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

The business events sector's working to bump up our international multi-day conferences, which are currently lagging behind domestic bookings. A Business Events Industry Aotearoa report shows events contributed $925 million to the economy last year. Multi-day conferences generated approximately 1.5-million visitor nights for accommodation, nationwide. BusinessNZ Advocacy Director Catherine Beard told Ryan Bridge if you want to attract events you have to have good venues that are big enough to take big conferences – like the new International Conference Centre in Auckland. She says it’s a bit like stadium shows for major music acts – if you don’t have the events and can’t draw the crowds, you’re going to miss out. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.