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Impressed by the three panellists’
entrepreneurial successes, the conference
participants asked them to comment on
opportunities for upcoming NZ university
graduates in the NZ-Asia nexus. Instead of
making a list, however, all the three speakers
stressed the importance of cultural intelligence,
Asian languages proficiency, perseverance, and
resilience. In other words, opportunities would
come to those who were ready for them. When
asked what they would do differently if starting
all over again, the panellists did not hesitate
to say that they would devote more resources
and attention, and at a much earlier stage,
to putting together a bilingual and culturally
attuned operation team on the ground. They
would also broaden their market research
to cover more subject areas, including local
political landscapes.
The three speakers in the second panel were
Rhonda Kite, CEO and Director of KIWA
Middle East, Scott Kington and Greig Brebner,
Co-Founders of Blunt Umbrellas, and
Chintaka Ranatunga, Managing Director of
Global from Day One Fund II. They elaborated
on opportunities for NZ entrepreneurs through
their personal experiences. Speaking over
skype from Abu Dhabi, Rhonda Kite told
the audience that it was her fascination
with technology and broadcasting that
took her on her career path of audio post
production, dubbing software development for
broadcasting, and experiential electronic book
creation. Likewise, it was her curiosity about
other cultures and about doing business in an
unfamiliar environment that brought her to
where she was. She admitted that it was not
easy for a woman to work in the Middle East.
Yet she discovered and experienced cross-
cultural synergies and their positive impact on
people-to-people connections. That not only
gave her comfort to “hang in there”, but also
encouraged her to keep working on technology
solutions to the challenge of addressing diverse
education needs and fulfilling everyone’s “right
to gain knowledge according to their language
and learning abilities”.