Day 5

After needed sleep and again waking up to the usual 7am personal training and a breakfast of a banana/apple. The first speaker of the day was another favorite, Michelle Sharp, the CEO of Kilmarnock. Kilmarnock is a social enterprise (started by Christobel Robinson), which by Michelle’s definition is a business model that takes on social issues. She told us about the story of how after 50+ years, Kilmarnock was about to close its doors. Then they decided to change things.

The core values of Michelle are quality, dignity, respect, and collaboration. Her mother helped locals by driving them when she drove her kids to school. Michelle started at vodafone, moved to project telecom, then became a founding director of a company called timico. She left timico and became the CEO of Kilmarnock. She talked about a concept called ikigai which means a reason for being. I found this concept to be note-worthy as it is a reflection of the inner self.

1 in 4 kiwis have some form of disability. A small percentage of people with disabilities are employed.

The core values of Kilmarnock are purpose, people, community, and commercial. As a service they provide; hardwork, health and safety, ISO, good for the environment, training, and health/wellbeing.

By this point I had noticed the same person in a few of the photos who always had a big smile, so one of the questions I noted down was “who is the lady who is always smiling in the first couple photos?” To which I got the answer ~ Mary. School was a terrible time for her, but she passed the academy with flying colors.

The customers of Kilmarnock include but are not limited to …

• Air New Zealand
• Fontera
• Goff’s group
• Crushed glass
• Pams
• Trade aid

Michelle also told us about how she secured a $12 million social impact investment from the bank of New Zealand. Currently there have been 30 graduates of the Kilmarnock academy, 70 factory workers, 1700 tons of waste averted from landfills, 2100 hours of employment offsite, 5000 hours in a year of educational learning, and 100% dedicated to what they do. Kilmarnock doesn’t have one system, each person is looked at as an individual. For referrals, send an email!

After Michelle was Arnah Tralase. She also works in the social industry, starting out volunteering and now has 20 years in the industry. She now works at Hohepa, which was a farmland donated by a sir Lou Harris. Some of the staff that work for Arnah worked there for 54 out of the 55 years. She talked about Rudolf Steiner, who I had never heard of before. He was an austrian philosopher who came up with a ‘motto of the social ethic’ which I couldn’t write down fast enough, but am sure it can be found with a quick duckduckgo search. At Hohepa also utilize whats called biodynamic agriculture which is an alternative farming with various concepts from the ideas of Rudolf Steiner. There are 142 people that live in 33 house, and at Hohepa they provide an activity program for 150 people. There are currently 130 staff employed. 30% of people that Hohepa supports have down syndrome, and there is also support for people with dementia. The sources of income for Hohepa are as follows; 90% government funded, 10% personal contribution. The government pays $5,500 per person/per year for 40 hours of support a week. There is a 12% funding gap that has been occuring however. There is a new strategy in place called L(earning) E(xploring) A(ctivating) P(otential). Arnah’s end goal is to transform the disability system.

The last speakers of the day were Kathryn and Andrew Gunn.

The first thing that Kathryn did was ask “why the fear of public speaking?”. Then she passed the microphone around the room and had everyperson tell her why they fear public speaking. There were all sorts of answers, I have listed a few below …

• Judgement
• Anxiety
• Nautious
• Not saying things that I want to
• Afraid of getting up and not know what youre talking about
• Not portraying the correct message
• Freeze up
• Not good at speaking the written words
• Didn’t really want to do it
• Speaking about topics that most find boring

Some tips that she gave in return were as follows …

• Toast masters
• Deep breaths
• No one knows what you haven’t told them
• Dont care what people think
• If you feel nervous look at a woman, they usually smile or nod
• Don’t use alcohol to calm yourself
• Other languages are a strength
• Fake it till you make it

Public speaking will be beneficial in various areas

A question that came to mind that I didn’t end up asking was “what was something that went wrong during a presentation?”

Tell people what you’re going to say, say what you’re going to say, say what you just said

There are two types of speakers: those who get nervous and those who are liars - Mark Twain

Now it was time for the formal night, where we had a formal dinner and dance. The funny thing was not really anyone (that I observed) danced, but rather everyone was in a pod playing some card game. We were (of course) playing our usual game of scum. This went on till about 11 or 12, when we moved the game into my room and continued playing until about 1am.