The awards will be held every two years in a metro city, to encourage participation, and will be open to anyone running a business event in New Zealand.
Announced by Megan Crum, head of business events at ChristchurchNZ – a Business Events Industry Aotearoa (BEIA) member – the program is an initiative of the association and will be held in conjunction with every second BEIA conference, which runs annually.
“It’s a real privilege to announce the introduction of the awards because as we know business events contribute so much to our economy but also to the social fabric of the communities that we all live and work in,” said Crum.
“It’s completely appropriate now for us to recognise the contribution and success and effort with the introduction of these awards and it’s another milestone for us as a business events sector in New Zealand.
“The vision is three fold. Firstly, to elevate the profile of the business events industry and showcase their events’ value and the value they bring to the economy and…the longer legacy and impacts that they have on our communities.
“The second vision for the awards is to celebrate and reward those colleagues and organisations leading the way with outstanding achievements, promoting innovation, collaboration, diversity and congeniality across our sector.
“And the third is to create a lasting legacy from the awards by establishing an independent trust who will distribute the surplus – because there will be a surplus – in support of the BE community, its people and its projects.”
The awards will be overseen by an independent industry committee.
“The added involvement of these committees will further increase transparency, accountability and integrity across the awards process,” said Crum.
The awards have been a long time in the making – they were first envisaged by previous BEIA chief executive Sue Sullivan and, according to Crum, more recently championed by “by a passionate group of industry professionals and stakeholders”.
“For us, for our organisation, I feel the launch of our industry’s 10-year strategic direction, which underscores our dedication to celebrating outstanding achievements, diversity and elevating the business events sector, the timing and the introduction of these awards is really well aligned,” said Crum.
“The first of the national business events awards will take place in Auckland in 2025 and will mark the beginning of a new tradition celebrating the best of our business events sector,” she said.
