Government funding helps win bids to bring international conferences to Waikato

Have you ever attended an international convention and wanted to bring that convention to New Zealand?

Well, thanks to Tourism New Zealand’s (TNZ) Conference Assistance Programme (CAP) you might just be able to do that.

CAP is a fund available to all associations and organisations that are wanting to bid and host an international conference in New Zealand. To be eligible, the bid must be for a minimum of 200 delegates.

Business events bid manager Leonie Ashford said it was a fund that the government had set up to assist academics and researchers to bring conferences to New Zealand for further education.

“It’s to also think about the long-term benefits for the region, and the social change and impacts for the community.” 

She said the more conferences they brought because of the bids they won, the better they got in terms of winning.

“We learn what will tick the boxes to bring it to New Zealand.”

Leonie said they were bringing people from all around the world to Waikato and throughout New Zealand.

“Our experts will talk someone through how to bring people here and take all the pain out of the process. When we are winning conference bids against Singapore, Paris or Prague, we are winning because our local hosts are experts at what they do.

“For the locals, it’s fabulous because a lot of the younger people who wouldn’t normally get to travel to a conference get to benefit from the expertise of international experts.”

She said the fund was there to work with local experts, and working with them to ensure we are able to bring conferences to New Zealand, but once a conference was confirmed to come they let the organiser do the rest.

“But we do apply for additional funding to help with the promotion. We are a long way away from other countries where the conferences might be coming from so sometimes people need a hand to get the word out,” Leonie said.

The fund is set up to assist in with a number of things including financial feasibility to determine the viability of hosting the event, bidding documents, presentations and videos. 

And if needed, as part of the bidding process TNZ could also develop bid documents, bid presentations and even bespoke bidding video content.

CAP could also help cover travel costs, such as the cost of flights, accommodation, and conference registration if an international bid presentation is required.

The programme could also provide access to engaging promotional resources and help create a bespoke marketing programme designed to attract delegates once a bid is won and financial support. 

CAP could even help with co-ordination of visits to venues, hotels, social activities and attractions that may be used or promoted during a conference.

TNZ’s Hamilton and Waikato representative Jessica Vandy said if anyone in the Waikato wanted to know more about bidding they could contact her directly at jessica.vandy@tnz.govt.nz or 021 501 011.

Jessica works in partnership with Amanda Graham from Hamilton and Waikato Tourism on international conference bids for the region. She said TNZ had the fund and Amanda supported the conference bid activity, including co-ordinating clients and hosting site visits in the region.

More information on the programme and the bid process can be found at https://businessevents.newzealand.com/en/help-and-support/bid-assistance/.

Photo: Amanda Graham and Jessica Vandy with Hamilton and Waikato international conference hosts Nihal Kularatna and Sally-Jo Cunningham from the University of Waikato. Supplied.

Conferences coming to the Waikato over the next 12 months:

• International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL) at the University of Waikato with Sally Jo Cunningham on 15/11/2018. https://icadl2018.org/ 
• Australasian Association for Engineering Education Annual Conference (AAEE) at the University of Waikato and Wintec with Janis Swan and Trudy Harris on 1/12/2018. http://www.aaee2018.com/mihi-welcome/
• Native American & Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA), at the University of Waikato with Brendan Hokowhitu on 10/06/2019. https://naisa2019.waikato.ac.nz/
• IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (TRUSTCOM), at the University of Waikato with Ryan Ko on 01/08/2019. https://crow.org.nz/TrustCom2019
• 
  International Conference on Polar and Alpine Microbiology (PAM), at the University of Waikato with Craig Cary on 23/09/2019. https://www.confer.nz/pam2019/