Our Stories: Adrienne Pitts

Written by Tracy Goodall.

AP smallAdrienne Pitts visited London for the first time at the age of 16 and knew it was never a place she could live. Cold, grey and unwelcoming were the abiding impressions of her six days there during an arts and classics tour of Europe.

Fast forward 25 years, a slew of design and photography awards, an enviable Instagram following and a successful career as an internationally renowned photographer, and after a decade of calling London “home” she can’t imagine living anywhere else. Her original plan, when she headed there after a relationship ended, was to stay for maybe a year, but as many readers of these pages will know from their own experience, that infamous “just one year” vow is made to be broken.

Although it’s her work as a photographer she is best known for today, she has also forged a reputation as an outstanding art director, even if initially she assumed this field would play second fiddle to a career in photography. Graduating from Massey Wellington with a Bachelor of Design, a photography major and an alarming student loan, her timing was distinctly off. It was the very moment when digital photography was exploding, but her degree had been film-based and she couldn’t quite rustle up the $100,000 necessary to set herself up with the latest digital gear. Always pragmatic, she set about putting her design degree to good use, working as a graphic designer for a Wellington agency, before moving to the Bay of Plenty to take up a dual role as graphic designer-cum-photographer on the magazine Uno.

Business Book Brunch: ‘Winning without Losing’

Written by Stacey Williams.

winning without losing GRAPHIC“Winning without Losing” by Martin Bjergegaard and Jordan Milne was chosen for Business Book Brunch club in February. Their sixty-six tips gave strategies on how to put happiness, family and friends first and yet still have professional success. A group of 20 keen readers came together over brunch to discuss how to have the most important things in life...

The book discusses what it calls the new Dual Optimum, where it is possible to live a happy and balanced life, while at the same time creating a business and a fortune from scratch. As well as not having to come home when our children are asleep or having to say no to friends wanting to have a drink after work, it suggests six to eight weeks of holiday spent travelling around the world each year or doing something other than work to recharge you and broaden your perspective, is not just a very real option, but increasingly a prerequisite for optimum and sustainable efficiency.

Our Stories: Vikki Coombes

Written by Emma Bell.

Vikki Coombes bwVikki Coombes is a woman of many titles and many talents. She isn’t just a kiwi, but also a self-confessed hummingbird. Having enjoyed five different careers encompassing 20 different roles, Vikki now works with other hummingbirds, coaching them to weave their multiple passions into a life that they love, alongside her management consulting contracts.

She describes hummingbirds as “people who have varied and ever-changing interests; they are frequently changing jobs, flitting from one hobby to another, starting projects and then dropping them, moving house often and always leaping into new learning opportunities. Each time they take on something new, they bring with them the wealth of experience from their previous endeavours. They’re the cross-pollinators of the world.”

As the ‘Queen of Hummingbirds’, Vikki describes herself as living a life of “constant curiosity, always on the move, growing and pushing my boundaries.” With each new role, project or challenge she takes on, she brings new ideas and challenges the status quo.

Privacy Notice May 2018

Written by Mike.

In this Privacy Notice “we”, “our”, or “us” refers to The New Zealand Business Women’s Network – a voluntary run group which is also commonly know as ‘NZBWN’ or ‘the/our Network”. We will describe how we collect, store and use your personal information as well as the rights you have in relation to your personal data.

We may collect information about you because you have signed up as a free member from the link on our home page on our website and/or attended one of our various events or programmes and we do this so we can fulfil our purpose of the Network to bring Kiwi women together to learn, connect and inspire.

By attending one of our events, joining a programme and/or being a member receiving our communications you are consenting to NZBWN storing and using the personal information you have provided us with as set out by this notice. 

What information do we collect?

In the course of communicating with you as members we may ask for information that is classed as personally identifiable to you as an individual. Depending on the situation, but in general, for a majority of our basic/regular events we will ask for your full name, email address, contact number (in case of last minute venue changes), job title, company you are currently working for and industry/special interest groups you belong to or are interested in. Depending on the type of event we may ask for dietary requirements. If you choose to apply for programmes like our mentoring programme or in-depth workshops, there maybe a need for us to collect more specific information such as CV, bio/profile, background. This may also apply if you are a guest speaker at one of our events, we are putting you forward for an award or article for our website.

In addition to this basic information required for us to run our events we use systems such as Mailchimp and google analytics which provide general statistics such as percentage of communications which have been opened and where we are receiving hits on our website. This is tracked to you as an individual. If we send out an event survey for feedback via Survey Monkey the responses are anonymised. We track this information so that we share relevant and interesting information for Kiwi women in our Network.

Ways in which we might use your information

As from inception, NZBWN is committed to respecting your privacy and personal information and will only use the information you have given to us to inform you of:

  • Our regular newsletter, keeping you informed about all news from our Network and wider Kiwi community, upcoming events, recent events, information from the New Zealand High Commission and articles on members
  • Information about our events, workshops and programmes
  • Member information and requests via our fortnightly Kiwi exchange
  • The opportunity to have your say in response to surveys to help identify relevant topics, speakers for events and programmes.

We hold your information in Mailchimp which is GDPR compliant and you can update your preferences at any time using the "update profile" link on any of the email communications we send you. 

Retention of information

Event and programme attendance information is recorded through Eventbrite and will be deleted after a reasonable time to allow for any post event follow-up as needed.

Use of images

We record our events usually via a photographer and in some situations have video or recording devices recording guest speakers. These images and recordings are used in newsletters and social media to share the purpose of our Network to help Kiwi women learn, connect and be inspired. If you do not want to be photographed you will be given the opportunity to notify us upon registering for an event.

Confidentiality

We respect our relationship with you as a member of NZBWN and treat the information you provide us with as confidential. As from the outset of the Network we do not sell any personal data onto third parties and we do not share any personal information about you to others in the NZBWN community without your permission.

Use of third parties

In the course of running events and programmes and communicating with you we need to use a range of platforms to perform these tasks and so we will disclose your personal information to providers including Mailchimp, Eventbrite, Survey Monkey, Google Analytics.

Protection of your information

NZBWN protects your information through using secure processors as listed above and our volunteer team are committed to protecting your information.

Your Rights

If you have already consented to NZBWN using and holding your personal information you are within your rights to withdraw this consent at any time by the way in which consent was granted. You also have the right to apply for a copy of the information we hold about you. This is called a data subject access request, and can be made by contacting NZBWN via info@nzwomen.co.uk

If you don’t want to receive any information from us

If you do not want to be part of the Network then you can request to be removed from our records, simply email remove@nzwomen.co.uk

If you do not wish to receive emails from the Network, you can update your preferences by clicking the "update your preferences" or unsubscribe link on any of our email (Via Mailchimp) communications.

Contact Information

If you have any queries regarding this Privacy Notice, or you would like to request information held you may contact info@nzwomen.co.uk