Rotorua's Energy Events Centre is central to the city's ability to host Meetings 2011 and the venue stands to gain significant business from next week's event.
Events & Venues Rotorua sales and marketing manager Brett Jeffery said the hosting opportunity was huge for the city.
"I don't think people realise quite how
big this event is and how important it is to have it here. This will bring in continuing business for the next 36 months."
Mr Jeffery said the high-yielding conference and incentives market was the key to the long-term financial viability of the centre and hosting Meetings there was a fantastic opportunity to promote it.
"The spend from this type of delegate is on average double that of a regular independent visitor to Rotorua. International conference delegates offer an even better return for Rotorua and we are finally on the map with this type of international conferencing."
Opened in February 2007, the 8255sq m Energy Events Centre cost $28 million and has the capacity to host more than 5600 guests for cocktails or 4000 in a theatre-style arrangement. It was built specifically to cater for conferences, exhibitions, sports and cultural events, functions and gala dinners and Jeffery said it had delivered on all those expectations.
It has gone from hosting no international conferences in 2010 to having seven confirmed for the next two years, including the International Lameness in Ruminants conference in March to the High Performance Concrete Symposium in August and the International Health Related Microbiology Conference in September.
Jeffery said these international events were worth more than $3.4 million to Rotorua.
Events & Venues has also secured four other international conferences for 2012 and 2013 plus another three that were still "under wraps".
But he said the expo itself was just the first step and needed to lead into strong follow up and the building of good relationships with key people.
