The New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) will open on February 11, 2026 – the closing day of the Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME).
It is the last in a trifecta of convention centres to open for Australia’s nearest neighbour, following the debut of Te Pae Christchurch in 2022 and Tākina in Wellington in 2023.
When it opens, the NZICC will offer 32,500m2 of space, including a 2,850-seat theatre and 6,708m2 of multipurpose hall space. The convention centre can be divided into 33 meeting spaces at one time.
The venue currently has 121 events confirmed to take place in 2026. International events locked in for the venue next year are valued at $28 million in terms of the economic impact of delegate spend.
micenet spoke to the NZICC’s general manager, Prue Daly, today about preparations currently underway ahead of the venue’s opening. The team moved into the building early last month.
“It’s a pretty exciting time. We’ve been waiting a while for this,” she said.
“We’ve got new people at the moment starting every day.
“We’ve had a bit of time to plan what this period of time looked like for us as a team and what we needed to get done and how we wanted to do it.
“And so now [the team are] just executing this plan and it feels very calm, very organised, super focused.
She says the team are busy unpacking more than 100,000 loose items that will be involved in servicing events in the convention centre – from teaspoons to chairs and lecterns.
“We start test events this week. And so that’ll bring a whole new level of findings for us, of how we run events in the building, but also really exciting milestones.”
The first test event is a cocktail event this evening. Altogether there will be around 30 test events ahead of February 11, including events to recruit the 300 casual staff the NZICC is expecting to have on board by the time the venue opens.
“We’re trying to do different types of events that test different things within the building,” says Daly.
The NZICC has had a particularly long road to opening, after a significant roof fire in late 2019 during what was supposed to be the closing stages of construction, set back the project considerably, before pandemic restrictions caused further delays to completion.
“It does feel a bit surreal, but honestly, it feels very energised and just happy. Everyone’s just excited,” Daly says of finally being in the building.
