Latest / Best of Business / Catherine Beard: BusinessNZ Advocacy Director on the impact of conferences on the economy and the new International Convention Centre in Auckland

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Catherine Beard: BusinessNZ Advocacy Director on the impact of conferences on the economy and the new International Convention Centre in Auckland · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: You report out. This morning Show's business conference has contributed
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  Speaker 2: nearly a billion bucks to the Kebe economy last year.
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  Speaker 2: That's about one and a half million visitor nights with
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  Speaker 2: an average daily spend of six hundred and forty five dollars.
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  Speaker 2: Katherin Beard is Business Ends advocacy director, joining us this morning. Catherine,
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning. So this is from the ICs,
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  Speaker 2: the International Conventions Ender, the newly opened and conjunction with
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  Speaker 2: business events industry out here at oh So is this
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  Speaker 2: all just hype or is this real and tangible and
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  Speaker 2: a growing industry?
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  Speaker 1: Oh?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think it's absolutely real and tangible. And Auckland's
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  Speaker 3: been waiting a long time for the convention center, but
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  Speaker 3: it's predicted to add another three thirty three thousand visitors
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  Speaker 3: this year. So I think if you want to attract events,
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  Speaker 3: you've got to have good venues, and you've got to
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  Speaker 3: have them enough to take actually quite big conferences. So
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  Speaker 3: it's a little bit like stadium shows for big music acts.
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  Speaker 3: If you don't have the events and you can't draw
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  Speaker 3: the crowds, then you're going to miss out. So yeah,
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  Speaker 3: so it's a good thing. And of course all of
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  Speaker 3: that spending flows through to your hotels, your restaurants, your
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  Speaker 3: retail and your general tourism. So yeah, really positive. And
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  Speaker 3: I think New Zealand's also a bit of a bucket
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  Speaker 3: list destination for a lot of people. So if you're
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  Speaker 3: traveling around the world and you say where you're from,
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people go, look, I'm going to come
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  Speaker 3: there one day. So sometimes they just need a good
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  Speaker 3: old conference to get them here.
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  Speaker 2: Nothing like whacking it on the company credit card. What's
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  Speaker 2: better for a city having tourists who are here for
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  Speaker 2: a concerts, say for a weekend, or having a conference.
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  Speaker 2: Do people spend more via a conference than they would
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  Speaker 2: for a social activity.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, this survey indicates conference tends spend considerably more,
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  Speaker 3: just about double in some cases. So I think what
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  Speaker 3: you're seeing with a conference attend is, you know conferences
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  Speaker 3: can span a few days and also you know you've
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  Speaker 3: got to stay somewhere, right, so you need a hotel,
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  Speaker 3: you need to be eating out. I think if you
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  Speaker 3: maybe come here on a tourist boat, for example, you've
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  Speaker 3: got your accommodation and your food. So they yeah, they
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  Speaker 3: do spend very well. Conference attends brilliant.
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  Speaker 2: Well, let's look forward to more of that, especially in Auckland.
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  Speaker 2: Katherine Casthern, Beard's director of Advocacy at Business New Zealand.
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