 So, Tony, thank you so much for agreeing to do this for us. If you could please briefly start by describing who you are, your position, and what Kia is as an organization. Sure. So, I'm Tony Traslav and I'm the Chief Executive of Kia New Zealand. We are headquartered obviously in Auckland, New Zealand, but we have operations within China, within the UK, Europe, and also within the US. So, Kia has been around since 2001, so almost 20 years now. It was originally started with the intention of maintaining contact with Kiwis who were hitting overseas at a time when there were a large number of our most talented workers hitting overseas for greener pastures, and it was a period within New Zealand's history that we commonly refer to as the brain drain, and Kia was set up so that New Zealand could maintain contact with these people and make sure that they were still connected and able to help support the country with their perspectives and with their networks. Thanks. And how big is Kia today then? So, Kia has a global community of just under half a million Kiwis around the world that we stay connected with across a range of digital channels, as well as some in-person events where we're able to. We've got 13 staff, as well as a voluntary board. Great, thank you. Can you describe maybe what you see as some of the more successful programs that Kia operates to achieve your objectives? Sure, so Kia's mission is really to build knowledge of exploring Kiwis. So what we refer to as exploring Kiwis are those who have gone overseas for a period of time. They may still live overseas, or they may actually have come back to New Zealand. We see this migration as really circular, so often Kiwis or New Zealanders, once they leave once, they may come home and then leave again. So the mission of Kia is to build knowledge of these exploring Kiwis so it can be leveraged for the good of New Zealand. And we do this through goodwill, the goodwill of the New Zealanders who want to stay part of our country and want to stay connected via Kia and also through all important connection. So we have three key strategic pillars. Within Kia, the first one is around people. And that's really about ensuring connected and valued Kiwis living offshore and integrated and thriving returnees. The second pillar is around business. So it's about how we leverage those Kiwis living overseas to empower New Zealand businesses who would like to export or go global. And then the third one is around how we leverage, explore a Kiwi thinking and perspective to build a stronger New Zealand. So that is how we connect in a number of our real world leading New Zealanders and to help build new industry and innovation within New Zealand. So those are our three key strategic pillars that we focus on in order to deliver to our mission. And then there are three key programs that our community and our audience may see visible as a result of those strategies. So the first one is the Kia community. So that is where we support Kiwis wherever they are in the world to stay connected to New Zealand, its people and its business. And we largely do that through digital channels. So we have obviously our website, which is very rich in content. We are active on social channels such as LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. And then we also run a number of email newsletters to keep people connected and inspired, as well as virtual events and in-person networking events where we can. The second product is Kia Connect. This is our business connection product. And as I mentioned, this is where Kia harnesses the minds and the networks of Kiwis living over shore overseas to power up New Zealand businesses who would like to export globally. So we run a connection service that is run off our website where individuals or businesses who would like to export into global markets can register with Kia and we will endeavour to put them in touch with Kiwis living in those markets who may be able to support them with market intelligence, market networks or mentorship. And then the third program is Kia X. And this talks to our country strategic pillar. And that's really where Kia brings together New Zealand's most successful onshore and offshore innovators to help build industry and connect into government initiatives and private initiatives within New Zealand. Great. Thank you. Those are three very ambitious programmes you just mentioned. I'm sure you face your fair share of challenges in implementing those types of activities. So could you tell us about some of the key challenges Kia faces within its operations that you have to address? Yeah, absolutely. Look, I think the biggest issue for Kia, particularly in our operations right now is that there is so much that can be done to better support our Kiwis overseas. And as a small charitable organisation, it's always about how do we prioritise and how do we use our resources to get the biggest bang for our community and for New Zealand. And so I think that prioritisation and focusing on the most impactful things is a challenge along with securing ongoing funding to keep doing the work that we do. Great. Thank you. And can you tell me more? I mean, you mentioned that Kia operates with a fairly small staff of, I think, 13 people. You said, how is Kia structured as an organisation? Is it reliant on a lot of volunteer work? Or does it have external funding to manage its operations as well? Yeah, so we have a blended funding model. We are lucky enough to receive some support from three or four of the larger New Zealand government organisations. So they fund us primarily to support international trade development development. And then we also get support from amazing private funders, businesses and individuals within New Zealand who really see value in the work that we do, but who also, you know, see good synergies with their business to be aligned with us. So we have a blended funding model that allows us to have 13 paid employees, most of full time, but some are part time as well. And then we have the support of amazing ambassadors around the world. So I wouldn't necessarily call them strictly volunteers, but on an ad hoc basis, we have Kiwis around the world who are incredibly passionate about the work that we do and will help open doors and make resources available as and when needed. And then alongside that, we have an amazing voluntary board made up of business leaders within New Zealand who help guide and govern the direction of Kia. And are there membership