Export report

Epic export advice
The 2014 Go Global conference is a unique opportunity to tap into a large pool of export knowledge. Catherine Beard has more.
This year ExportNZ’s conference Go Global is joining forces with Epic NZ to bring a stellar line up of opportunities and people together in one massive hit at SkyCity on May 2nd.
What we’re most excited about is the opportunity to pick the brains of 15 trade commissioners from around the world, and to hear from global stars such as Derek Handley – people who’ve launched from our tiny nation to make an impact on the world; and sometimes beyond the world, such is the height of their success.
In Derek’s case his wealth and success has earned him the right to add the description of “Virgin Galactic Astronaut” to his Twitter profile. If all goes to plan, he will “get to rocket off sometime in 2015”.
It’s this thinking big and having no boundaries approach that is the theme of this year’s Epic NZ Go Global exporters’ conference.  
What launched Derek and brother Geoff Handley into the big time was creating their mobile marketing company The Hyperfactory, and selling it in 2010 for a reputed US$100 million-plus. To this day the company helps the world’s leading brands create strategies and technology for engaging with the billions of people using mobile and tablet devices to navigate their lives. It is a great example of how to build a global business with a product that is perfectly suited to export – weightless, high-value and infinitely scalable.
As they went global, the Handleys also went through the process of learning how you have to adapt your product and business to suit different countries and cultures. After securing funding, when Derek went to open the Asian office he said “It really was like starting all over again, because a lot of the learning from New Zealand didn’t translate to Hong Kong at all.”
To help impart advice to other Kiwi exporters attempting to cross such cultural boundaries, the Epic NZ Go Global conference is gathering trade commissioners from all over the world including: China, the Phillipines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Central Europe and Russia, Southern Europe, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, the US and Australia.
There will be break-out sessions to really delve into the various markets, so there should be something for everyone. It’s a fantastic opportunity for exporters to make connections in person with these trade commissioners and connect with other companies interested in the same markets.
Since selling The Hyperfactory, Derek has gone on to achieve further successes. This World Class New Zealander and Ernst & Young ‘Young Entrepreneur’ of the Year co-founded and is chairman of mobile advertising network, Snakk Media, which listed on the NZX in 2013, becoming one of the first publically listed B-Corporations in the world.
He has also donated two years of his life to help Sir Richard Branson and other global leaders help create what is now ‘The B Team’ to help “drive a brighter future of business for the wellbeing of people and the planet”.
Oh and did I mention he has also fitted in penning his first book? Heart to Start is about his entrepreneurial journey, and how he “landed on the premise that while business and entrepreneurship are the most powerful and inspiring forces of progress, in this century they have a far greater responsibility than purely financial profit”.
There will be an open-floor question and answer session with Derek at the conference, so anyone attending will get the chance to pick the brains of this epic Kiwi exporter. What would you like to ask him?
For more on the Epic NZ Go Global conference go to www.nzgoglobal.co.nz