Presenters

Susan Piket

• Practical business planning
• Practical strategic planning

Susan is an original born and bred Nelsonian, but like many young Kiwis, couldn't wait to get out for something more exciting.  This led her to accountancy (???).  She qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant in England, and worked her way up to Finance Director for a major Japanese securities house.
After returning to New Zealand she founded Barbican Consulting Limited, now known as the Barbican Training Centre. Her experiences as the owner of a SME and working for a large corporate, have given Susan a solid understanding of the challenges faced by businesses today.

Sari Hodgson

• Keeping up with the taxman
• Budgeting and cash flow planning
• Practical record keeping
• Understanding your profit & loss and balance sheet
• Effective debt and credit management

Sari is a Chartered Accountant working in Nelson as a director of Savage and Savage.  She is a Past President of the Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce and has served as the Nelson/Marlborough Branch Secretary of the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants. Sari is also the Chair of the School of Business Advisory Committee at the NMIT, and is a mentor for the Nelson Tasman Business Trust.
Her speicality is small business advisory work, which she finds both interesting and challenging, advising non-profit organisations, and marketing.  At present, Sari is studying for her degree in marketing.
Sari has had four books on small business published and has written articles for various business magazines and journals, both nationally and internationally.  Over the years Sari has done a large amount of presentation work mainly in the area of small business courses.

Keith Coman

• Straight thinking on marketing and business development
• Creating a practical marketing plan
• Running a customer focused business

Keith has a Masters degree in business backed up by over 30 years of marketing and business development experience in a broad spectrum of organisational settings: from corporates to entrepreneurial start-ups.  He operates on the basis that "good theory leads to good practice" and that the keys to developing a successful business is a sound understanding of the competition and an absolute dedication customer service.
Keith is passionate about marketing, and was a senior lecturer at a leading overseas university.  He continues to be a marketing consultant in addition to his training duties.  A New Zealand citizen with family ties to this country going back over a 100 years, when Keith is "off duty" he is compulsively addicted to outdoor recreation, military history and classic car restoration.

Denise Hartley-Wilkins

• Make more time
• Attracting and keeping the best talent
• Building an engaged workplace
• Performance appraisals that work

Denise is a Human Resources and Organisation Development specialist with over 20 years experience gained across a broad range of businesses and industries in New Zealland, England and Canada.  Possessing strong commercial awareness with a focus on individual and organisational performance Denise has in-depth expertise in a wide range of people management areas.  She is a professionally certified member (MHRINZ) of the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand, and a chartered member (MCIPD) of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (UK).   She is a qualified Assessor for Investors in People New Zealand and certified in Lominger Leadership Architect and Interview Architect.  Knowledgeable and pragmatic, Denise's interest centres on the link between effective people management and business success.  As she puts it “you don’t have great organisations, you have great workplaces".

Darren Ward

• Business Systems

Darren comes from Northern Ireland where he started his engineering apprenticeship from his home county in Northern Ireland. He has since worked for several large organisations in Northern Ireland, California and Auckland in manufacturing, engineering, management and leadership roles.
In 2008 Darren moved with his family from Auckland to Nelson. After completing an accredited Diploma in Life and Business Coaching in the UK, Darren saw an opportunity  to apply his extensive business knowledge tp help others to achieve their goals.
Darren has been coaching for over 3 years and believes that coaching is not about telling people what they need, should or must do,” asserts Darren. “It’s about empowering people to find their own answers; it’s their business, their dream."

Will Piket

• Social media 101

Will is another born and bred Nelsonian in the Barbican team and has a Batchelor of Information Technology degree from Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology.  He is passionate about how social media such as Facebook can improve business marketing, and make your business the success that it can be.  He has helped many businesses, both in New Zealand and Australia, improve their success by the innovative and "correct" use of social media. 

Cher Williscroft

• Courageous conversations

Cher Williscroft has over 25 years of experience in mediation, management, leadership, and training in personal and professional development and in the effective resolution of conflict.   She works as a professional supervisor and mentor, trainer, mediator and specialises in conflict resolution in organisations.  Cher has a BA and is also a accredited socio-dramatist and Trainer Educator Practitioner (TEP) and a full member of the professional organisation ANZPA Inc.  
She has taught workshops on all aspects of leadership to hundreds of people within tertiary and private training institutions across NZ.  She currently specialises in conflict resolution, transforming difficult relationships in the workplace, and presents workshops on having courageous conversations.   Her background as a Human Resources Manager and Organisation Development Manager with the Sealord Group Ltd added to her solid organisational knowledge and practical experience.

Maria Deutsch

• Leadership at work
• Achieving sustainability in business

For the last 11 years, Maria has been self-employed as facilitator, consultant, trainer and coach, working successfully with over 30 business and community organisations across many sectors and projects.  She has a flair for bringing people together to a common purpose and has extensive experience working inclusively across cultural differences.
She has a passion for leadership and creating strong teams that lift performance for business and community organisations alike.  Her expertise in organisational development includes strategic planning, quality management and governance, effective systems and evaluation of services to meet standards set by industry or government.
Maria is an Associate Member of the NZ Institute of Management, a Member of the International Association of Facilitators and holds a Diploma in Facilitation, Certificate in Coaching for Outstanding Results, Diploma in Tertiary Teaching, NZIM Business Papers, Te Reo Maori NZQA Level 4 and a Master of Science degree.  Her business was runner up in the Tasman Environmental Awards and she walks the talk of sustainable business practises.
Maria’s delivery style is interactive, and responsive to the situations at hand.  She has a knack for designing easy to use tools and templates and to bring an innovative solution focused approach to challenging situations.
In her free time Maria enjoys the outdoors, creates mosaics and together with her partner Scott looks after 36 hectares of native forest, which is open to the public to learn about conservation, nature and/or simply to recharge and enjoy.