With the New Zealand business events industry experiencing a positive upswing in the post-pandemic landscape, the Business Events Industry Aotearoa (BEIA) is charting a course for continued growth with a focus on collaboration, and attracting young talent.

The Tākina Wellington Convention & Exhibition Centre, Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre, and the soon-to-open New Zealand International Convention Centre in Auckland have led the charge, boosting the nation’s business events profile.

On the sidelines of the recently-concluded Meetings 2024 in Rotorua, Business Events Industry Aotearoa’s CEO Lisa Hopkins shared with TTGmice the industry’s resilience and strategies to navigate the way forward despite challenges.

She elaborated: “We are dealing with some financial headwinds from the government, and overall, spend is down and people are thinking carefully about where they want to invest and those considerations extend into whether a conference should be held or not. The financial situation is not as rosy as we’d like it to be, but we know it’s a cycle and we’ll push through this.”

As a lean organisation, BEIA fosters collaboration through partnerships with other stakeholders, ensuring efficient use of manpower and expertise. For instance, the association works closely with the Ringa Hora Service Workforce Development Council to develop vocational education and training for the business events sector.

Hopkins emphasised that the industry goes far beyond just needing people who are good at organisation. The business events sector offers a diverse range of exciting opportunities, from creative roles to financial analysis.

BEIA has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with New Zealand Māori Tourism, an independent incorporated society that promotes, helps and leads the Māori tourism sector to create rich cultural visitor experiences.

“Māori tourism is New Zealand’s superpower; we’re the only country in the world where you can experience it. For example, the passion and the emotion displayed (during the welcome ceremony) at Meetings 2024 in Rotorua helps to tie visitors and welcome them to this country,” she said.

Hopkins also addressed “business events fatigue”, given that there are a multitude of conferences around the globe vying for attention, delegates must be given a compelling reason to attend one in New Zealand.

“It’s really important to find something that can be related back to the destination, like Māori tourism. But giving people a compelling reason to visit New Zealand could also be related to the content,” Hopkins.

She related how New Zealand is the fourth largest player in the world in the aerospace sector, but “nobody knows about it”. In 2023, the country hosted seven rocket launches, and Judith Collins became the country’s first space minister after the government was elected in October.

Having joined BEIA as CEO six weeks before New Zealand’s first lockdown, Hopkins noted that both the association and industry have come a long way. She expressed her deep satisfaction with her role as CEO, and her continued work for maximising the country’s potential as a top-of-mind business events destination.

“Having been in this industry for a long time, I still love the constant change and development. My passion continues to be making sure that New Zealand can maximise and seize every opportunity it can to use business events as a catalyst to improve communities and provide jobs.

“We have so much to offer, and so much to share, we just got to believe so much more in ourselves. To be part of a sector that greatly contributes to the betterment of the country would be a fantastic career for me,” she concluded.