Convention Bureau Two Years Old

The convention market is worth 1 billion dollars annually to New Zealand. Research shows that a conference delegate is worth $400 a day to the region they conference in. It is not just the venues where the conference is held or the accommodation they stay in that benefit from this market, often they are spotted hitting the shops during the day and the bars and restaurants a night.

The Marlborough Convention Bureau (MCB), of which I am the manager was created two years ago in order to promote Marlborough to this MICE market . MICE stands for meetings, incentives, conferences and events and includes groups from 10 people to 1,000. In Marlborough we have such a great range of activities and accommodation that we really offer something for everyone. Whether it is a 20 person incentive looking for a five star experience to a 400 delegate conference with a limited budget, we have the perfect solution.

The past two years have been very busy attending tradeshows specifically targeting this sector of business, producing dedicated marketing collateral in the form of a planner and section on lovemarlborough.co.nz, bringing interested conference organisers to familiarize themselves with the region and generating leads for the 23 members of the bureau.  We generated over 60 leads in the last financial year, doubling our projected target.

Next year’s conference season is already looking very strong with a number of big conferences including the largest conference in Marlborough to date, with over 1,000 delegates in September. The MCB successfully bid for the 2012 i-SITE conference which will bring 120 New Zealand travel sellers into the region for two days of conferencing as well as a four day familiarization programme.

Another important role of the bureau is to put together bid documents to win conferences for the region. If you are keen to put your hand up for Marlborough to host your sector group conference, than we are here to assist. We know what works for conference groups of all sizes with venue capacities, service providers, theming ideas and partner activity options. We also offer promotional material in the form of visitor guides, a DVD and image gallery to get the maximum numbers of delegates along to the conference once it has been won.

If you are a member of a national association which you think might be interested in coming to Marlborough,  would like more information on the work of the bureau,  to become a member or advertise with us than please contact myself on  or