Good things come in small packages
We started the year with ambitious plans for bringing WWGSD weekend events all over the country before life intervened. But all is not lost — it’s time for a bit more about what’s happening with our one day events.
Introducing…
WWGSD iti!
Iti means small or little in Te Reo Māori. WWGSD is, in many ways, exactly what it sounds like — a miniature version of the WWGSD weekend events you already know and (hopefully) love.
The idea came together as a result of a few different threads. Feedback from attendees (and our own attempts to coordinate our calendars!) told us that getting away for three days is often hard. Our Dunedin team visited venue after venue and found them too small, too ‘rustic’ to be accessible, or too flash to be affordable. Other smaller towns faced the same problem, and the months were ticking by.
We realised that if we were going to run successful weekend events outside of major cities, we needed to make sure attendees were already excited about the prospect. Sponsorship has been hard in the big cities, and we knew it was only going to get tougher.
Enter WWGSD iti. It’s a one day version of the weekend unconference, without the added cost and logistical challenges of accommodation. It means we have a bigger selection of possible venues — schools, co-working spaces, and arts centres are now on the table — and more options for dates.
It also means more women meeting, connecting, and building networks throughout Aotearoa. Growing our alumni network — we hope — will make it easier to run regional weekend events in the future.
WWGSD iti will be a full day of sessions, beginning with morning tea and stretching through lunch to the early evening. We’re starting with Saturdays so fewer people need to take time off work. The event will officially wrap up around 5:30 pm, with the option to continue bonding over dinner or drinks into the evening.
Registration will be first come, first served, with 30% of tickets reserved for ensuring our attendees reflect the diversity of Aotearoa (at the moment, that means extra effort recruiting Māori and Pasifika women, and women under 25 and over 50). We’re keen to have some returning alumni at each event to make sure things stay cosy enough to build personal connections and maintain the kaupapa that defines our weekend events.
Everything else will stay the same. We’ll still offer free on-site childcare for any attendee who needs it, and are committed to ensuring that at least 20% of attendees receive scholarships. Our goal is to run iti events as break even, with any surplus funds going into a fund to support future regional weekend events.
This year, we’re excited to announce our first WWGSD iti events will be held in Wellington (18 August) and Dunedin (3 November). Save the dates now — registration for Wellington will open on Tuesday 17 July. There is also a team in Auckland working on an event there — if you’re keen to help or have any leads on venues, get in touch.
We’re also shifting sponsorship to rest with our HQ team and cover the whole year, instead of separate sponsors for each event. That means one contact for our amazing sponsors, while you reach even more bad ass women around the country all year long. Want to help make it happen? Send us an email.
(PS. If you’re an alum who’s keen to help make a WWGSD iti happen in your area, drop us a line.)
