OBHS Business Studies students attend Entrepreneurs In Action (EIA) weekend in Wellington

By Gwyn Pratley | Posted: Thursday September 17, 2020

Last Thursday night, Angus Henderson and Elliott Alloo travelled to Wellington along with another 82 top business studies students from around the country to take part in an “Entrepreneurs in Action” weekend.

They were put into groups of 6 with a host company, Angus in Team Sharesies and Elliott in Team Uprise Digital. On Friday they were issued with a New Zealand Trade and Enterprise challenge, which was “How can a company who is already exporting meats, vegetables and seafood to China, diversify and expand into the UAE market?”. Angus and Elliott needed to work in their teams to develop a business plan by 5pm and pitch it to the judges that night. Angus excelled in his team and they won Challenge 1 with their very well-presented pitch!

Saturday was a Go with Tourism Challenge, and this was “To safeguard against the economic and social effects of such a large and growing skill-shortage, how can we inspire young people in secondary schools to choose a career in tourism?”. This time, groups were treated to work at their host company’s offices for the day! They needed to have their business plan handed in at 5pm, and were able to prepare and practice their pitch overnight in their groups, let’s say quite a few groups didn’t get to sleep until 2am… All groups pitched on Sunday morning to judges, including the CEO of Tourism Industry Aotearoa, Chris Roberts, and the former Air NZ deputy CEO, Norm Thompson. 

Unfortunately, neither Elliott’s nor Angus’ team placed in the top 3 for the second challenge, however, they did get a trip home on the same plane as Jacinda Adern! Both Elliott and Angus loved the weekend and would thoroughly recommend it to any future business studies students.

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