How to successfully open a (super) venue - Business Events Wellington

The Exterior of Tākina at sunset from across the street.

Tākina, the capital’s exciting new convention and exhibition centre, opened in May 2023, marking the start of an exciting new era of business events for Wellington.

The experienced team at Tākina Events manages the spaces within Tākina. After a successful opening and inaugural week of events, Te Papa director of museum and commercial services Jake Downing talks about the behind-the-scenes efforts.

Get familiar (and wear comfortable shoes)

It was important to get staff into the building as soon as possible to get a feel for the space. Get them into the flow and gain a clear understanding of how everything worked before the venue opened. Doing this while Tākina was still being built was a challenge and it was different for each team. Testing the kitchen, for example, had to wait until it was certified. Our AV teams only got access to use the equipment days before the first test event went live. It was important for them to learn what they could before they could actually get in and plug in.

Another key learning was to wear comfortable shoes. When you’re walking every inch of a new venue, your step count gets pretty high.

Take time to test and learn

We were lucky Tākina was delivered on time and that we had a chance to run test events. This allowed us to trial our operations and service delivery procedures in real-time. We have some great partners who allowed us to use their events as “guinea pigs”. They put massive trust in us and we will forever be grateful.

Both main test events had great feedback, from the catering to the venue and AV. As expected, we’ve learned how to do a few things differently across these events, but it didn’t impact the delegate experience.

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Build a business pipeline

Work started to promote and fill Tākina long before the doors opened, and people are excited to book this beautiful, world-class space. We’ve had a strong level of inquiries across a variety of different events.

These events range from some of New Zealand’s largest trade exhibitions to banquet dinners, and multi-day medium to large-scale conferences. With good demand coming from Australia and beyond. At the time of opening, there were more than 50 multi-day conferences planned in the first year, with bookings as far out as 2027.

Partner for success

We’re super excited to welcome and host guests into this amazing, wonderful space. This wouldn’t have happened without the hard work of all our partners: Wellington City Council, Business Events Wellington, WellingtonNZ, and Te Papa. I’m so grateful for the huge mahi the team at Tākina Events has put in. There were some massive days, and they’ve done a wonderful job in bringing Tākina to life.

Tākina Wellington Convention & Exhibition Centre

Inspired by the city’s dramatic landscape and environment, Wellington’s purpose-built convention centre is thoughtfully designed with the delegate experience in mind.

The Mākara Wind Farm located near Mākara Beach during golden hour.

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Sarah Healy from Venues Wellington shares ways to help event planners make the most of their events and meet their sustainability goals.

The foyer room at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa during a event. The space is full of people in semi-formal wear.

Cultivating venue partnerships

Conference Innovators director Rachel Cook shares how to build a successful partnership with your venue provider.

In an event space at Tākina, white tables fill the room with black chairs. An audio-visual sound desk is set up in the foreground, with a projector screen on the far wall.

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NW Group general manager Lizzi Lovegrove shares how to confidently manage your AV on a budget.

Prof. Helen Danesh-Meyer speaking on stage at the New Zealand Women in Medicine Conference 2024.

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Three delegates in semi-formal wear stand together and smile for a picture being a large painting on a easle at the ICMS Australasia dinner.

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Four people sit at a table at the Life Sciences Summer 2024 at Tākina Wellington Convention and Exhibition Centre.

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Inside Tākina Wellington Convention & Exhibition Centre at the opening event. There is food catering and many people are mingling in formal wear.

Ways to maximise your return on investment

Sponsors and exhibitors play a huge part in the success and feasibility of any conference. Avenues Event Management general manager Chris Evans shares some strategies to help maximise return on investment for these partners.