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New Zealand’s biggest business event trade show has kicked off in Rotorua for the first time in 13 years, presenting a “huge opportunity” for local businesses.
Meetings 2024, a two-day event held at the Energy Events Centre, opened with a pōhiri at the Sir Howard Morrison Centre on Tuesday and was expected to host more than 1000 industry buyers and sellers.
Award-winning international leadership speaker Ngahi Bidois said the trade show was a vital networking opportunity for him as a local contractor.
“Meetings is the biggest event for people who are organising conferences and organising events in New Zealand,” Bidois said.
“Meetings is about relationships and developing those relationships. I’ve been coming to these for a few years, and it’s just so good for us as an industry to know each other and to be able to support each other as well.”
The Business Events Industry Aotearoa (BEIA) conference, now in its 28th year, would host hundreds of buyers looking to spend money on Aotearoa-based events businesses such as Skyline Rotorua and Agrodome Rotorua.
Arriving from North America, Hong Kong, Australia, and Singapore on Tuesday, they joined more than 150 buyers from New Zealand.
Tourism and hospitality students from Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology in Rotorua were also there.
BEIA chief executive Lisa Hopkins said the event was an “economic driver” and every region of New Zealand would be represented under one roof.
She said business events delivered investment, jobs, and economic growth, as well as giving people a reason to visit New Zealand and “providing a welcome counter cycle of seasonality to leisure tourism”.
Andrew Wilson, chief executive of tourism and economic development agency Rotorua NZ saidlocal businesses such as Terrace Catering, Motion Entertainment, Polynesian Spa, and many others would host stalls and benefit from the trade show.
Australian guests are welcomed at Rotorua Airport ahead of Meetings 2024.
He said Rotorua NZ’s business events team had secured $10 million over their targets for the past three years, as the city rebounded from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The success of Rotorua within this competitive market can be attributed to our high-quality, award-winning local operators, the manaakitanga [hospitality, generosity] of our community, and the strong, authentic delivery of cultural experiences — something which is high on every organiser’s must-have list,” Wilson said.
“Our community stands to benefit for years to come from this huge opportunity to showcase who we are and what we offer.”
Also hosting a stall this year is Te Puia Te Puia New ZealandMāori Arts and Crafts Institute. Chief executive Tim Cossar said tourism in Rotorua is “building back post-pandemic”.
“We have made many changes to our experience and we continue to bed these in. For us, it is more about quality than quantity these days and delivering consistently great experiences to manuhiri [visitors] remains the core mission on the tourism side of our operation.”
Cossar said the latter half of 2024, economically, would be tight domestically as interest rates remained high, ”impacting on consumers’ discretionary spend alongside persistently high inflation pushing the cost of living up”.
Minister for Trade Todd McClay said it has been a “tough few years”post-Covid and given the current recession, the continued success of “Kiwi businesses is testament to their hard work and resilience”.
He said the government is focused on building the economy, lowering domestic prices allowing “New Zealand to sell more and earn more”, and cutting regulations inhibiting exporters and small business owners.
“My advice to businesses and trade stall owners at the expo would be to use it as an opportunity to build those connections and know that your Government is working to lower your costs and carve our greater market access overseas,” McClay said.
The event was one of the 29 conferences booked at the Energy Events Centre this year, which the Rotorua Daily Post previously reported were expected to give a $7m boost to the economy.
Tegan Hignett (left) and Warren Harvey are part of the business events sales team for Rotorua's Energy Event Centre. Photo / Aleyna Martinez
The centre’s business events sales manager Warren Harvey said corporate events were huge for them, and their guests tended to spend more.
“The average tourist will spend about $250 to $300 a day. The average business events person coming in here spends about $450 to $500 a day.”
”Restaurants are normally filled when there’s a large conference like this.”
