Young Enterprise - Manawatu & Rangitikei

On This Week!!!

We can’t wait to see you all Thursday for our ‘Night in the Museum’ Night Market! ✨😍

🗓️ Thursday 20th August, 2026
⏰ 6:00pm - 9:00pm
📍Te Manawa Museum | 326 Main Street, Palmerston North

Manawatū!!! The Regional Finals 2025 were absolutely buzzing with energy, innovation, and inspiration.

Congratulations to our 2025 Regional Winners, .solutions from who will be heading to Wellington for YES Nationals in December 🏆🥳

A massive thank you to our sponsors, mentors, judges, teachers, friends, and whānau who have been involved in YES 2025. Your support, guidance, and encouragement make all of this possible 🙌

And of course, to our amazing students across the region, you brought your passion, your ideas, and your courage to the stage this year!! We couldn’t be prouder of everything you’ve achieved 💪

What an amazing night we had! We recently had our Global Youth Night Market where some of our YES students for this year had the opportunity to showcase their businesses to the community. 🙌

We also had some amazing local businesses come along, as well as some delicious food trucks. 🤤

A massive thank you to everyone who came down and supported our students.

Thank you to Shaun Kay for helping us organise our market and to Youth Space for hosting us for the evening.

Challenge 2 is complete!! 🥳

Our teams recently completed YES Challenge 2, the mid-year pitch. Teams are given 5 minutes to pitch their business idea to an awesome local panel of judges. They are marked on their business idea, marketing & sales, production, finance, innovation and overall pitch presentation.

A massive thank you to our amazing judges, your experience and insight is so valuable to our students and we are grateful to you for taking the time out of your week to help us.

Thank you to Whanganui Collegiate and New Life Palmerston North for providing us with your locations across both days.

Keep an eye out for what our students will get up to next... 👀

A big congratulations to the Manawatū students who have been selected to attend EiA in Wellington from the 26th-29th of June! 👏

This is an awesome opportunity where students from across the country compete in two back-to-back business challenges over 48 hours. Throughout the weekend the students are split into teams and mentored by a host company before the challenges. Students get to work with some of our country's most innovative business organisations!

Congratulations to...

Ani Retemeyer - PNGHS
Olivia Whale - Nga Tawa
Liam Roach - Horowhenua College

We look forward to seeing what our students get up to so keep your eyes peeled closer to the time... 👀

YES Manawatu Round 2 Seed Funding is now open!!

This awesome opportunity is open to YES students in Manawatu-Rangitikei area thanks to the Earle Creativity Trust. Companies can apply for a maximum of $500 to put towards their YES 2025 business. 🙌

Eligibility Criteria:
- YES business in Manawatu-Rangitikei (If unsure ask your coordinator)
- Funds must be applied to an area of science or technology within your business 🧪💻

Applications close on the 29th of May at 7pm so get those applications in soon! Apply through the link in our bio

If you have any questions please flick us a DM or reach out to your coordinator 😃

Manawatū Regional Seed Funding Round 1 applications are now open!

We have the amazing opportunity to offer seed funding to help our YES students kickstart their businesses for 2025 thanks to the Earle Creativity Trust 🙌

The Earle Creativity Trust is an amazing charity helping to nurture innovation, ideas and talent in the Manawatū-Rangitīkei region

Students must fill out the application linked below, which includes a short video submission telling us about your business idea, what funding you are asking for and how you plan on using it to grow your business. Eligibility criteria and further information is available via the application form

https://yesalumni.wufoo.com/forms/earle-creativity-seed-funding-round-1

We recently hosted our 2025 Spark Tank! We had over 30 students across 6 different high schools from our region attend this awesome event to kickstart our year.

This was our first insight into the amazing year ahead of us. Students brought their fledgling business ideas in front of our amazing group of mentors for a 'speed dating' style feedback session. We were thrilled to see the engagement from both students and mentors throughout the morning, all parties involved were excited to be there.

We couldn't have pulled this off without the help of our amazing sponsors for 2025. This year we have CEDA - Central Economic Development Agency and Pak'nSave Whanganui partnering with us to help us run this amazing program.

Thank you to our mentors for the morning who gave up their time to help support and guide our students, your contributions are massively appreciated.

And thank you to New Life Palmerston North for letting us use your amazing building for our venue.

Thank you so much Earle Trust for the amazing grant towards YES Manawatu Student Seed Funding.

Exciting News from the Earle Creativity and Development Trust!

We’re thrilled to announce that 10 incredible projects have been awarded funding to support innovation and creativity in the fields of Visual Arts and Science & Technology.

Here are the recipients:

Grants in Visual Arts:

George Agius & Vanessa Edwards - $5,000 for Waha Moe
Dr Wouna le Roux - $5,000 for Te Puna o te Atua
Clayton Tansley - $5,000 for Mārama Tuku Iho
Shaun Kay & Fiona Murray - $12,700 for Palmy Zine Fest
Alice Fennessy & Rose Bourke - $5,000 for After Birth
Samuel Scully - $7,300 for Far Out! Godwits, Guitars & Songsters
Paula Clare King - $10,000 for Memory Shifts Beyond Boredom

Grants in Science & Technology:

Craig Burton - $20,000 for Claim My Ride ~ Phase 2
Josh Te Rauna & Chris Hunt - $25,000 for Perfect Shot Technology
Elizabeth Hansen (Young Enterprise Trust) - $5,000 for Seed Funding for YES Manawatū Students

Congratulations to all the recipients! These projects inspire us with their creativity and forward-thinking ideas.

Stay tuned for updates on how these initiatives make a difference in our community!

Last week we had the opportunity to celebrate the successes of our students in the YES 2024 programme.

A range of top awards were given to students for their achievements throughout the year. These included Best Annual Review, Innovation, Sustainability & Brand Identity.

But it wouldn’t be the Manawatū-Whanganui regionals without our Golden Spoon Awards. These are our chance to celebrate students who may not have won a top award but have still put in a lot of hard work with their business this year. These always consist of but are not limited to our ‘bloopers reel’ for the year, a conventional way to celebrate the unconventional achievements of these students.

A big thank you to CEDA and Hire a Housewife for sponsoring awards this year, we are always grateful for our support from the local business community. If you own, or are a part of a local Manawatū-Whanganui business and would be interested in sponsoring an award to celebrate our students, please get in touch with Elizabeth our regional coordinator - [email protected]