My success is not mine alone, but is the strength of the many.
Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini.
A room full of women who know exactly what it takes to build something from nothing, who do not need you to explain yourself or justify your ambition or downplay what you have done to make them comfortable.
This is the NZ Small Business Awards, and it is the evening that exists because women in business in Aotearoa deserve a night that is entirely, unapologetically theirs.
One hundred wāhine. Every business in that room deserving to be there.
Get your brand in front of the most engaged women in business in New Zealand. Partnership opportunities and goodie bag inclusions available.
Partner with us
Put your hand up for your business or nominate someone who deserves to be recognised. Free to enter, open now, and one of the best things you can do for your business this year.
Apply for an award
Secure your seat at the most celebrated evening for wāhine in business in Aotearoa. Limited to one hundred tickets.
Get my ticket
The biggest night for women in business in Aotearoa
Applications are now closed
finalists annouced soon
There is something that happens when someone calls your business name in a room full of people who understand what it took to build it. Not just the revenue or the growth, but the version of yourself you had to become to get here. The decisions you made when nobody was watching. The times you kept going when stopping would have been so much easier.
Being nominated means your business is seen. Being a finalist means it is celebrated publicly by a community of wāhine who genuinely invest in each other's success. And winning means you carry something with you that no amount of marketing can replicate, the knowledge that a room full of your peers looked at what you built and said that one.
Every woman who walks through that door on October 15th is there because she has built something worth showing up for. The room itself is the recognition, the evening is the acknowledgement, and the connections you make across that shared grazing feast, in the moments between awards being called, at the end of the night when nobody wants to leave, those are the ones that change the shape of what you are building next.
What it means to be recognised
Why should I apply?
One evening designed to celebrate, inspire and connect the women building businesses across Aotearoa. From the awards ceremony to the keynote to the feast and the dance floor, every part of this night has been created with you in mind.
What Your Evening Includes
THE DEETS
Ten categories celebrating the businesses being built by wāhine across Aotearoa, with every finalist automatically in the running for New Zealand's Small Business of the Year 2026.
AWARDS CEREMONY
An honest, personal talk from Kristy Campbell of Pink Pony Creative about what building a remarkable business actually looks like from the inside.
INSPIRING KEYNOTE
A stunning three course dinner from one of Auckland's most celebrated waterfront restaurants, because an evening like this deserves a meal to match.
A FEAST WORTH SAVOURING
One hundred wāhine in business, all in one room, all genuinely invested in each other's success. The kind of connections that become your best clients, collaborators and long-term business friends.
real connections
Prosecco on arrival, a stunning Hobsonville Point waterfront venue, a goodie bag to take home and every moment considered so that from the moment you walk in you feel exactly as celebrated as you deserve to.
EVERY DETAIL TAKEN CARE OF
Because the celebration does not stop when the awards do. This is the kind of night nobody wants to leave early.
DJ TO CLOSE THE NIGHT
Kristy Campbell is the founder of Pink Pony Creative and a three-time Adobe MAX speaker.
She has built bold brand identities for clients worldwide and grown a business that has taken her to international stages. She is also someone who has lived the reality of building something from scratch, navigating the seasons that test you, figuring out who you are as a founder when everything is changing at once, and doing all of it while building a life and family too.
Kristy is not joining us to hand you a framework or a checklist. She is here to tell you the truth about what it actually looks like to build something you are proud of. The pivots, the highs, the lows, the social media era that changed everything, what growing a team really means, and how she holds it all together as a mother and a founder and a woman who refuses to quit.
The kind of inspiring talk that makes you feel less alone in what you are building and more certain about where you are going.
Our keynote speaker:
Kristy Campbell
This is not a sit-still-and-listen night. It is a graze and connect and laugh and cry a little and dance at the end kind of night. Ask Alice is your MC, keeping the room warm and moving and genuinely fun from the moment you arrive. A three course shared grazing feast at one of Auckland's most stunning waterfront venues gives you the kind of setting where real conversations happen. And when the awards are done, the DJ takes over, because the best part of any celebration is what happens when everyone stays anyway.
Here is what you will take home from this evening that you cannot put a price on:
• The confidence that comes from being in a room that reflects back the calibre of what you are building
• Connections with wāhine who are at the same level, facing the same things, and genuinely invested in your success
• The clarity that comes from hearing someone else's real story and recognising your own in it
• The kind of pride in your business that reminds you exactly why you started
An evening that earns its place in your calendar
You do not need to have it all figured out. You do not need to be the biggest or the most established or the furthest along. You need to have built something real, and you need to put your hand up.
