<< Back

The honorary board is composed of individuals working in the business events industry throughout New Zealand from a variety of disciplines. The aim is for the group to meet annually to discuss a range of topics relating to the content and style of miceNZ.net magazine. miceNZ.net magazine publisher Helen Batt-Rawden says one constant aim at BT Publishing is to continually improve its magazine offerings and give its targeted readers what they want to read.
“The individuals we have asked to join our editorial advisory board all work in the business events industry and have a good understanding of the New Zealand market,” she says.
“With their wealth of experience we intend taking on board their suggestions as to how we can continue to improve our magazine for the betterment of the industry as a whole.
“I thank them for their commitment and look forward to meeting them all at our first meeting.”
miceNZ.net magazine has profiled some of the members on the following pages for the benefit of readers and asked them some questions on the current “state of play” of the industry.

James Cowan is currently the director of sales and marketing for Accor Hotels in the Central Region with responsibility for the sales team and associated revenue for the five hotels, four of which are conference venues.
James started with Accor nearly three years ago at Novotel Tainui Hamilton and was quickly introduced to the MICE market due to the significance of the revenue in the mix.
For four years prior to this appointment he enjoyed time in radio sales managing a small team in a highly competitive but rewarding industry. His first exposure to the travel/tourism industry was with Tranz Rail as marketing manager for the Lynx. This was an exciting time with new competitors entering the market and new product development opportunites.
Originally from Napier he moved to Wellington in 1988 and has enjoyed an expatriate position in Vietnam for one year and also time in the Waikato.

Q: What is the one outstanding issue facing our industry at the present time?
A: Not enough cohesive selling of New Zealand as a destination by everyone in the industry.
Q: And what do you see happening in the future?
A: I think it is slowly improving already and will gain more momentum in the next two to five years.

Wayne Lee joined Auckland Convention Centre at THE EDGE® as a sales executive in 2003. Wayne brought with him a wealth of experience, having worked in the Australian hotel conference industry for 10 years. With a focus on multi-day conventions from Australian and international forums, Wayne’s exposure to, and experience of, the joys and challenges for clients, venues and destinations provides a well-balanced view of the world of MICE. Wayne has been a member of MEA since 1998.
From July 1, 2006 Wayne will be responsible for international multi-day conventions, with a focus on assisting New Zealand associations with bids to hold international association conferences in Auckland. Wayne’s recent experience includes major international multi-day conferences encompassing the government, medical and science industries, as well as corporate and association conferences from the Australian market.

Q. What is the one outstanding issue facing our industry at the present time?
A. I believe the biggest single factor affecting the events industry in New Zealand continues to be the lack of a purpose-built international standard convention centre in Auckland. It’s crazy, given the efforts of civic leaders over the Tasman and in Asia that New Zealand’s largest city by a country mile still doesn’t have one. Auckland has to remain competitive, and if we want to be looking good by the 2011 Rugby World Cup, we’re going to have to start with the bricks and mortar now.
Q. And what do you see happening in the future?
A. I’d like to see central and local government getting behind the industry to help develop world-class events infrastructure that can attract a range of significant events to our slice of Asia-Pacific. We all understand that big events provide a big boost to the national economy. It would be great to see a concerted effort to ensure we all have the right facilities where they’re needed and then some real enthusiasm to ensure we get the business.

At 28 Ammie has spent the past 11 years working in the event management
industry at Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton (home of the NZ National
Fieldays). This is her fourth position within the organisation, which means she
has a great understanding of all aspects of the team and the business.
Her key responsibility is event management and client liaison for all major events. With various events on the run at one time she often has to prioritise multiple tasks.
Creating and developing business opportunities, and setting pricing and budget analysis, including reports and presentations, are integral parts of her role. She balances this carefully with contract management, staff management and marketing decisions.
She is responsible for some substantial budgets across a range of businesses, and her financial management knowledge and experience is well developed as a result.

Q. What is the one outstanding issue facing our industry at the present time?
A. I don’t believe this to be the main outstanding issue, however, I do believe it to be important and needs to be addressed. New Zealand’s MICE industry is going though an amazing growth stage of developing new venue facilities with exceptionally high standards however, we lack sufficient accommodation with these same standards. Many of the secondary regions (without large incentive travel groups) have first-class venue facilities which are attracting a lot of international convention and conference interest however, they are missing out on the hosting rights of these events because of the lack of five or even four star accommodation within their region.
Q. And what do you see happening in the future?
A. Initially smaller providers of first-class facilities (both full package and accommodation only) will establish themselves in these regions which will increase the options for the small to medium convention and conferences planners. Hopefully this will then lead to partnerships being formed to meet the accommodation requirements of the large scale events. Eventually demand will force the larger accommodation providers to take notice of the missed business opportunities within these smaller regions.

