This week, Poutama Trust organised local and national Māori business directorates and organisations to visit Otago and Southland, to meet with whānau from our region, and encourage businesses to utilise the services that can help (exponentially) grow their enterprise. This initiative, entitled CL2IMB, aims to present an 'ecosystem' of providers, so that whānau can select the service, person, or investment level that best suits their business enterprise.
Several of the speakers from the motu ki te tonga were delighted to visit Queenstown and Invercargill for the first time.
KUMA members (Karen Roos, Marelda O'Rourke Gallagher, and Claire Porima) were privileged to speak about the benefits of belonging to KUMA for businesses, community organisations, education providers and especially members and whānau. It was a particular point of difference from the other speakers to note that while KUMA does not provide funding, our unique strength is in promoting inclusiveness, belonging, sharing of resources, in depth understanding of what it is to build a business, and person to person support. Notably - we are a whānau, so it does not matter what size of business you have, or if you haven't even started a business, we all have a common purpose which is to foster ideas and support business growth, and ultimately, opportunities for whānau.
