Our first BWN Business Behind the Scenes of 2021 was a great opportunity to get together after work and reconnect with our network after the summer holidays.

BWN Committee Member, Amanda Barker from Pillar Consulting, recaps the key takeaways.

Hosted by Copeland Ashcroft in their shared working environment in Tauranga’s CBD, Kate Ashcroft and her team welcomed everyone into their offices with delicious canapés and a glass of wine or juice to enjoy their stunning views across the city and harbour.

Copeland Ashcroft is a boutique legal firm specialising in Employment and Health and Safety Law. As the name suggests, Kate Ashcroft is one of the firm’s partners, and set the Tauranga office up in 2015. Her business partner – Janet Copeland – is based in Invercargill and runs the South Island branch. They now have a team of 16 working with businesses across several offices around New Zealand.

Upon arrival, guests were invited to participate in a light-hearted quiz by filling out answers on a piece of paper – the only brief was to be as creative as possible.

After an initial period of catching up with old networks and making new ones, everyone took a seat at the boardroom table where Kate and two members of her team, Jennifer Steele, and Charlotte Borrie, introduced themselves.

Regaling guests with stories as to why employment law appealed to her as a teenager, we were entertained through the journey of Kate’s legal career to date.

Both Jennifer and Charlotte also spoke about what it was that made them choose to get into the legal profession and shared some of their most ‘memorable cases’ much to the everyone’s amusement.

The topic of Covid-19 was brought up and how it affected people in 2020, particularly in the workplace. At this point the team opened the table up and invited their guests to ask questions and share stories about any ‘silver linings’ from lockdown and last year in general.

It was lovely to see so many people offering insights into what they went through last year – both good and bad – and how they have come through, many with changed perspectives and priorities. The multiple ‘Zoom’ meeting stories were also a common theme shared by many!

The event was capped off with a prizegiving session for the most creative quiz answers, winners left with a Copeland Ashcroft umbrella each – and one particularly creative guest, left with two!

A common theme throughout the evening was the amazing organisational culture that Copeland Ashcroft has. They pride themselves on their exceptional personal service and ability to empathetically be there for their clients who may have found themselves in strife, really needing employment or health and safety legal advice.

They offer free seminars across the country for employers and employees to attend and, with their engaging personalities, make these relatable and entertaining as well as informative.

It was a lovely way to kick off BWN’s 2021 events calendar and the perfect end to a busy working day.

Our next BWN event is the Networking at Lunch session at the end of March, followed by the BWN Speaker Series in May and July.