Frequently asked questions
Here are answers.
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Where is confluence?
Confluence is in Whanganui town centre. It is within a large modern office block building that sits between Victoria Avenue and Watt Street. The building has entrances on both streets, and Confluence's public entrance is on Watt Street at number 15. An easy way to find this entrance is to walk along Watt Street starting from Majestic Square or Mint Cafe, and walk towards the big building at the end of Watt Street that has concrete X's on the front of it. You will find Confluence's building is on your left just past the larger white building and opposite the Museum's Davis Lecture theatre. Confluence occupies the entire top floor of the building.
If you know Whanganui's Victoria Avenue, or high street, then you may be more familiar with the ground floor businesses with an entrance on Victoria Avenue, these are Westpac bank, a dairy, and also a clothing store in what used to be Dick Smiths. Where is watt street?
Watt Street is a short street in the middle of Whanganui's town centre. It has no houses on it but does have a number of businesses. For some businesses their Watt Street doorway is a rear entrance to access their building which faces onto Victoria Avenue. Some well known Whanganui buildings are on Watt Street, including the Whanganui Regional Museum, and War Memorial Hall, however their main public entrances are known to be off of a large concrete area which is at the foot of the memorial steps leading up to the old Sarjeant Gallery - so you may not know they are actually on a street, and that street is Watt Street.
If you're driving then you can access Watt Street from Guyton Street by turning onto Campbell Street which curves down and to the right, becoming Watt Street as it does so. Or you can access it from Taupo Quay by driving up Drews Avenue, which is the road leading up the hill away from the Taupo Quay iSite and river. As you drive up Drews Avenue it turns sharply left and right, and at this point it becomes Watt Street. If you are walking then walk along Victoria Avenue until you reach the large public gathering point known as Majestic Square. This is notable as having an outdoor stage area and two grassy areas for sitting. If you walk through this square, there is a small rise up to a street - this is Watt Street. Turn left and stay on the left side of the street, walking towards the big concrete X building. Confluence's building is about 80 metres along on your left side, set back a few metres from the road by a small carpark area. What is Confluence?
Confluence is a privately run social enterprise owned and operated by Double Farley Ltd in Whanganui, New Zealand. While NZ has no official business structure for a social enterprise, Confluence uses it as a broad definition for how the business operates. Everything that happens at Confluence must fit within three core operating values of Community; Collaboration; Critical Thinking. Find out more about our values here.
Confluence provides a range of services that are all physically based in Whanganui, such as a public cinema, a public coworking space, and also a space for some public events. In addition to these public services it offers some digital services on this website, and occasionally offers private organisations or groups access to the space for non-public events or meetings. If you're interested in working with Confluence or finding out more about the business structure then please contact us. What is coworking?
Coworking or co-working is a relatively new solution that takes advantage of the digital age of working.
Nowadays internet speeds are sufficiently high to securely handle online business applications, online meetings, remote file storage, and more besides. So the traditional need and cost to house a companies workers together in a building no longer really applies for most businesses. Also consider the increasingly common benefit to work flexible hours for your employer, and those employees looking for a lifestyle family home in a regional town, rather than one that is within a commute of a major centre. All these situations are what coworking is designed to address. Coworking, especially in regional towns like Whanganui, provides a clean, central, well equipped, and modern office building that is available for anyone to use, for as long as they need to each day, week, or month. Unlike renting or shared office arrangements, coworking takes away all the financial and property management that these require. Instead each coworker, or their employer, pays to use a desk and space as needed. There are no minimum terms, no tie-ins, no rental agreements, no bonds, no overheads or running costs, no worries about maintaining the space, no concerns about insurance or security, and no stress of cleaning, tidying, or keeping the environment presentable for clients. Your Confluence coworker hosts service the space everyday, keeping it clean, safe, tidy, and well presented. They also help you set up when you arrive, are there for any technical queries that remote working can sometimes present, and above all that they are a simply a friendly hello and goodbye each day. So while Confluence Coworking does not suit everyone, for example those who need a dedicated workshop or who are constantly on the road visiting clients, it is perfectly designed to meet the needs of thousands of local Kiwi's who work from home in the Whanganui region, or those travelling through town that need a professional base for a day or two. Most coworking providers offer desks based on the amount of time you need them for over a given period. In the case of Confluence Coworking we offer desk deals that are measured in hours of access over a given month. These range from just a few hours for a morning or afternoon, through to regular hours and days that fit your lifestyle, or even full-time use with your very own desk and large area that nobody else uses when you're not here. All of Confluence Coworking desk deals are affordable and priced to be sensible for Whanganui and a regional town. Confluence Coworking is a long running and successful Whanganui business, that is 100% owned and operated by the local Whanganui company called Double Farley. Find out more by comparing our desk deals or giving us a call on 06 2813474. How much does coworking cost?
All our standard desk deal prices are published on this website. Our most popular deal, Ongarue River, provides 32 hours that you can use as you like during working hours over a month for $80 which includes GST.
