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Rotorua Energy Events Centre

Bookings are steadily rolling in for the Rotorua Energy Events Centre, set for completion at the end of this year. The $25 million lakeside conference, events and exhibition centre made headlines a couple of months ago when it was announced as the venue for TRENZ 2007. New Zealand’s biggest annual tourism industry tradeshow is usually held in Auckland or Christchurch but the Energy Events Centre has attracted the event into regional New Zealand. The centre is currently taking shape in Government Gardens, immediately behind Rotorua’s iconic ‘Bath House’ museum building. Scheduled to open on January 31, 2007, it will be the seventh venue managed by Event Venues Rotorua, which also manages the Rotorua Convention Centre, Soundshell, International Stadium, Civic Theatre, Sportsdrome, and Te Runanga Tea House. When completed in late 2006, the Energy Events Centre will be capable of hosting large conferences in a series of flexible multi-purpose meeting spaces and will have the capacity to accommodate a fully seated banquet for 2600 diners in its Unison Arena. This versatile space will be the largest indoor exhibition venue in the city, and will have the capacity to be transformed into a centre court sports venue with hi-tech timber flooring and automated retractable seating for around 3000 spectators.

Event Venues sales and marketing manager Diana Moore said the centre has already attracted a number of quality conferences. These include the Building Officials Conference in April 2007, the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners conference and the Young Farmers Contest – both in July 2007 – and the Early Childhood Education Convention in September 2007. The Young Farmers Contest is to be televised nationally while the Early Childhood Convention anticipates up to 2000 delegates.
Meanwhile construction of the centre is in full swing, Compass Group has been appointed as the resident caterer, and a marketing consortium with key operators in the C&I industry has been formed. Called the Premier Marketing Partners, the group’s first joint activity was to host a function in early May, inviting senior representatives of local clubs and organisations on a discovery tour of the centre and its surrounds.

Mystery Creek Events Centre

Mystery Creek Events Centre, just outside Hamilton, has developed a new website which was launched at the end of May, as a response to feedback from clients, visitors and staff. The feedback also revealed there was a need to update all of Mystery Creek Event Centre’s five event and product sites. The NZ National Motor Show website was launched in September 2005 as stage one of the redevelopments by Tauranga-based Cohesion Communications Ltd. The NZ National Fieldays website was next on the list, with the launch on March 1 in plenty of time for the 38th National Fieldays event held every year in June. Checkout the new website at www.mysterycreek.co.nz

Meanwhile, one of two new large conferences secured by Mystery Creek Events Centre this year ran without a hitch. The NZ Large Herd Association held its three-day conference and gala dinner for 450 delegates at the centre in May. More than 60 exhibitors attended the conference which finished with a black-tie gala dinner at the centre. On June 14-17 National Fieldays, the largest agricultural tradeshow in the Southern Hemisphere, descended on Mystery Creek. The four-day show was even bigger this year, attracting more than 1000 exhibitors and up to 115,000 visitors. And for the first time, the National Secondary Schools Kapa Haka Competition is being held at Mystery Creek, on July 18-20. The event is so large it will be the first time the centre has used its pavilion and convention centre in tandem to accommodate 8100 seated guests, focused around a stage. The competition attracts a staggering 1200 performers.

Auckland Convention Centre at THE EDGE®

A recent customer survey of Auckland Convention Centre at THE EDGE® clients showed an impressive 90 per cent positively rate their experience at the venue. Of these, 96 per cent of MICE clients said their experiences met or exceeded expectations. According to THE EDGE® sales and marketing director Grace Tsang the main reasons given for this were the experience provided by the staff (41 per cent) and that the event was well planned, delivered as promised or was a success (56 per cent).
“This is a credit to our staff and our services,” Ms Tsang said.
“Auckland Convention Centre at THE EDGE® always aspires to exceed customer expectations and to be the best, in any event.”
Auckland Convention Centre at THE EDGE® comprises Aotea Centre, The Civic, Auckland Town Hall and Aotea Square. The 2005 Stakeholder Satisfaction Survey was carried out by research agency Market Pulse International.
“That so many clients based their decision to use Auckland Convention Centre at THE EDGE® on its suitability is testament to the exceptional facilities and services we have developed,” Ms Tsang said.
Auckland Convention Centre at THE EDGE® can hold 2256 delegates in tiered plenary, 190 exhibitions booths and 11 concurrent breakout sessions. Meanwhile, planned repairs to the civic carpark underneath Aotea Square could cancel events booked at Aotea Centre for up to two years.