When you apply for the NZ Small Business Awards, your business goes in front of a judging panel who are looking for exactly what you have been doing. Building with grit and intention. Showing up even when it is hard. Creating something that other people genuinely value.
If you are shortlisted, your business gets featured across both of our communities before the event even begins, putting your name in front of the women most likely to become your customers, your collaborators, your biggest referrers.
If you become a finalist, your business is announced publicly, celebrated across our channels, and you walk into 15 October with the whole room already knowing your name. And every single finalist is automatically in the running for New Zealand's Small Business of the Year 2026, the biggest title of the evening, announced on the night.
You can enter up to three categories and nominate yourself or someone else whose business deserves to be celebrated.
Your business belongs in these awards
award applications are completly free
Applications are now closed. shortlist annoucment coming soon!
Ten awards to cleebrate New Zeland's best female founded and women in business small businesses.
The Awards
Take a look at the categories
For the business that launched with clarity and momentum and is already making people take notice, all within the first two years.
For the founder who obsessed over every detail until she built something people genuinely love and keep coming back for.
For the business that shows up, delivers and leaves clients wondering how they ever managed without them.
For the business that has mastered the art of communication and built a presence that cuts through in a crowded market.
For the founder who faced the hard stuff head on and built something remarkable despite everything working against her.
For the woman behind the business. Her leadership, her vision and the mark she is already leaving on her industry.
Open to Empower Her Community members only. For the member who shows up for this community and for her own business with the same energy and heart.
Open to She Owns It members only. For the member whose dedication to her business and the women around her sets the standard for what this community stands for.
Voted for entirely by the public and open to anyone who enters at least one other category. This one belongs to your community, your customers + everyone who has been cheering for you.
The biggest title of the evening, announced on the night. Not an enterable category, every finalist across every other category is automatically considered.
Empower Her Community and She Owns It created this night because we have watched extraordinary women build extraordinary businesses in Aotearoa and not stop long enough to realise how far they have come.
We believe recognition is fuel. The kind that reminds you why you started and gives you the confidence to go further than you thought possible. We believe the women around you are not your competition, they are your community, and that a room full of wāhine toa genuinely invested in each other's success is one of the most powerful things in business. We believe that when women are celebrated properly, not in passing but loudly and in a room full of people who mean it, extraordinary things happen in business and beyond.
That is what this evening is built on. And it is what you are walking into on October 15th.
Built by two communities who have been in your corner from the start.
YOUR TIME IS NOW
NZ Small Business Awards
Free to enter and open now!
Nominate your business for the recognition it deserves and let Aotearoa see exactly what you have built.
One night, one hundred wāhine, limited tickets.
Secure your seat at the biggest night for women in business in Aotearoa this October.
The room
The NZ Small Business Awards 2026 has one hundred tickets and one evening. Whether you are coming as a finalist, as someone cheering a finalist on, or simply because you know this is the room to be in this October, secure your seat now.
• An awards ceremony celebrating ten categories of women in business excellence across Aotearoa
• A keynote from Kristy Campbell of Pink Pony Creative that will stay with you long after the night is over
• A three course shared grazing feast at one of Auckland's most beautiful waterfront venues
• A room of one hundred wāhine who show up, invest in themselves and genuinely champion each other
• A DJ closing out the night because the celebration does not stop when the awards do
Tickets are limited and this will sell out!
Bringing a group? Email us at welcome@empowerhercommunity.com
The NZ Small Business Awards brings together one hundred of the most engaged, ambitious and community-minded wāhine in business in Aotearoa for an evening they will be talking about long after October. These are women who discover brands in rooms like this and bring them back to their own networks and communities. Women who are loyal to businesses that align with their values. Women who make purchasing decisions for themselves and for their businesses.
If you want your brand woven into that evening, we have a small number of partnership opportunities available. From presenting the biggest award of the night to having your product in the hands of every woman who walks out the door, there is a way to be part of this that is right for your brand and your budget. Goodie bag inclusions are available now for brands who want to get their products and marketing materials into 120 bags going home with the most motivated women in business in New Zealand. For presenting partnership and award category sponsorship, reach out directly and we will have a conversation about what the right fit looks like for you.