New Zealand born and educated, Annette has spent her entire career within the tourism industry beginning with tertiary training at the Central Institute of Technology in Wellington, graduating in Tourism Industry & Hotel Reception. After working in New Zealand and Australia she established Conference Venues & Booking Services Pty Ltd (CVBS), a venue research service with professional conference management operations. Before the company was sold in 2002, with Annette choosing to return with her young family to New Zealand, CVBS was operating in three Australian States; Queensland, NSW and Victoria, and had a subsidiary company, Cruise Control offering a vessel research service and Sydney Harbour-based event management service. Today she is residing in Christchurch and is the manager of the Christchurch & Canterbury Convention Bureau.

Q. What is the one outstanding issue facing our industry at the present time?
A. New Zealand is a small country - population four million, with tourism as the leading export industry. The key resource is our “human resource” and often we are congratulated on our innovative marketing results, achieved on tiny budgets and “voluntary labour” - small budgets spread over the small regions of a small country. As business tourism has become a recognised “earner” by many of our destination competitors, these currently employed resources will reach their limit. Greater financial investment and managed destination marketing is now required if we are to retain and develop this important sector of the tourism industry, in what is today an extremely competitive business environment.
Q. And what do you see happening in the future?
A. New Zealand business tourism marketing will mature and become more focused on reaching conference and incentive customers beyond Australia. Recognition of the value of this tourism market segment may come about through measured economic impact from the growing high yield “incentive group travel”.

New Zealand Tourism Award winner, Suzanne Baker leads the team at Eventionz.
She has a background in television, advertising, promotion and as a professional conference organiser/event manager she has successfully managed numerous corporate conferences, incentives and product launches.
In 1992 the New Zealand Tourism industry won the prestigious and highly sought after, Society of Incentive Travel Executive’s (SITE) 1994 international conference. It was Suzanne’s task to raise sponsorship from the industry and manage the SITE Conference into Auckland. It has been said that because of the SITE Conference that finally the New Zealand incentive industry took shape. The conference went on to win the 1995 New Zealand Tourism Award for Best Conference and Incentive.

Q: What is the one outstanding issue facing our industry at the present time?
A: The skills shortage is becoming extremely noticeable in our industry and people are tending to become specialists rather than generalists. Some people believe this is good, but I think with the overall shortage of people in our country it could quickly create some concern for conference and event management companies who will not be able to so readily find staff with the wide breadth of experience required.
Q: And what do you see happening in the future?
A: With the advances in technology and the resulting speed of communication, we are all battling to manage the expectation from clients on response and short lead-in times. (Unfortunately, the increase in the speed of technology does not give creative thinking an exponential boost!). It is of concern that without adequate planning time, creative programmes are more difficult to achieve and the industry runs the risk of providing easy, well-used programmes rather than amazing and innovative ones.

Jan Tonkin is the founder and managing director of The Conference Company. With more than 25 years experience, conferences, exhibitions and awards have been the focus of Jan’s professional life in Britain and in New Zealand.
Formed in 1990 The Conference Company is now a team of 20, working from offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Jan is an Accredited Meetings Manager under the auspices of MEA, and a member of the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers (IAPCO). She is a strong advocate of professional development for the
industry and is committed to encouraging local companies and organisations to host international conferences in New Zealand.

Q. What do you see happening in the future?
A. The nature of conferences is constantly being redefined - maybe not surprisingly, as they are a powerful platform for communication which is compressed into a short and intense period of time. At present, while plenary sessions still feature small, interactive sessions and workshops occupy an increasingly large percentage of a conference programme. The industry must be alert to this trend along with others such as delegates’ need for easy access to broadband internet, their tendency to want to register online at the last minute, organisers’ requirements for highly flexible spaces and everyone’s delight when service is ‘spot on’ and catering is high-quality and beautifully presented.
It’s vital that the industry is always listening to customers’ current needs and predicting future ones. We can then respond and plan accordingly and maintain the dynamism associated with great conferences.

Maxine’s career spans 15 years in the C&I industry commencing with five years working for Conventions & Incentives New Zealand as their first sales and marketing representative in Sydney under the expert tutelage of Alan Trotter. In the mid-nineties, she accepted a position back in Auckland as the sales and marketing director for Spotless who at the time had the marketing and food and beverage contract at the AOTEA Centre, now known as The Edge ®. The only detour from this business tourism path was a stint as the CEO of First Light Tourism in Gisborne leading up to the millennium celebrations as the first city in the world to see the sun! Then it was back to Auckland as sales manager – conventions and meetings at the Bruce Mason Centre.
In 2002 she was enticed across the bridge to work for SKYCITY Entertainment Group as sales manager – conventions, incentives with responsibility for attracting conferences from Australia into the new SKYCITY Auckland Convention Centre and two hotels, where she currently works.

