own What You Bring. Create Work That Matters.
In a world where success is often measured by what we achieve, it’s easy to lose sight of who we are and the contribution we make. This session explores the power of alignment - understanding yourself, recognising what you naturally bring, and connecting who you are with what you do. We’ll explore how greater self-awareness can help you recognise the value you create, show up with more confidence, and build a career that isn’t only fulfilling (and fun!), but allows you to live and work well.
Toni Hoskin Founder, Well by Design
Toni Hoskin is the founder of Well By Design, a strengths-based wellbeing and coaching practice built around a simple belief: people matter, not just because of what they do, but because of who they are. With more than 35 years’ experience across health, wellbeing, performance, and leadership, Toni absolutely loves helping people understand themselves, have conversations that matter, and discover what allows them to live well. As a CliftonStrengths coach, speaker, and facilitator, Toni brings experience, practical tools, and a warm sense of possibility that helps individuals and teams recognise what they bring, strengthen connection, and choose how they show up.
Based in Gisborne, New Zealand
9.45am
Panel - The Power of Marketing
Marketing is constantly evolving, and for many businesses, knowing where to focus can feel overwhelming. Join four passionate women as they discuss the true power of finding, growing and connecting with your community online. This panel will unpack what it really takes to show up with confidence and stand out from your competitors.
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Leticia Santos Creative Director, Let's Communicate
Leticia Santos is a marketing and communications professional with more than 17 years of experience working across Brazil and New Zealand with leading creative agencies. Throughout her career, she has worked with major national and international brands, including Coca-Cola, before founding Let's Communicate four years ago. Guided by the Māori concept of whakapapa, Leticia helps small and medium businesses uncover what makes their brands unique through strategic marketing, branding and authentic storytelling. She believes the most powerful part of any business is its people and is passionate about helping brands create genuine connections with their audiences.
Traveling from Auckland, New Zealand
Charlotte Clark Founder, Thirteen Creative Studio
Charlotte is the founder of Thirteen Creative Studio, a full-service creative studio specialising in brand strategy, brand identity and web design. Her career spans over 10 years across not-for-profits, large corporates and solopreneurs, experience she now brings exclusively to founder-led businesses. She's built her approach around blending brand strategy with personal branding, turning a founder's values into a brand people can see, feel and trust on sight, because people don't just buy a business, they buy the person behind it.
Traveling from Auckland, New Zealand
Moumita Das Roy Marketer and Social Impact Advocate
Moumita Das Roy is a cross-industry marketer with a wealth of marketing and communications experience in iconic global organisations. Recognised as a LinkedIn Top Voice and a Creator to Follow, she is a prolific content creator who passionately engages in Diversity and Inclusion, Social Impact, and Volunteering conversations. You'll find Moumita at the crossroads of innovation and impact, creativity and purpose. Moumita's multicultural work environments and travels across seven continents enrich her storytelling. Besides her day job, she helps senior corporate executives, professionals and entrepreneurs like us build our narratives and share our stories with confidence across platforms.
Traveling from Auckland, New Zealand
Alice Kibble Marketing Strategist, Ask Alice
Alice has helped more than 300 businesses and organisations across New Zealand over the past six years strengthen their marketing, grow their audiences and build thriving communities online. What began as a mission to help local organisations navigate technology has evolved into a business that empowers business owners with practical marketing strategies, systems and confidence to grow sustainably. Passionate about making marketing simple and achievable, Alice is dedicated to helping businesses turn their content into clients.
Based in Gisborne, New Zealand
10.30am
Morning Tea - Networking - Stalls
11.00am
Guest Speaker - Solopreneur success: What 6 figure founders do differently
In 2025, more New Zealand businesses closed than opened for the first time in over a decade, and 93.9 percent of them were solo operators. But here's the exciting part. Some solopreneurs didn't just survive that storm, they hit six figures in the middle of it. In this talk, Sarah Davies unpacks her research report Built on Assumption and shares a new approach to building a business that takes the guesswork out completely, including the real story behind a 70 percent revenue jump. Walk away knowing exactly what those six figure founders did differently, so you can start doing it too.