SKYCITY Auckland Convention Centre

SKYCITY Auckland Convention Centre has been named winner of the Corporate Events Guide Auckland’s Convention Centre 2006 award. It’s the first year the Guide, distributed biannually to more than 30,000 businesses and event organisers, has issued the awards after touring more than 800 venues and companies which support the event planning industry in New Zealand. The Guide also surveyed event organisers who had held events at the venues to record their responses and score each venue or company accordingly. SKYCITY marketing manager Jill Birch said the Corporate Events Guide is widely recognised as the leading events directory in New Zealand for professional event planners.
“As such this is a very exciting achievement for SKYCITY’s new convention centre,” Ms Birch said.
“The award reinforces our industry leading product and customer service standards, adding an additional reassurance for those wishing to book an event or function with us,” she said.
According to the Corporate Events Guide NZ events director Stuart Macklin, SKYCITY Auckland Convention Centre was chosen for a variety of reasons including its modern facilities, outstanding people, central city location and amount of positive feedback from clients.
“SKYCITY would have been visited randomly and anonymously by a member of the New Zealand Events team during recent months. The high level of hospitality, knowledge, technical expertise and kindness were a few of the many contributing factors which made SKYCITY the overall 2006 winner,” he said.

Wellington Convention Centre

Business is so good at Wellington Convention Centre that some conferences have had to be turned away because the centre is solidly booked. Wellington Convention Centre business development manager Elsa Bradbury says the centre is going from strength-to-strength with 25 per cent of its bookings for conferences of more than 700 delegates, in the next 12 months.
“We’re winning a large number of conferences for Wellington ,” Ms Bradbury said.
“We’ve got more than 50 conferences booked over the next year and we’ve had a very successful year so far.”
Even more encouraging is a conference booked at the centre in what is usually the business tourism’s shoulder season, in December. The centre then picks up again in January in spite of this being one of the industry’s slower months. On top of that the amount of people attending the conferences is also burgeoning.
“When I first started here numbers were much smaller. Now we’re doing conferences for between 200 and 1200 people on a regular basis.”
Another plus is the amount of international business the centre is fielding. Ms Bradbury said the centre recently won a bid to host the Haemotology-Myoloma Conference in January 2007, with more than 500 delegates expected.
“It’s the first time it has been held outside the United States.”
Another international meet to be held in Wellington is The 7th International Conference on Medical Regulation 2006, happening between November 11 and 14 this year.
“We’ve just been back-to-back with conferences. And we are currently working on about five major international conferences that should confirm for Wellington.
“I think the most important thing is being consistent. I’ve actually had to turn some (conferences) away which is amazing.”
Meanwhile the Wellington Events Centre will again host the Wellington Conference Expo on October 18, where more than 80 exhibitors from the Wellington, Wairarapa, Martinborough and Marlborough region will show off their C&I capabilities to invited buyers. This year the event will host Australian buyers.

Christchurch Convention Centre

The Christchurch Convention Centre has hosted a number of high profile events this year including Meetings 2006, on July 19 and 20. Other recent conferences in the centre included the IHC National Conference from June 30 to July 2 with 300 delegates, and at the Westpac Centre on June 12-15 was TRENZ, New Zealand’s most significant annual international tourism tradeshow. Coming up at the convention centre on September 21-23 is the Electrical Contractor’s Association Conference and the 2006 Tax Conference on October 5-7 with 250 delegates. The centre has also hosted the International Inner Wheel 13th Convention with 1400 delegates in May.

This year the centre announced it will host delegates from 176 countries at the prestigious World Heritage Convention 2007, with an expected 600-800 pax. The direct local economic impact will be in excess of $3 million, with immeasurable international media exposure for the host city and nation.