Q. What is the one outstanding issue facing our industry at the present time?
A. One issue facing us is the wash of accommodation room blocks booked in conjunction with a large conference. Experienced professional conference organisers can control these accommodation washes by not over-booking rooms at the time of booking, but for some clients this does not happen and they book large room blocks thinking all rooms will be picked up. Washing rooms at 60 to 30 days [out from the event] has a huge impact on achieving revenue targets.

Q. And what do you see happening in the future?
A. I see Auckland developing further as a successful conference destination for Australians, especially with the growth we have seen to date at SKYCITY. Auckland is now competing successfully with a number of Australian venues, especially for the corporate market, who regard the city as a professional, almost domestic alternative to their own cities.

In 2004, Tracey joined Megan O’Brien as a director of Conference Innovators Ltd and Event Link Ltd. Conference Innovators is a conference management company based in Christchurch and comprises a full-time team of 16, and Event Link is a company that specialises in registration solutions. Prior to this he spent many years as a hotel general manager, his last position being at Millennium Hotel Rotorua for five years.
In New Zealand Tracey has been a strong contributor to the tourism industry in general taking an active role in convention bureaux and other industry organisations. Since October 2005, Tracey has been on the board of Conventions & Incentives New Zealand (CINZ).

Q. What is the one outstanding issue facing the C&I industry in New Zealand right now?
A. The one outstanding issue facing our industry is “professionalism”. We have some fantastic committed and motivated people in our industry, our physical product is getting better and better, the awareness of New Zealand has never been higher – it’s time to lift our game, not just to be world class but to be able to deliver a conference or incentive that is the best in the world.
Q. What do you see happening in the future?
A. What I would like to see happening [in the future] is a maturing of our industry and product to ensure we achieve the above!

Jo has held several sales positions since starting at the convention centre in 1999. She started out as the Christchurch sales executive, progressing to cover New Zealand, Asia, Australia and now further afield. She has also worked under two management companies NCC (New Zealand) Ltd and now Vbase Venue Management Group during this time. Before joining the convention and incentive industry she worked in banking for Westpac. She is currently on the committee for the Centre for Excellence, the educational committee for ICCRM in Perth and is an Associate Fellow of Meetings & Events Australia (MEA).

Q. What is the one outstanding issue facing our industry at the present time?
A. The vulnerability of the NZ dollar is an ever-lurking influence on our industry. The present predictions for a drop in the $NZ’s value offers us an internationally competitive advantage in that an exotic and exciting destination provides even greater value for money. I would also like to make mention of the international standards of our venues, infrastructure, technology, professional goods and services. I am confident that what we offer is on par with the rest of the developed world.
Q. And what do you see happening in the future?
A. The falling dollar makes NZ an even more attractive destination, and enables MICE providers even more opportunity to create a truly memorable experience at a really affordable price. It also means that the top-shelf products, accommodation, activities and transport options are more available to a wider range of international visitors. That gives us an excellent selling strength and creates a win-win situation. Visitors benefit by being able to have stronger buying power, and in NZ we benefit by having more business visitors.
And picking up on the international standard of our venues, we can confidently offer facilities that will meet every requirement from clients used to excellent venues and services. Again, this excellence and quality comes at a great price for international clients when the $NZ gives them even stronger purchasing power.

Alison Smith has had 25 years’ experience in the hospitality industry in New Zealand and has been a major part of the transformation of tourism in New Zealand. She has responsibility for conference and incentives sales across all 31 New Zealand Millennium, Copthorne and Kingsgate properties. For the past 16 years she has worked in the conference and incentive sales market, and with her previous conference management experience she brings a depth of knowledge and understanding to the market place. Her charismatic style and superior sales skills combined with her dedication to achieve have resulted in Millennium Hotels & Resorts becoming a leading multi-destinational conference and incentive choice.

Q. What is the one outstanding issue facing the C&I industry in New Zealand right now?
A. A key issue is the recent change in the trans-Tasman air travel market structures, where we have seen a shift away from a full service model and the rise of low cost carriers. This presents a challenge for conference organisers trying to attract more Australian business to the New Zealand market.
Although we have yet to see the exact structure, we fear that the new trans-Tasman code-share for Air New Zealand and Qantas may result in a decrease in the number of weekly trans-Tasman flights operated by the two airlines. With both carriers signalling an increase in load factors it is possible that airfares may increase and that fewer seats will be available at peak demand periods. Low cost carriers, while adding a significant number of seats, cater mostly for the leisure market. It is difficult to block book seats on these airlines for conference groups, and flight schedules often do not suit our Australian convention and incentive business visitors.
Q. What do you see happening in the future?
A. Airlines serving the trans-Tasman market will come to recognise the lucrative conference market and its specific needs, and provide services to suit.
With the opening of Rotorua’s Energy Events Centre, and new runway extensions at Rotorua airport now underway, convention business from across the Tasman will be highly attracted to this region. Direct flights from Australia into Rotorua are a possibility within the next year. Previously Australian travellers had to fly through Hamilton or Auckland. Regular trans-Tasman flights would be a huge boost for Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty region.