Sarah Davies Founder, Beyond the Hourly Rate Business Accelerator
Twenty years ago, Sarah Davies was faced with an impossible choice, her sick daughter or the office. She subsequently walked away from her job, determined never to be put in that position again. Now a strategist, coach and research report author, Sarah built a business accelerator based on her Proof 1st Method® to give others the roadmap to build a 6 figure business and have ultimate control over their career without being answerable to a boss. For more than 2 decades she's championed the solo operator sector, and her clients have collectively generated over $100 million in revenue.
Traveling from Auckland, New Zealand.
11.20am
Guest Speaker - Creative Marketing in an AI World: How to stand out on a small budget
Everyone has access to the same AI tools now. And you can tell. Marketing is starting to look, sound and feel suspiciously similar. That’s your opportunity. Shay will show you where AI can genuinely save time and money—and where your own thinking, creativity and judgement are still worth far more. You’ll get sharper on strategy, braver with your ideas and smarter about using AI to make your marketing better, not blander. You’ll leave knowing where to invest, what to stop wasting time on and which ideas you can put to work next week. No agency retainer required.
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Shay Starrenburg Creative Director, Idyllic
Shay Starrenburg is the founder and Creative Director of Idyllic, a strategy-led creative agency in New Plymouth. Her team of 14 builds brands, websites and marketing for ambitious businesses across New Zealand and Australia. She's known for bold campaigns and ensuring businesses stand out against the crowd!
Traveling from New Plymouth, New Zealand
11.40am
The Power of Networking Discussion - More details coming soon!
12.00pm
Guest Speaker - Visibility Creates Possibility - Why the Courage to Be Seen Changes What Becomes Possible
The opportunities we dream about rarely arrive if nobody knows we exist. Whether we're building a business, leading a team or championing a cause, authentic visibility isn't about self-promotion but about having the courage to be seen. Drawing on more than 20 years of international leadership, alongside stories from cycling 12,000 kilometres across Africa, running ultramarathons through the Sahara, freediving 50 metres deep and writing BOLDER, this keynote explores how visibility builds trust, creates opportunity and inspires action. Participants leave with practical strategies to build confidence, increase their influence and create new possibilities for themselves and others.
Birgit Hermann Founder, Inspired by Nature
Birgit Hermann is a global leadership advisor, keynote speaker, author of BOLDER, ocean advocate and extreme endurance athlete. For two decades she has guided leaders and teams in over 20 countries through culture change, crises and organisational transformation. As the Founder of Inspired by Nature, she helps purpose-driven organisations deliver on their mission in climate resilience, conservation, development and peacebuilding. Her edge-tested mindset comes from cycling Africa end-to-end, freediving under ice without a wetsuit, and running 250 km through the Sahara. She inspires audiences to think boldly, lead courageously and create what once seemed impossible.
Traveling from Timor Leste
12.20pm
Guest Speaker - ABCs of managing Imposter Syndrome
In this practical and uplifting session, Dr Bex unpacks the ABCs of Managing Impostor Syndrome: understanding why your Inner Critic shows up, learning how to challenge the stories it tells, and building an Inner Coach who helps you back yourself more often. Blending psychological science, relatable stories and practical tools, Bex will help you stop treating self-doubt as evidence that you don’t belong, and start pursuing excellence without letting perfectionism, fear or overthinking run the show.
Dr Bex Bell Founder, Remix Coaching and Consulting
Dr Bex is a leadership & high-performance coach, speaker, and self-confessed recovering perfectionist who helps people stop fighting themselves. She's the author of Inner Critic to Inner Coach and loves translating psychological science into practical tools that help people manage Impostor Syndrome, back themselves more often, and stop letting their Inner Critic run the show. Her mission is simple: helping incredible people like you enjoy excellence without exhaustion.
Traveling from Blenheim, New Zealand
12.40pm
Lunch - Networking - Stalls
1.25pm
Welcome back
1.50pm
Guest Speaker - From Me to We Conversations
Nobody wants to have hard conversations. But avoiding them is costing you: your trust, your team, and your results. Drawing on 30 years of experience in conflict resolution and workplace culture, this presentation gives leaders the tools and the mindset to move from "me conversations" to "we conversations.” Because when people feel safe enough to talk about the hard things, trust grows, connection deepens, and teams become genuinely innovative.
Kate Russell Founder
Kate Russell has spent 30 years helping people have the conversations they have been avoiding. A conflict transformation specialist, facilitator, and former Tribunal member, she works with organisations where relationships have broken down, and trust needs rebuilding. Kate believes connection is not a soft skill; it is the most practical thing a leader can develop. Warm, direct, and disarmingly honest, she will leave you with something you can use before you leave the room.
