Of all events, 62 were multi-day conferences, 66 banquets, several exhibitions, and one live entertainment event and the remainder were smaller meetings and seminars. Those events have brought more than 60,000 people into the city and contributed close to $45 million to the local economy.
Ashleigh Robertson, Marketing Coordinator for Inkster Company, which operates OGB among others, said OGB had seen a drastic change since Te Pae Christchurch opened.
“We are just getting people through the door – and a lot of people through the door. And there are definitely plenty of lanyards – it’s an obvious corporate crew. The target market has been great for us,” she said. “Monday now, because it seems to be a quite popular conference day, is one of our biggest days, often beating Sunday, which is pretty wild.”
Exhibition Hire Service’s Christchurch Branch Manager, Nicola Ransome said Te Pae Christchurch had been massive for the business.“I would say it has quadrupled our workload. We’ve got to the point where we’re having to buy more vehicles and employ double the number of staff, just to be able to service the events that have been happening in there. So, it’s been absolutely huge,” she said.
“It has enabled us to be able to upskill our staff. The types of jobs that go in there, there’s a lot more involved….we’ve literally now just found the time to be able to recruit for next year. So, we’ve just employed four more guys. We will be training up over the next few months and we’re going to be looking to expand our sales and coordination team next year as well, which we just wouldn’t have been able to do without Te Pae.”
The Centre’s suppliers have also noticed an uptick in business as a result of the busy events calendar.
Further information about Te Pae Christchurch is available here.