fees as well to be a member of Kia or not? No, our community service and also our business connection service is all 100% free. And we do that to make sure that we can help and support as many people as possible. And we instead look to receive our funds through partnerships. OK, great. So you had mentioned that you get funding from both the private sector and from government. Roughly what ratio is government and what ratio is private sector? That's a key question, maybe. Yeah, yeah, it's sort of just a little over 50-50. OK, great. And I mean, you mentioned your three priority areas, but you also mentioned that you've been around since 2001. So no doubt those priorities change from time to time. So how does Kia determine, either on an annual basis or on a longer term basis, what your priorities as an organization should be? And how do you ensure that you're really meeting the needs and the expectations of not just your funders, but of Kiwis living abroad as well? Yeah, so look, we spend a lot of time working with stakeholders and listening both to country and government priorities and also to our community. And the short answer to your question is that we ask to make sure that we're aligned. So we have a number of programs and initiatives underway with some of our key funders to make sure that we are tied in and proactively contributing to their initiatives. The New Zealand government has a number of economy growing plans at the moment and recovery plans and Kia looks very closely at how we can support and align with those so that we are pulling in the exact same direction as our funders on that side of things. In terms of our community, we try to run regular surveys to ensure that we know what the challenges are that they're facing and how we can be of most benefit to them. So the most recent example of that research was the Welcome Home Survey, which we ran in August. That was quite a large body of field work. We spoke to over 15,000 Kiwis living overseas and some who had recently returned home to New Zealand. And we sought to understand what their experience had been, particularly around COVID and the impact that the COVID era has had on their migration back to New Zealand, but also looking to understand what they need if they are coming back to New Zealand to really land and thrive here to be able to find work and, you know, suitable living and childcare and education for their families, for example, as part of that, we also sought to understand Kiwis who are not choosing to come home at the moment, what they might need for us from us. And so that really goes into our program planning for the year. And then we have three groups of management metrics that myself and my leadership team review on a monthly basis to make sure that we are regularly delivering to all of our stakeholders' needs. And so those three key areas of metrics, the first one is around our Care Connection Service. So that's the International Trade Development piece. And there we look at the number of connections that we are making. So we have an annual and a monthly target that we seek to reach. So we're looking for numbers, but then we are also looking for quality of connections. And so we look to tie in with one of our partner funders, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, to look at some of their milestone metrics for business growth to make sure that we deliver in quality connections. And then we also look at a net promoter's score from the businesses and individuals that we connect to make sure that our service is as helpful and positive as possible. So that's sort of one group of key metrics. Then the second area is around community growth and engagement. So we are constantly measuring the quality of the content, the resources and the events that we invest in for our community. And we like to make sure that our community is both growing, but that it's highly engaged. And alongside that group of metrics, we also go back out on a regular basis and run surveys and questionnaires so that we are constantly gathering that feedback. And then the third area is around, you know, are we maintaining our funding? Do our funders and our partners really see value in the work that we're doing? And therefore, are they continuing to invest in it? And we also run a bit of a net promoter's score measure there to make sure that our partners are happy with the work that we do. Great. So you've got sort of, I guess, three buckets of priorities that would be considered of equal importance when you're looking at your own metrics or is there one that takes priority? No, I think they would be of equal value. I think the business connection service or the international trade development piece is probably our most longstanding program of work. And so I think that is much more established and that is a really cool focus for us. The KIAX work, which is connecting the industry, leading Kiwis into new industry build, that is slightly newer and more in development. And then the KIA community focus has changed slightly with COVID to be much wider. And that is really to recognise that Kiwis around the world are incredibly important to New Zealand, whether they are able to assist businesses to export or whether they have other skills and perspectives that are beneficial to New Zealand. For example, they might be a health care worker or a teacher currently living overseas, wanting to come back to New Zealand. And those are skills and industries that are that we do lack in New Zealand, the population of our size. We don't often get the numbers of health care workers, particularly that we need within New Zealand. And so those members of our community are equally important, but for a slightly different reason. So that community piece for us has grown slightly greater over COVID. Great. I think one thing that we find where usually government led initiatives in engaging in diaspora tend to struggle is in really developing a solid communication strategy with the diaspora that has a sense of longevity or sustainability to it beyond just an annual conference. KIA seems to have defied all odds and has this incredible capacity to reach out and to communicate with the Kiwi diaspora. So do you have a defined communication strategy that you implement in order to maintain contact? Yes, we do. Yes, we do. And it's growing and evolving every day. So this seems to be, as I'm talking about, Kia, we seem to like the number three, but we also we also have three narratives that that we like to