Traveling from Adelaide, South Australia
2.10pm
Guest Speaker - Building our courage muscles
We all say "just be more courageous" like it's easy. It's not - courage is a skill, and most of us only get to practice it when the stakes are already real and we're panicking. In this talk, we'll get an opportunity to practice courage together and to talk through what it's like to build courage muscles over time. People leave with a felt sense of their own courage and a couple of things to hold onto for next time they need courage.
Tamara Buckland Founder, Leadership Treehouse
Tamara Buckland is the founder of Leadership Treehouse, where play, creativity, and role-playing collide with serious leadership growth. They design game-based adventures that help leaders and teams tackle the messy middle of work - trust gaps, hard conversations, culture drift and more. Alongside this, Tamara runs BloomHQ, a fractional HR consultancy trusted by founders and fast-growing businesses. Outside of work, Tamara rides motorbikes, is a practising druid and a D&D nerd.
Traveling from Wellington, New Zealand
2.30pm
Guest Speaker - Power, Permission and Possibility - Women rising on their own terms.
Drawing on 23 years working with women, this talk explores one constant truth: women want to define success for themselves, on their own terms. Jane will unpack how we're taught what business and success "should" look like, and what happens when women release those models and claim genuine agency. Attendees will leave with a powerful understanding of how identity shapes the stories they live by, and how to rewrite those stories when they no longer fit, perfectly aligned with Together We Rise.
Jane Guy Founder, Jane Guy Coaching
Move from insight into lived, practical change. For over 20 years, I worked on the frontlines, supporting young people through sexual health challenges and walking alongside women navigating crisis, violence, and major life transitions with my work in women's refuge. In 2017, I founded Queenstown Lakes Women, a networking community of women, which grew to more than 2,000 members. That experience confirmed what women need most: connection, education, and permission to build a business on their own terms. At the core of my coaching is a five-pillar methodology, shaped through years of experience supporting small business owners through both the practical and emotional rollercoaster of entrepreneurship. I am obsessed with Keanu Reeves, horror movies, BBQ crisps and being outside!
Traveling from Queenstown, New Zealand
2.50pm
Closing remarks - Networking - Stalls
your seat awaits!
Invest in yourself and be part of a day that will leave you energised, connected and ready to take your next step.
Tickets are limited, so secure your seat now and join us as Together We Rise.
“The BPW conference was inspiring and empowering, and I felt supported and accepted by all fellow attendees. The speakers were relevant and I came away with lots of advice and connections on how to take my business forward.”
2025 attendee
“The BPW conference 2025 was jam packed with inspirational speakers! It was flawlessly organised and offered great networking opportunities for women in business.”
2025 attendee
“Conference was very insightful and gained confidence with digital marketing and feel supported as a woman in business. Lots of helpful tips for personal growth as well.”
2025 attendee
“I really enjoyed my first experience with BPW, the vibe is amazing and it is a privilege to be around such amazing, strong and driven women! Amazing!”
2025 attendee
a conversation with nadia lim
BPWNZ Awards dinner
Join us for an evening of celebration as we recognise the outstanding achievements of BPW New Zealand members from across the country. The evening begins with A Conversation with Nadia Lim, a Q&A-style discussion where Nadia will answer a selection of questions about her career, business journey and the experiences that have shaped her life. Afterwards, enjoy a delicious buffet dinner, live entertainment and the opportunity to connect with incredible women from across Aotearoa. It's the perfect way to conclude a day of inspiration at the Together We Rise: Women in Business Conference.
About Nadia:
Nadia Lim ONZM is one of New Zealand’s best-loved food personalities – a chef, entrepreneur, bestselling author, television presenter, farmer, and mum to three boys!
Influenced by her background as a qualified dietitian, Nadia is a passionate advocate for healthy eating, food education, and creating delicious, nutritious recipes using fresh, natural ingredients. As co-founder of My Food Bag, she has helped solve the “what’s for dinner?” dilemma for thousands of Kiwi families, making healthy home cooking more accessible and convenient.
Nadia first captured the nation’s attention when she won MasterChef New Zealand in 2011, a milestone that launched her career as a bestselling cookbook author, beginning with Nadia’s Kitchen. In 2022, she returned to the hit series as Head Judge, coming full circle to where her journey began.
