New Zealand will celebrate its first national business events awards in 2025, with a bi-annual event to be held in conjunction with the Business Events Industry Aotearoa (BEIA) conference.

The National Business Events Awards will recognise and reward outstanding achievements in the industry and promote excellence and innovation, collaboration and congeniality across the sector.

BEIA Chief Executive, Lisa Hopkins says they are excited to be acknowledging the people, the companies, and stakeholders who support the wider industry ecosystem.

“This has been an industry-wide initiative, first mooted by former BEIA Chief Executive Sue Sullivan, and developed and championed by industry leaders such as Megan Crum, currently Head of Business Events at ChristchurchNZ. It was appropriate that Megan, representing the industry, announced the Awards at MEETINGS 2024.

“The time is now right, with the launch of our 10-year strategic direction – Pīata Mai, to celebrate the outstanding achievements in the industry and to elevate the business events sector, and the amazing people and work being achieved,” Hopkins says.

Crum says the awards align with the industry’s strategy to support growth, retention, and to champion legacy impacts from business events.

“As an industry, we want to raise the profile of the sector, strengthen our voice, highlight contribution and value, and reinforce the diversity of the sector and its contributors,” she says.

Both the conference and Awards are open to anyone in the business events sector. The new Awards will sit within the BEIA framework, with accountability to the executive and Board, while managed by an independent industry committee and trust.

The BEIA conference will be held in one of New Zealand’s metro cities every second year to encompass the National Business Events Awards evening.

“In a non-awards year, conference will be held in a regional city to continue BEIA’s commitment to hosting conference in our incredible regional destinations,” Hopkins says.

The inaugural National Business Events Awards dinner will be staged late next year in Auckland, at a date to be announced.

One of the many legacy impacts from the awards includes establishing an independent trust to hold and distribute the profit from each event in support of the BE community – its projects and people.