Support ensures Integrated Care congress is in good health

More than 500 health practitioners, researchers, clinicians and policymakers across the health and social care sectors from Asia Pacific, Europe, the US and across New Zealand are expected to attend the 4th World Congress on Integrated Care. The event, co-hosted by General Practice New Zealand (GPNZ) and the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) will take place November 23-25, 2016 at TSB Arena and Shed 6, Wellington. Tourism New Zealand has helped spark a chain of activity around the world that will encourage international delegates to attend and open up a raft of opportunities to benefit local association members.

GPNZ Chair Shelley Frost says the decision to bid for the event came after New Zealand members received the residual benefits of Sydney hosting the 2nd World Congress in 2014. “GPNZ hosted a two-day event that saw a number of the keynote speakers stop in Wellington en route home to Europe and the UK from Sydney. The idea of getting support for our bid was underway. We initially made contact with Positively Wellington and they introduced us to the benefits of working with Tourism New Zealand.”

International reach

Through its Conference Assistance Programme, TNZ prepared bid material incorporating a special promotional booklet including a letter of introduction from Frost, a letter of support from the Mayor of Wellington, and a draft programme and draft budget. Frost received funding support for travel and accommodation to deliver the bid to the IFIC board in Edinburgh in person. The result was a win for New Zealand, beating interest from other nations. “The promotional video was outstanding really, it drew people in and really presented our country well,” Frost notes. “And the Foundation was very impressed with the presentation and standard of the document; so much so, that they are now using it as a template for future events.”

Post-win, Tourism New Zealand has offered ongoing support. “We can’t make the 3rd World Congress in Mexico in November in person because it coincides with the GPNZ AGM, but TNZ is assisting with promotional material to be presented there on our behalf, including an update of the video welcoming delegates to New Zealand, and Save the Date cards for a seat drop,” Frost notes. “They are also helping with material for a stand at the International Conference on Integrated Care in Barcelona in May. We really want to hit that event hard to get more European delegates coming over here to New Zealand. We are looking at silver fern badges and other innovative ways to attract people to this side of the world.”

TNZ’s support has extended to local assistance, too. Organisers particularly wanted to host the event in Wellington to ensure key policy makers would be able to attend and be exposed to the international visitors. “TNZ also supported our attendance at the ‘Show Me Wellington’ event, which really opened up our eyes to what the city can offer and ways we can ‘jazz up’ our conference experience,” Frost adds. “Wellington is a great little city. There are a lot of opportunities. We will hold our conference dinner at the marae at Te Papa which will provide such a lovely, unique cultural flavour for our international visitors.”

Local benefits

Frost adds that the benefits of hosting the event are two-fold: “We in New Zealand learn from the world leaders in healthcare; plus we have the opportunity to showcase our own initiatives and put our GPNZ member networks on the world stage. New Zealand has a very good health system, and our meso-level primary care networks in particular are the envy of many other health systems.

“As well as networking opportunities and relationship building, we can hopefully build up future research partnerships,” Frost continues. “We are also looking to set up an exchange programme with the UK and host visiting delegations from other countries to come and look at what we are doing in this field. We are also looking at options pre and post-conference including a possible study tour of New Zealand which could see delegates travel into the regions. So as well as the conference proper, it has opened up a whole raft of other opportunities. Added to that, we are developing an Asia Pacific hub for IFIC and this will cement New Zealand’s role within that.”

Unexpected support

Frost sings the praises of the support from Tourism New Zealand - and only wishes she had been aware of it earlier. “We had no idea of the benefits open to us. GPNZ has hosted a number of conferences without any understanding of the support that is possible,”she says. “TNZ has been such an proactive, easy group to work with. Nothing was a problem for them. They were so professional, they met challenging deadlines at times and adapted their existing documentation and materials to the health sector and to our organisation. It will be a long-term relationship.”