Her Magazine is New Zealand’s only women’s business lifestyle magazine! Her Magazine highlights the achievements of successful and rising New Zealand businesswomen. Her Magazine encourages a healthy work/life balance.
Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/59614
women's lifestyle expo PROMOTION Our Christchurch Story Despite the tragic events that rocked the regionThe Women's Lifestyle Expo continues to provide an avenue of relief for the women of Canterbury time a queue of thousands of women stretched out down the street. Unprepared for the massive crowds things were a bit frantic, but the weekend was a fantastic success for our clients. In 2011 the quakes took a deadly turn and IT HAS BEEN WELL over a year now since that first earthquake struck Christchurch in September 2010, and the business community in Canterbury has changed dramatically. Yet after all the tragic events business continues to strive on. Our company has learnt about the amazing strength of the community over the past year. In 2010 our Women's Lifestyle Expo was scheduled to be held just two weeks after the September earthquakes. With at least one third of our clients severely affected our immediate reaction was to cancel the event. However, after much feedback from exhibitors that they wanted us to continue we made the difficult decision to go ahead. One exhibitor in particular, Westende Jewellers, really touched our hearts with their remarkable outlook. The building they had occupied on Manchester St for over 30 years was completely destroyed, and in fact the majority of TV broadcasts from those first few days were made in front of the building, their company's signage barely visable through the rubble. Despite losing their building and most of their stock they were adamant they wanted to be at the Expo. They still wanted to get on with business. We decided if a company that was facing so much could be so positive then we were going to be positive too. 72 | www.hermagazine.co.nz It was a hard few weeks knowing we could let a whole lot of people down if the show was a disaster. The venue we used, the CBS Arena, was in perfect condition but we felt many people may not be comfortable coming into such a big venue, and therefore would not come to the Expo. As a way to coax people out and also to show our support to our exhibitors and the women of Christchurch we dropped the usual door charge for the weekend. The morning of the Expo we still had no idea if anyone would come, yet by opening again we were unsure if the Expo should go ahead, and again we were asked to continue. In the end we were one of the only event companies to hold their annual Christchurch show and ultimately felt huge support and appreciation from local residents. Women plainly wanted something to do and look forward to that was 'normal'. We were proud to be able to put on such an event that people could go to and enjoy themselves for the day. After visiting the area so often in the past year, and working with local company owners and staff, our team has a deep affinity with the people of Christchurch and their ongoing struggles. Like many New Zealanders we all have something to learn from their ability to pick themselves up, focus on the positives and simply get on with it. Although sometimes there are unique challenges involved, business can still be done in Christchurch with a good outcome for all.