Marian Johnson: The Influencers

The night of Wednesday 31 October was the Foodstarter Pressure Cooker event where five ambitious food and beverage startups from all over NZ vied for the incredible prize package that included distribution across the Foodstuffs South Island retail network. Beefy Green took out the top prize which you can read about at www.foodstarter.co.nz.

Friday 2 November’s alarm went off early, with 200 of our city’s most future-industry focused residents at the brand new AwesomeHQ in the stunning Kahukura building on Moorhouse Ave. The assembled crowd was inspired by Joanna Norris, CEO, of ChristchurchNZ who shared the vision for our city as a global leader of innovation, opportunity, and exploration.

This was followed by excellent Q&A session with the founders of our city’s hottest young startups including Shuttlerock, Skillitics, Romer App, Kea Aerospace, and Boma NZ. If there was any doubt as to the drive and bold ambition fuelling the transformation of our city, one look around the room cured the pessimists.

Later that morning, Startup Christchurch hosted a ‘Fireside Chat’ with George Smith, founder of Glassjar, New Zealand’s first startup accepted into Y Combinator. George shared his journey from UC student idea to Silicon Valley startup thrilling all with his insight.

The amount of support that is available for high growth entrepreneurs in this city is astounding. If you’re not already part of the community, just connect with us at Ministry of Awesome info@ministryofawesome.com and we’ll be honoured to network you in.