Wellington challenges New Zealand and the world is facing — from climate emissions , gene editing , scaling New Zealand technology for the world , venture capital funding trends , talent attraction and Aotearoa ’ s competitive advantages .
The organisers certainly seemed happy with the outcome : “ Wellington is perfect as a conference destination – the city has all the ingredients , from the diverse groups of people to attend , plus government and it ’ s just an easy place to move around ,” says BioTechNZ executive director Zahra Champion .
“ With government based in Wellington , alongside other sectors of strength , it was also easy to bring speakers in – Callaghan Innovation and Victoria University of Wellington were fantastic to work with and Malaghan Institute helped create content , pulling a number of their speakers together which added integrity to the content ,” Champion added .
“ We are excited about coming back – Wellington is not only easy to get to , but everything is in walking distance , there are fantastic places to eat and drink , and it ’ s just a beautiful city .”
Held at Shed 6 , next year ’ s summit is destined for Wellington ’ s new conference and exhibition centre , Tãkina .
The venue ’ s operator Tãkina Events notes that there are more than 100 events on the calendar for the first year , the majority of which are multi-day conferences between 300 and 1,000 delegates
The ground-floor public Exhibition Gallery will open on 3 June with the LEGO ® interactive exhibition , Jurassic World by Brickman ® on display .
And the venue is projecting 500,000 people will visit Tãkina in its first year based on the line-up of conferences and events already in place .
Advocacy Wellington is continuing to build its advocate programme to support the city in attracting international conferences , with the addition of five new ambassadors in key fields , from health to earth science and design .
They join a group of academics and members of national associations across a range of disciplines who bid for and help attract international conferences to New Zealand ’ s capital city .
“ The internationally recognised expertise of these thought leaders and their organisations play a major role in attracting international conferences to Wellington and showcasing our research and innovation on the world stage ,” says Irette Ferreira .
The five new ‘ ambassadors ’ welcomed by the Wellington Advocate Network are :
• Dr Jessica Mills – president Psychosocial Oncology New Zealand
• Dr Nadia Pantidi – lecturer in interaction design at the School of Design Innovation , Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University ( VUW )
• Mark Lawrence – senior geologist GNS Science
• Dr Lee Davidson – associate professor , Museum & Heritage Studies , VUW
• Paul Atkins , CEO of the Royal Society Te Apãrangi .
VUW ’ s Dr Nadia Pantidi was instrumental in bidding for OzCHI 2023 , the International Annual Conference on Computer Human Interaction . She says : “ This is an opportunity to bring people over and showcase the excellent and diverse research we do in the area of Human Computer Interaction , as well as what Aotearoa , New Zealand and specifically Wellington has to offer across several industries such as gaming , film , fine arts and tech start-ups .”
Dr Lee Davidson bid for and won the Conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies ( ACHS ) in 2026 .
Ferreira adds : “ We ’ re grateful to our new advocates for their time and support . We also encourage others to join them in bidding for conferences that will bring positive benefits to Wellington ’ s knowledge sectors , economy and society .”
The Wellington Advocate Network was launched by the bureau in 2022 to connect Wellington ’ s industry leaders and top academics , and to help attract international business events to the capital .
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