French-born Pascale Hyboud-Peron moved to the Bay from England as a secondary school teacher in 1999. Since then, she helped start the Venture Centre, which is a technology-focused enterprise that works to connect the people, places, tools, resources, knowledge and support needed for sustainable success, across all ages.
What made you choose to live in the Bay?
In 1998 the New Zealand Ministry of Education had initiated a talent attraction campaign called TeachNZ. I got short-listed for two positions, one in Hamilton and one in Tauranga. I remember going to the library, opening an atlas and picking Tauranga: the geographical location, by the ocean, sold it for me. I have called Tauranga home ever since. I met my partner whose family arrived in Tauranga by boat a century before I did. The combination of a supportive home environment, a willingness to find my own way and the proximity of so many amazing people I was meeting here in the Bay made the transition from teacher to entrepreneur almost smooth!
How has being based in Bay of Plenty affected your role?
It is the people I have met in the Bay of Plenty who have allowed for unique opportunities. Meeting Venture Centre co-founders in 2013 marked a significant inflection point in my journey. It moved me from meeting like-minds to share ideas and concepts to engaging with like-minds to actually commit to build something together. Along the way of growing Venture Centre and its co-working space, Basestation, I got to develop a greater appreciation for the presence of arts and culture in our region but also for what it meant for me personally.
Growing up in France in the 1970s in a fairly conservative family, my experience with arts was something you go and see in a museum or a gallery. Artists were special people who had their view of the world and chose to express it for others to see. While my hometown Grenoble had some great architecture, and some quite avant garde venues for productions and shows, it did not quite register with my teenage self as markers of being surrounded by culture.