push through within our communications. And we look at how we can best land these narratives with our stakeholders and with our communities and also how we can measure them and and optimise them. So the first one is really focused on talking about how we connect and grow businesses, making the leap offshore. So again, that's tied back into that business pillar and that KIA Connect service. And really what we're wanting to do is to inspire more Kiwi businesses to think global from day one. And so a strong theme throughout our communications case studies around Kiwi businesses and individuals who have done amazing things on the world stage with business ideas that have originated here within New Zealand. Then the second narrative is around how we can connect and support Kiwis offshore. So looking at what kind of content they might need in terms of resources, particularly. So, for example, when COVID-19 sort of really became widespread around the world, we were looking at what our communities might need, really practical resources if they were looking to come home, aggregating links to New Zealand government websites and support networks. And then also we started to branch out into case studies again. So doing interviews with individuals who have come home and what they experienced, what it was like to fly into New Zealand and find yourself in a managed isolation facility for two weeks with small children. So we looked at really human stories as well to try and sort of support on that emotional level. And then the third area around supporting Kiwis returning was working with our partners around resources, practical resources in terms of tax and pensions. How might you bring one of your pension funds back to New Zealand? And then also if you were looking to bring your business home to New Zealand, what are some of the tax implications there and how might you do that? So we worked with a number of our professional services partners to make sure that there was really high quality advice and information available on our site and through our social media channels there as well. And then the third pillar that we focus on is celebrating Kiwis making a difference. So again, a real inspirational and celebration piece around the amazing things that Kiwis are doing overseas. And that's also tied into we have an award ceremony in March every year where we celebrate what we refer to as world-class New Zealanders. And that is an amazing night of inspiration and drives a lot of our content sharing for the rest of the year. Can you give us an example of who would be a world-class New Zealander? What would they be doing on the global stage? So they would be someone who is successful from a business perspective, but importantly is really willing and able to give back to communities. So, you know, it might be someone who has launched an amazing business and something really innovative or it might be an academic who is doing amazing work or a scientist or someone within the arts who has just really delivered excellence in their field. And that is coupled with their strong desire to build community and to use some of their success and some of their profile for the good of New Zealand and its people. Great. Thank you. What are I mean, you mentioned earlier that you use, as you said, LinkedIn, Instagram, also, I think a week or an email newsletter you mentioned. So you're using a lot of different tools for communication. What are, in your experience, some of the more successful tools for reaching out and what makes them more successful? Well, I think there's two key areas from a comms channel perspective that are interesting. The first one is reaching out to your diaspora and platforms where they are already. So looking at LinkedIn and Facebook, Facebook is actually our largest subscription channel, possibly because it's been around the longest. Reaching out and placing the right content right in front of your audience is a really important connection piece. But then equally encouraging that audience as they kind of grow in their preference for your content, encouraging them to sign up into a CRM system is really valuable as well, because obviously not only does that give you data and insight on your audience, but it allows you to start to personalise some of the messages that you're sending back to them. So we do both for slightly different reasons. But, you know, if we, I suppose, could have our absolute way, it would be to get all of our care members integrated into our CRM so that we could be offering them really personalised and valuable communications. So you do operate a CRM system in order to maintain those various contacts, I guess. Absolutely. And it's the most crucial part of our business. So we have, you know, someone who solely focuses on making sure that that CRM is up to date and that it obviously adheres with increasing privacy laws around the world and that we're using it in a really valuable way to our community. Great. One last question for you, Tony, and then I'll let you go. As you said, you've been around for you personally, but Kia has been around for 20 years. Would you have any words of wisdom for for organisations that are just starting out and just trying to to to reach out to their diaspora in order to establish cooperation? Yeah, absolutely. I really see the secret to Kia's success is the goodwill of the of our diaspora community. So without that goodwill, they wouldn't stay connected via us. They wouldn't support our programs and, you know, they wouldn't help drive a lot of the missions and outcomes that Kia is looking to drive for New Zealand. So I think my biggest piece of advice would be for other organisations to get really clear on what it is you will offer to a global population, a global community and why this is of value to them. And oftentimes in order to define that, you have to really ask, you have to take the time to sit down and understand, you know, what is of value to them and then also to think about from a wider perspective, once you have this community built, how will this community actually enhance your country's economy or objectives? And so just taking a, you know, doing that strategic thought place up front to be clear on your proposition for your community, making sure that it's actually what they want and that it will drive goodwill and then secondly, that it will drive the right and meaningful outcomes for your country. Perfect. Tony, thank you so much for for taking the time to talk. Lisa, thank you.