Thrive Whanganui expo promotes business with a heart

The two-day social enterprise expo, Thrive Whanganui, kicks off on Wednesday aiming to shake up the business world.

More than 200 people from all over the North Island will be at Wednesday's events at the Whanganui War Memorial Centre where the programme includes inspirational guest speakers and three expert panels talking about how to run a successful business with its heart in the right place.

Social enterprises aim to make money and have positive social, environmental and cultural impacts, with profits going back into the venture to further the cause.

And the organisers are pushing their environmental credentials aiming for a zero-waste, plastic-free event.

To that end, attendees will each receive a reusable cotton bag made by inmates of Kaitoke prison and known as Inside Out bags.

The Inside Out initiative, involving volunteer prisoners from the high security unit, came from Plastic Bag Free Whanganui which ran workshops at the prison on how to make the cloth bags as an alternative to plastic shopping bags.

This week the inmates were hard at it to hit Tuesday's deadline, and they also made more than 200 recyclable lanyards to carry the name tags of those at the expo.

"We are grateful to sponsorship from Annette Main and the River Market Trust who funded the material for the bags and lanyards," said Robin Williamson, of Plastic Bag Free Whanganui.

She said prison staff had been extremely helpful and the inmates had gained a lot from the initiative.

"In fact, we have two Corrections staff coming to the Thrive expo and I would love this to develop into a social enterprise business at the prison."

The expo has been put together by Chamber of Commerce chief executive Marianne Archibald, Horizons regional councillor Nicola Patrick and Andre Taylor, chief executive of Maori health and development organisation Nga Tai o Te Awa, with the aim of setting up a social enterprise hub in Whanganui.

There is still time for people to register before Wednesday's 9am opening, with tickets $80; $40 for low income; and $20 for secondary school students.

The keynote speaker is Julia Milne who founded the successful urban development project, Common Unity Project Aotearoa. The day also features panels discussing opportunities in health and hospitality; arts and innovation; and rural enterprise.

Day two of the expo is based at Nga Tai o Te Awa and includes a business case study, workshop, visits to two Whanganui social enterprises and mentoring on all aspects of starting a business.