One of the city’s more unique office co-working spaces, The Vault on Spring Street is the intersection of commerce, legal, investment, entrepreneurial ideas and global thinking.
Home to eight businesses, our latest BA5 was a co-host between three of those businesses: Chamber members Hobson Wealth, Tompkins Wake and EY.
Scroll down for all the event photos.
With all three businesses boasting a national (and global) presence, they now also boast a strong local footprint in the Bay with small, but perfectly formed teams. The BA5 was an opportunity to get an insight into how those teams have the best of both worlds to support their local clients with an in-person, on-the-ground approach, alongside the ability to connect into the wider eco-system.
Fourth times a charm, with this BA5 being postponed last year and this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, everyone seemed pleased to finally be able to host this get-together.
With roughly 100 attendees filling the open-plan space, the hosts incorporated a bit of Tokyo Olympic fever into the evening with Japanese-inspired food and drinks. As always, it was a chance to chat with a wide range of people from the business community and gain a new perspective on our host’s businesses.
The hosts were all very entertaining and quick to bring in a bit of humour, exhibiting the kind of culture The Vault space has helped create between the various businesses.
First up was David LeBreton, Investment Adviser at Hobson Wealth. He was pleased to announce that the BA5 doubled as his birthday celebration (although, he wouldn’t initially reveal which birthday). This event also marked a milestone for the company, with the five-year anniversary of Hobson Wealth in its current form.
Hobson Wealth helps its clients invest with confidence and the local team pride themselves on being “small enough to care, but big enough to matter”. At national level, the business has grown to $3.5b funds that they manage for 2,500 clients, while at a local level it’s a growing portfolio with currently $100m invested by clients in Tauranga. David spoke about the local team and their bespoke approach to supporting clients and introduced members of his team.
Next was law firm Tompkins Wake, with partner Mark Renner taking the floor. Mark’s introduction was short and sweet, briefly touching on Tompkins Wake’s “substantial local growth”, becoming a team of two lawyers instead of one, and their unique approach to legal expertise.
He closed his speech by saying he had attended a funeral of a close friend earlier that day, and how an event like that puts into perspective the importance of working with people you like and doing something you love – and he believes this is closely reflected in his work with Tompkins Wake.
A tough act to follow, and with a few tears in everyone’s eyes after Mark’s moving sentiment, EY’s Rachael Gemming took to the stand and echoed Mark’s ethos, talking about the great camaraderie between the three businesses. She also touched on EY and its ability to empower its people to have the opposite of imposter syndrome: To know you’re an expert in your field, that you can help clients and that you’ve ‘got this’. Rachael also told us a fascinating fact that she is an expert in cryptocurrency having done it for 10 years – no doubt a few people asked her about this afterwards.
The formal part of the evening closed with three business card giveaways, with gifts donated by fellow Chamber Member Chuffed Gifts.
Another great BA5 with great insight into our local businesses! Thanks to everyone who attended.
