Conference trade ally for Dunedin
DUNEDIN has partnered with Hamilton in an alliance to attract professional and industry association conferences to both cities.
The collaboration is expected to increase the number of multiday conferences the cities host, Hamilton and Waikato Tourism business events manager Amanda Graham said at the Conventions and Incentives New Zealand (Cinz) conference yesterday.
The market is made up of the many professional and industry associations in New Zealand, from the likes of the scrap metal recycling industry to kitchen and bathroom manufacturers, or medical associations such as the Paediatric Society of New Zealand.
The Cinz conference itself is an example.
‘‘There’s associations for nearly everything,’’ Ms Graham said.
Those associations often had their conferences in both islands, usually year about, because members were spread throughout the country.
Because conference organisers were time poor, the two cities could come up with ‘‘smart solutions’’.
That could mean hosting joint functions, joint sales calls, or joining in on familiarisation visits for people considering the cities for their conferences.
The idea was ‘‘two destinations in one hit’’.
The cities were targeting conferences in the 200 to 600 delegate range.
Enterprise Dunedin business events adviser Bree Jones said the cities would rarely be in competition with each other, because of the northsouth rotation.
The idea was to help shorten the planning time of event organisers, and shorten the amount of time they put into making decisions about destinations.
The cities would pitch the concept to them, then have a dual destination familiarisation tour.
Mrs Jones said the two cities were recognised as ‘‘business events regions’’, both being university cities, but they had plenty of differences.
‘‘Conferences don’t want to go to samesame destinations each time, so we’ve also got real unique selling points as well.
She said the collaboration was also smart in terms of using budgets, as even if some did not pick up on the twocity offer, each region was still being promoted.
Ms Graham said the two cities were planning to cohost a function in Wellington, where many associations’ head offices were located, in a couple of months’ time.
She said each region was ‘‘very much our own’’ but there were strengths in collaborating.