Five days of free pop-up events are being held in Te Anau to help Fiordland's besieged businesses owners.

Southland Chamber of Commerce is running the Fiordland Business Support Summit at various venues from this Sunday through to Thursday.

The town and wider region has been hit hard by the closure of international borders and the recent lockdowns.

Chamber project and engagement manager Joanne O’Connor says the hope is there will be some respite through the October school holidays, with more visitors coming through.

"But we wanted to deliver some help before the holidays, so business owners can plan ahead, look at the funding available, and use what they take from the workshops.

"They're all one-hour duration, so businesses can just pop out and attend what's relevant, learn something hopefully, get some pointers, make some connections, and then head back to work."

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Sessions range from marketing, to customer interaction, building resilience, relationships with banks and landlords, to wellbeing and workplace law.

There are breakfast, morning, afternoon and evening sessions each day.

Companies leading sessions include Westpac, The Orange Sheep , COIN South, HR South and Copeland Ashcroft Law.

Speakers are paying their own expenses and the majority of venues are also offering their space for free.

"The whole Southland business community has got in behind supporting the region, because everyone feels for what is happening in Te Anau and Fiordland in general. We're just wanting to do what we can," O'Connor says.

"So we encourage people to get there. There'll be lots of ideas, information, and just the chance to get out and work on the business, rather than in it.

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"If people pick up a couple of ideas that help, it'll be worth it."

So far, only about a dozen businesses have signed up to attend sessions, although many more have indicated they will attend.

O'Connor is hoping for a good number in each session, although knows many business owners are fatigued.

Thursday's events are all related to wellbeing.

"Wellbeing is something we've put quite a bit of effort into since Covid hit, for members and also workshops and webinars," she says.

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The Chamber hosted wellbeing webinars fortnightly during the first lockdown and has continued them once a month.

"The demand has still been there and we get good numbers every month. We cover all sorts of wellbeing; physical, financial.

"It just something now that all businesses owners need to learn new skills for, because this isn't going away."

The full programme is available on the Southland Chamber website.