If your working hours are unusual or outside the 9 to 5 bracket then we also offer access outside these hours with our Ongarue River deal as an optional extra, and 24 hour access is standard with our Whakapapa River. If you want to regularly co-work at Confluence but do not need full time availability, then you can easily combine Ongarue River deals together to give multiples of 32 hours in a calendar month. Confluence Coworking is still one of the most affordable and easy ways to take your professional life to the next level. You may already be working from home but desire that more social environment, or you may be working from other facilities such as the library or cafes. While these facilities do provide a very cheap, sometimes free, social space to work from, they are not dedicated to your business success and so can be noisy or difficult to find a suitable and secure working space in. How do I become a coworker?
If you have coworked before, or just need a desk for a standard working day and time, then you can simply buy a standard deal directly from our website, remembering to add a note of when you first need the desk, and we'll be ready to welcome you on the day.
We also encourage everyone who is interested in Confluence Coworking, especially if you have never used a coworking space before, to pop up when we're open and have a look about. You can call us on 06 2813474 or email hello@confluence.kiwi to book a visit, and find us on our finding us page. We also welcome in casual visitors if you're passing by and we are open and available to show you around. IS Confluence cinema only for members?
No, Confluence Cinema is open to everyone, for every screening. It is a public cinema.
It operates just like every other public cinema in NZ and is bound by the same exhibitor requirements, including sourcing public performance licences, paying music rights, and abiding by NZ classification office film and age restrictions. How is Confluence responding to COVID-19 alert levels?
All mandatory NZ government restrictions and advice are strictly adhered to at Confluence during the COVID-19 international pandemic. In addition to these measures as Confluence operates under three core values of Community, Collaboration, and Critical Thinking, we choose to implement some additional precautions and restrictions at each Alert Level, often to ensure the additional workload of maintaining the safety of our community is kept to a manageable level. All of our current restrictions and precautions are detailed on our dedicated COVID-19 response page here: https://www.confluence.kiwi/covid19.html#/
HOw is CONFLUENCE FUNDED?
Confluence generates all income by offering a range of paid services to the public in Whanganui. These services fall broadly under the umbrella of Adult Education provision or support and include a public art-house cinema and commercial co-working space.
As an Independently funded commercial business, owned and operated by Double Farley Ltd, Confluence is able to achieve a diverse and flexible set of short term goals that follow our three values of community, collaboration, and critical thinking. HOW DOES Confluence ADVERTISE?
Broadly speaking Confluence chooses not to use or advertise on digital social media platforms.
Any social media pages claiming to be or represent Confluence Whanganui Ltd, or our owning company Double Farley Ltd (other than those we use as listed below and those used by our clients or customers themselves to voluntarily share information about Confluence or our services) are likely to either be fraudulent or using our business information without permission. Please disregard them in the first instance and report them to us if you feel you should. Specifically our position with the common social media platforms in NZ is as follows: Facebook: In 2020 we deliberately stopped using Facebook and deleted our page because we no longer wanted to support or use a service that, we believe, fails to follow basic publishing good practice. Facebook's continued violations mean we are no longer reviewing our position, and so will never return to that platform. Google: Confluence does use the business services of Google, such as email, maps, reviews, and YouTube. It also maintains a Google advertising presence for some of the public services we offer. Our use of Google is under regular review and our advertising on the platform is not specifically targeted by us to any subset of Google customers. Twitter: Confluence no longer uses Twitter for communication and has deleted our previously used Twitter ID. Apple: Confluence maintains an Apple Map location ID. Other social media platforms: Confluence chooses not to use any other social media or similar platforms. Other digital services: Confluence uses a range of digital services such as Vimeo, Adobe, and national or local government which may also include basic advertising listings for some or all of our services. We do advertise digitally on dedicated some dedicated platforms for specific services we offer, such as cinema listings services, event listings, and co-working space indexes. Confluence is very grateful to some of these platform or service providers who have offered advertising to us for free or reduced cost. Confluence also uses printed advertising - both paid and free - in local newspapers, printed flyers, plus street signage. Confluence is well supported locally, and extremely grateful for our continued positive word of mouth reviews of customer experiences. Confluence continues to be thrilled by the support from our local friends, neighbours, and other businesses - each of you are shining stars of the wider community we love being a part of. Can I join Confluence?
All Confluence services are open to the pubic to use. We do not use a membership model, so for example Coworkers can use the services that they have paid for and our coworking desks are open to anyone who is interested per our terms and conditions.
Confluence Cinema is open to the general public just like every other cinema in NZ, so assuming you meet any age restrictions for a film, you can come along to any advertised screening. Everyone pays the same advertised price and we do not have a discount scheme for age or loyalty - although our smiles become broader every time we see you again! We do maintain a list of email addresses which we use to send our eNewsletter too. You can join this list by emailing us at hello@confluence.kiwi or using this page. If you have further questions please call us on 06 2813474 or email events@confluence.kiwi.
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