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Auckland’s newest piece of events infrastructure is living up to the hype, according to Business Events Industry Aotearoa chief executive Lisa Hopkins, who says the New Zealand International Convention Centre has already become the glue of the city’s business events.
“The NZICC is obviously the icing on the top layer on the cake that is our international convention centres,” Lisa says.
She says the venue has opened the door to a wider range of events than Auckland could previously host.
“And what it’s enabled us to do, it’s enabled us to be able to go after different conventions, sizes and scale,” she says. “So now we’ve got the really big convention centre open. So, we can now accommodate that.”
Lisa is also a fan of the building itself.
“But it is a beautiful building. It’s right in the centre of the city,” she says.
She says the proof of NZICC’s value has come from this year’s MEETINGS event, which has been run entirely within the new venue.
“The infrastructure’s all there. I think the fact that we’re able to host all of the meetings elements this year in this one building has been amazing,” she says. “It really was the one thing that Auckland needed.”
It’s a result Lisa says the sector pushed hard for.
“BIA advocated for a convention centre in Auckland,” she says. “And we’re just thrilled that we’re here and we’ve got MEETINGS and we’ll be here for the next three years, which is going to be fantastic.”
That confidence extends to Auckland’s standing on the world stage. Asked whether global instability is hurting the city’s ability to attract international events, Lisa says no.
“I think Auckland has everything in place, or soon will have everything in place, that needs to attract the kind of conventions that you would expect to come to a major city,” she says.
She points to recent gains closer to home as evidence the strategy is working.
“I think that we obviously have to look a little bit closer to home perhaps first. And certainly, we’ve done a great job of that,” says Lisa. “Auckland has done a great job of that. Expanding perhaps into Asia as well, and North America.”
Looking ahead, she expects more traction from international to follow.
“But I think as time goes by, things will start to smooth out and stabilise. And we’ll get back into that rhythm of having the right air connections coming into Auckland,” she says. “Which will mean that we’ll see a lot more international visitors from perhaps the Northern Hemisphere coming back in.”
She says New Zealand’s reputation continues to do much of the heavy lifting.
“I think New Zealand’s overall reputation as a really safe and stable country does it proud, and is a great reason for people to come to the country.”
With the NZICC now embedded in the city’s offering, Lisa says BEIA’s focus is on building on that platform including securing greater recognition of the sector’s value from government.
“We’re not the solution, but we are a vehicle to finding solutions for various issues,” she says. “And we’re looking for government to understand that, recognise that and utilise this tool.” she says.
