Make a bid for success

Tourism New Zealand’s most successful year of conference wins to date will see more than 10,500 delegates visit New Zealand in the coming years, bringing an estimated $25 million to the local economy. The Tourism New Zealand Business Events Annual Awards Dinner, held recently in Auckland, celebrated this achievement – and acknowledged the people who made it happen, a group of 21 key industry and sector leaders from across New Zealand who were instrumental in bidding for the events.

Tourism New Zealand International Business Events and Premium Manager Lisa Gardiner says it’s great to see New Zealand winning international association conventions, and hopes to encourage yet more ‘conference champions’ to get involved and bid for events that will not only benefit the country, but also their organisation and industry sector.

“Much of this success comes down to the influential sector leaders who are putting their hands up to champion their field of expertise to attract key conventions to our shores,” she notes. “The business events awards dinner is about creating lasting relationships with these individuals so that they can continue to bid for international conferences and encourage their colleagues to do so as well.”

One of the attendees, Spencer Beasley, Clinical Director of the Department of Paediatric Surgery, Canterbury District Health Board, led the successful bid for the Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons Annual Scientific Congress 2019. “Winning this conference gives us a chance to showcase our specialty and its achievements internationally,” he says. “It increases our standing overseas and gives recognition to our contribution in both research and clinical areas. That may lead to all sorts of indirect benefits for us, including facilitating overseas training options for our trainees, as well as enhancing recruitment opportunities to New Zealand in an environment where there is a worldwide shortage of senior skilled people in our specialty. But most of all, we are proud of our country, and like to show it off to our overseas colleagues.”

Dr Davinia Thornley, Senior Lecturer, Department of Media, Film, and Communication at the University of Otago, played a major role in winning the Screenwriting Research Network 2017 International Conference. “This is an important gain for Dunedin on a number of fronts: artistic, cultural, and academic,” she says. “It will allow Otago's Humanities Division to showcase their strong research culture, in particular, the innovative work going on in the Department of Media, Film and Communication. I am especially keen to put a ‘New Zealand’ stamp on the material that’s covered at the conference, including possible keynotes by prominent local scriptwriters. I really want to introduce the SRN delegates to the incredible work being done by our national filmmakers.

“Obviously there’s the flow-on effect of tourism before and after the conference, but even more potential is in the cinematic connections that are made. For example, several of the SRN delegates are working filmmakers looking for ideas, collaborations or partnerships with creative personnel here in Dunedin. I foresee essential links being made between industry practitioners and academic researchers at SRN 2017, links that will continue to lift both Dunedin's and New Zealand’s image as creative frontrunners in the global film industry.”

Thornley notes the strong backing she received from Tourism New Zealand in winning the event, which included funding her trip to Germany to make the successful bid.

Tourism New Zealand has significantly increased its work in the business events sector in recent years, with its Conference Assistance Programme providing strategic funding and marketing support to those bidding for an international convention. In the year to June 2015, it reached a new milestone of 58 international conference bids. If successful, these bids will see an additional $97 million injected into the New Zealand economy.

Beasley agrees it is well worth partnering with Tourism New Zealand when making a bid for conference success: “TNZ were brilliant. Their knowledge, expertise and support gave us a huge advantage securing the conference for New Zealand. They function in a highly professional way, and took all the angst out of bidding for the event internationally. They get results - and good results at that!”