On 27-28 November, the finalists will pitch their business to our independent panel of expert judges.

Enter your preferred meeting times in the survey below.

Where the judges consider it to be relevant, they may also want to visit your work site. These will be arranged separately.

Finalists in the Women in Leadership category: the judges will reach out to you directly.

Each finalist has 5-10 mins to present to the judges. Judges then ask questions for between 5-20 minutes.

The top 8 tips:

1. Keep your pitch simple and memorable
2. Tell your wider story
3. 10mins is plenty of time if you have prepared, practised, and managed the timing of your pitch
4. Stay focused on the key points (leave the detail for the Q&A afterwards)
5. Let the judges experience your product first-hand, if possible
6. Be clear on how you address customers painpoints and what makes you different from your competitors or alternative solutions
7. Knowing your numbers.
8. Given the current economy, the judges are more focused on the unique value of your business than its current profitability.

You will present to an independent panel of expert judges panel at the Tauranga Business Chamber’s new training room.

A TV will be available to present any slides, videos or audio. We encourage you to make your pitch memorable.

See the more tips in the remaining FAQs below.

At the very core of your pitch is the presentation – the tools you use to build and show off your business are incredibly important.

Slides are not mandatory – sometimes props are an effective way of showing your product or customer painpoints.

The example below is just a guide, and you’ll want to focus on the suggested criteria for the category.

1. Introduce yourself and your company
2. Customer problems, gaps & solutions
3. The market opportunity and your traction so far
4. Your point of difference or competitive edge
5. What are you most proud of, and what are your future plans
6. Your team, and how you attract and retain talent

You want to showcase your point of difference and make it memorable for the judges.

No. You can showcase your business in any way you like. You can bring in props, products or displays that convey your points.

How ever way you present your pitch, please be organised and cohesive to make the best impression of your business.

There will be a TV to present your slides and any relevant videos or audio.

Here are our top tips for using slides/powerpoint

• Limit each slide to expressing one idea – keep the judges on the same page as you’re talking
• Don’t use slides as your speech notes. Keep it visual: show pictures, charts, GIFs and even memes.
• Keep slides consistent and readable: use same font, colour, grammar, capitalisation. Don’t put off judges.
• Don’t make it too long – about 30 seconds per slide is a good pace.
• A good pitch is succinct, with focus and momentum. A good pitch tells a story and follows a narrative pattern.
• Make it memorable, as judges are hearing from a range of finalists

Bring your own device/laptop and an adapter to fit the HDMI connection with the TV.

See this ‘pitch’ as your opportunity to substantiate your written entry. If you have stated that you’re a market leader, demonstrate to the judges how you’ve measured this.

In regards to financials, don’t do lots of slides or graphs, but have an excellent view and knowledge of your figures. You will impress the judges if you know the key financial aspects of your business.

If you don’t know say so, don’t make it up, they will see through that. Again, remember they have read your entry.

They aren’t necessarily interested in day to day figures either; more about growth and projections, not what is necessarily in the bank account. You may nothing in the bank account, but your R & D and future is really exciting.

Yes, here are some tips for discussing your future growth targets:

• Don’t overstate the market opportunity – judges will see through it.
• Instead of top-down forecasts where you ‘only need to get one per cent of a huge market’ to be successful, focus on bottom-up forecasts where you detail your expectations for how you’ll acquire customers.
• Show the growth over past years and potential into the future
• If you have data on how your product is selling, show those numbers.

No, but it will make it hard for the judges to choose if you should win if they cannot ask you questions.

It’s in your best interest to meet the judges, so you can highlight key points and answer questions that the judges may have before reaching their decision.

If you are not available on either 27-28 November – and you want to meet the judges – please let us know ASAP so we can try arrange a special appointment with a smaller group of judges. This will be subject to their availability.

The judges may also want to visit some worksites after the pitches to inform their decisions. This will be at the judge’s discretion and will be confirmed after the pitch weekend.

Email: carrie@tauranga.org.nz

At the very least, a representative from your organisation must attend the Awards Ceremony on 12 March 2025 if you want to win an award.

If we don’t know a suitable representative attending the ceremony to accept your award and be interviewed by the MC on the night, then you will be ineligible to win that award.

Winners of each category will likely be briefly interviewed by the MC to allow the audience to understand your success story and why you won. You (or your representative) will need to be comfortable speaking into the microphone for a couple of minutes.

You can purchase tickets through Tauranga Business Chamber’s website via our events calendar.

You can also subscribe to the Tauranga Business Chamber e-newsletter to get notified of further updates: Click here to subscribe.

Each finalist has been allocated a 30-minute slot. If you are late to start, the head judge will still stop you at the end of your scheduled time. Judges are meeting a lot of finalists over two days, and we need to stay on time.

Please arrive on time. We have a separate waiting room for any early arrivals.