Empowering the social economy

NIDA Melbourne opened its doors for operation on 28 February this year, with two light and modern studios in the heart of the city’s Arts precinct.

The studios are home to programs fromNIDA Open,NIDA Corporate andNIDA Studio, which cater for a wide range of stakeholders. In light of this, we launched a few initiatives to engage the local community in Melbourne.

To acknowledge the good people from the social enterprisesThankyou AusandTOM Organicfor the many ways in which they contribute to meaningful work and business in the region, we gave away complimentary passes to our one-dayPresenting with Confidence course to two women at mid-management level who are shaping the social economy in Melbourne.

Rebecca Long, Account Manager � Independents at Thankyou Aus

Rebecca is a business-savvy professional with an incredible eye for detail and a passion for B Corps, which are businesses aimed at creating positive impact on the world. In her role, she builds meaningful relationships with independent B2B customers so they can incorporate Thankyou products as part of their stocklists.

Thankyou was born in 2008 as a solution to the world water crisis. Thankyou has lofty ideals � and believes we can end global poverty in this lifetime, together. To achieve this, they sell water, food, body care and baby products to fund safe water access, food aid, hygiene and sanitation services and child and maternal health programs for people in need. To date, Thankyou has given a whopping $4 million to projects in 17 countries.

Rebecca said:

‘I had the pleasure of attending the Presenting with Confidence at NIDA and I couldn’t recommend it enough. As part of my role at Thankyou, I am constantly pitching to current and prospective clients so I’m always looking at ways to refine and improve my presentation skills. This course delivered just that. It really throws you into the deep end and is very practical in its approach. Furthermore, the content is unique and isn’t like any other public speaking course I’ve done. The fantastic facilitator was highly knowledgeable and engaging and she made the day fly by. I highly encourage people to take this course as the learnings are applicable to both work and everyday life.’

Georgina Robinson, Community Manager at TOM Organic

Georgina is a creative and collaborative professional and is responsible for developing strategic relationships, running major campaigns and creating engaging content for the powerhouse brand.

TOM Organic is an Australian, female-owned business started in 2009 by Aimee Marks. Their range of certified organic tampons and pads have been developed by women, for women and are available Australia wide. Tackling the challenges of sanitary products on the consumer, the producer and the environment, TOM Organic is working to build a community of conscious consumers and have branched out to launch a maternity range and an upcoming baby range.

Georgina said:

‘I didn’t quite know what to expect going into the day. I predicted there’d be a lot of standing in front of a room full of people in mock presentation style, which did in fact turn out to be as expected. I thought the numbers were perfect with a class of 10 and a single tutor. By the end of the day, I felt that we’d all shared some intimate moments and jumped over hurdles collectively which seemed to strengthen the group dynamic as the day wore on. The tutor was absolutely fantastic � her unwavering enthusiasm and energy was contagious and her background in theatre and drama really added some punch to the day. She lightened the mood and made everyone feel comfortable at an individual level and had a great memory with names. I thought the approach was very clever to learn everything by doing, and there was literally no theory or rote learning.

It was an intense workshop but a very good one. The best class I’ve been to in a long time � so thank you NIDA for the opportunity to attend!’

Highlighting the importance of play-based learning, ourPresenting with Confidence course helps overcome nerves, craft compelling narratives and deliver engaging presentations with authority and authenticity. Like Georgina points out, we create courses where you learn by doing.

We hope the course helps these two inspiring women credibly assume leadership positions in their journey of using business as a force for good.