As Wellington prepares for the dawn of an exciting new conference and exhibition future, it’s apt that one of the first events confirmed for Tākina is Festival for the Future – a multi-day conference with more than 1200 delegates.
Festival for the Future founder Guy Ryan says Tākina ticked all the boxes and opened exciting opportunities to build the Festival into a world-class event as it scales up in 2023.
“The Festival is a showcase of what’s possible – of leadership and innovation for the big issues of our time. The opening of Tākina is a really exciting opportunity to attract global talent, host powerful in-person experiences and showcase the best that Wellington has to offer.
“Covid has been crazy for the events sector. We transformed the Festival into a virtual summit that attracted attendees from 57 countries. Being amongst the first to book out Tākina for 2023 gives us lead-up time to test hybrid experiences and bring the best of local and global together. We can’t wait.”
WellingtonNZ General Manager David Perks says Tākina will be a major asset for Wellington as New Zealand’s arts and creative capital.
“Despite organisations being nervous about any future impacts of Covid-19, WellingtonNZ is receiving a steady stream of Tākina booking enquiries.
“They have been reassured to find that construction on Tākina is on time, on budget and on track to provide something special in the capital.”
Mr Perks says with Wellington being the capital city, home to parliament, and to have a purpose built conference and exhibition is a mix made in convention and exhibition heaven.
“Wellington is expecting a very good 2021 in terms of hosting business events. The latest Tourism NZ industry research reveals 55 per cent of associations planning a conference next year plan to host it in Wellington.
“A number of clients who originally planned conferences in other destination for 2021 have stated access to government officials and Wellington’s central location as key reasons to move their conference to the Capital. We expect that interest to intensify as the opening of Tākina nears.”
Work started on Tākina in 2019. Since then the multi-storey, 18,000 sqm, purpose-built facility has risen like a phoenix on its prime CBD harbourside location within walking distance to a raft of restaurants, eateries, bars and hotels.
It will have 10,000sqm of conference space for up to 1600 people, a 2500 sqm exhibition floor, two large, flexible plenary halls and meeting rooms, and a gala dinner capacity of 1400 people.
A vibrant ground floor public gallery and café space with two main entrances on Cable and Wakefield streets ensures a warm welcome to all visitors.
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