Today, Nadia and her husband, Carlos Bagrie, run the historic Royalburn Station near Arrowtown, where they are a true farm-to-plate business producing some of New Zealand’s highest-quality food. Farming more than 1,200 acres, Royalburn produces award-winning lamb, pasture-raised eggs, honey, and a range of food crops, guided by a vision to lead the way in regenerative and ethical farming through sustainable, circular systems that help the land, animals, and food sources thrive.
Their journey was showcased in the acclaimed three-part TV series Nadia’s Farm which follows Nadia and Carlos as they work towards their dream of creating one of New Zealand’s most innovative and respected farms. Through her work as an author, presenter, entrepreneur, and farmer, Nadia continues to champion food resilience, regenerative agriculture, and a stronger connection between people, food, and the land.
Tickets will be available shortly for BPW NZ Members.
Tickets for non-members/guests will be available early 2027 if the ticket allocation has not already been exhausted.
Together we rise fund
We believe every woman should have the opportunity to be inspired, learn and connect, regardless of where she is on her journey.
The Together We Rise Fund has been created to help make the Business and Professional Women New Zealand Conference 2027 more accessible. Whether you're just starting your business, studying, exploring a new career, volunteering in your community or simply looking for an opportunity to grow, we'd love to hear from you.
Successful applicants will receive a discounted ticket to the Saturday 1st May Women in Business Event (9am - 3pm), giving them access to an unforgettable day of speakers, panels and networking.
Tell us a little about yourself, why you'd like to attend and what the experience would mean to you. Applications will be reviewed by the conference committee, with successful recipients selected based on the information provided.
Because when one woman rises, we all rise.
meet the MC
Seda Naden
If there’s a microphone, a crowd, and a good kaupapa, chances are Seda is already halfway through making everyone laugh.
A proud Māori wahine with a splash of Melanesian flavour (she likes to call herself a bit of a tropical fruit salad), Seda has built a reputation for bringing energy, authenticity and plenty of banter wherever she goes. Equal parts professional and playful, she’s known for creating spaces where people feel comfortable, connected and genuinely part of the conversation.
By day, Seda works in communications and business support, but outside the office you’ll usually find her championing community initiatives, telling stories that matter, or somehow saying “yes” to one more project she probably doesn’t have time for.
With experience MCing everything from business conferences and leadership forums to national programmes and community events, Seda has a knack for reading a room, keeping audiences engaged, and making people feel like they’re exactly where they’re meant to be.
For Seda, the best events aren’t just remembered for what was said, they’re remembered for how they made people feel. That’s exactly the kind of energy she’s bringing to Together We Rise - Women in Business Conference.
meet the organiser
Alice Kibble
Marketing Strategist,
Ask Alice
At just 25 years old, Alice Kibble has built a reputation as a community leader and champion for women in business.
As the founder of Ask Alice, she has helped more than 300 businesses and organisations strengthen their marketing, grow their audiences and build thriving communities online. What started as a mission to help local organisations navigate technology has grown into a business supporting clients across New Zealand.
Alice's impact extends well beyond business, with more than a decade of volunteering for community organisations, including the Cancer Society. She has served on the National Executive of Business and Professional Women New Zealand, playing a key role in delivering the 2025 National Conference in Auckland, which attracted more than 100 attendees. She also co-founded the Empower You Women's Experience in Gisborne, an event featuring inspiring speakers, interactive workshops and local business stalls, which welcomed more than 500 women from across New Zealand in its first two years.
For her contributions, Alice has been recognised as a Kiwibank Local Hero, a nominee for Young New Zealander of the Year, and a four-time recipient of the Gisborne Volunteer Centre Youth Award.
Following a life-changing injury in 2018, Alice discovered her "why": inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs and leaders by showing that, with resilience, confidence and a strong community around you, anyone can create their own version of success.
THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR SUPPORTERS
frequently asked questions
Venue accessibility:
Both the Theatre and Rose Room are fully wheelchair accessible. The venue is a member of the Hapai Access Card, and their staff have received training on serving customers with a range of accessibility needs. Please let us know when you purchase a ticket of any accessibility requirements.
Have any further questions about the day?
Feel free to reach out to hello@ask-alice.co.nz