The ICCA Business Workshop for the international destination marketing sector will see association executives planning large-scale conferences meet with convention bureaux who are members of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).
No doubt seeking to leverage the travel plans of those in the global meetings industry, the workshop will take place straight after the Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME) in Melbourne, which draws both destinations and conference organisers from all around the world to New Zealand’s nearest neighbour in February.
AIME 2026 will take place February 9 to 11, with the ICCA event running February 12 to 14 in Wellington. Contrasting with the thousands that attend AIME each year, ICCA’s workshop will be capped at 30 attendees – 15 association participants and an equal number of destination representatives.
“ICCA hosts this event all over the world; it has never been in New Zealand, so we bid for it and were thrilled when ICCA awarded it to us,” said Business Events Wellington manager Irette Ferreira.
“By hosting the workshop in Wellington, we not only get to meet international association executives in one-to-one business meetings, learn about their conferences and the opportunities to host them in Wellington, we also get to showcase our destination.
“We hope bureaus from the Asia Pacific region will use the opportunity to attend this workshop immediately after AIME and that bureaus from further afield would choose to visit this part of the world, too,” she said.
This will be the second New Zealand based event for ICCA in three years, with Christchurch hosting an ICCASkills Hub in September last year, offering two different three-day, in-person intensive courses for convention specialists.
“It’s incredible for ICCA to bring our Business Workshop to New Zealand for the first time,” said ICCA CEO, Senthil Gopinath.
“We’re excited to experience first-hand the opportunities for association conferences in the region and we look forward to continuing to develop relationships with organisations in Wellington and beyond.”
