This article appears in the Sep/Oct 2014 issue of Business Franchise Australia & New Zealand
This year’s Conference was judged a great success by attendees, with the responses to the post-conference survey scoring the Speakers, Content and Organisation in the high ninety per cent ranges for satisfaction.
The Conference, held at the Millennium and Copthorne Hotels in Queenstown benefited from a new Platinum Elite Sponsor, The Radio Network, along with first time sponsor, Yellow and an old friend with a new name, Crowe Horwath as Gold sponsors. As usual, the event could not have been as successful without the additional support from all the Silver and Bronze sponsors. Many rated it as the best FANZ conference they had attended and there were some very positive responses from first time attendees who were amazed at the welcome they received and the openness of delegates willing to discuss issues in their own systems.
This year’s speaker line-up was based on a developing path from the creation of a successful franchise through to selling out at a profit and speakers from both sides of the Tasman provided their unique perspectives. The conference opened with well-known New Zealand television personality and psychologist, Nigel Latta who, as usual, gave a thought provoking yet humorous session entitled, “The Psychology of Success – Yeah Right.“ This was followed by sessions on growing your system and recruiting the best franchisees.
Professor Natalie Jackson, Professor of Demography at Waikato University gave a ‘wake up call’ to businesses in her presentation, with the projections that in just eleven years there will be more New Zealanders aged over 65 years than those less than 14 years. Almost all future growth in the country will be at the older ages and in many regions population growth has already ended. She ended by saying that this was the new reality, but businesses that understood and planned for these changes would find new opportunities.
Founder of the Franchise Relationships Institute, Greg Nathan, made the trip across the Tasman to speak on ‘The Healthy Franchise Culture’, as well as conducting workshops on the ‘Franchise Journey’ and the conference ended with a presentation by Tom Potter, founder of Eagle Boys Pizza, who flew in from Australia to talk about the Eagle Boys story and its eventual sale to a large corporate.
To see what you may have missed and to give you a taste of what FANZ conferences are like, go to the FANZ website www.franchiseassociation.org.nz/annualconference.html and click on the video button.
The result of the postal ballot for the vacant seats on the Board was announced at the Annual General Meeting that took place on the Sunday morning following the Conference.
Joining the current members, Ian Robertson, New Zealand Post and Sean Dwyer, ANZ (who were not required to retire this year) were:
Re-elected for a second term:
• Dawn Engelbrecht – Safe Kids in Daily Supervision (SKIDS)
• Callum Floyd – Franchize Consultants
• Brad Jacobs – The Coffee Club
New Board Members:
• Vaughan Moss – Para Rubber New Zealand
• Deirdre Watson – Deirdre Watson, Barrister
Chairman and Vice Chairman for 2014-2015
Under the FANZ Rules, the new Board elects the Chairman and Vice Chairman at its first meeting following the AGM, which took place in August.