Looking for your next conference or workshop destination? With a world-class array of venues and accommodation options, plus Māori cultural experiences, pristine lakes, fertile forests, activities and attractions aplenty, Rotorua is an obvious choice.
Few places in the world offer so many conference options in such a beautiful and fascinating setting.
Just a 30-minute flight from Auckland, there are 13,000 beds available in the city plus an infrastructure capable of catering for groups of 100 people to more than 4,000.
Rotorua has all the ease of a smaller lakeside location, with all the capability and facilities of a much larger one. No parking stress, no insane traffic, and no getting lost leave you and your delegates with a lot more time to explore and enjoy our stunning natural environment.
Conference Venues
Rotorua can cater to almost any conference or meeting you can imagine. From 50 delegates from the local area to 4,000 visitors, there’s a venue to suit everyone. From the quirky and intimate, to large-scale with modern facilities, there will be something that suits your gathering perfectly.
Rotorua's largest venue, Energy Events Centre, is a versatile, multi-purpose convention venue that incorporates 10 separate spaces ideal for conferences, exhibitions and trade shows with a 2,600 banquet capacity, 3,000 delegate plenary, or space for 300 exhibition booths.
But if your event is more like 30 or 300 people, there’s still an incredible range of options for you to consider.
Venues with Accommodation
If you want to keep everything easy and in one place there are plenty of hotel accommodation options with great conference facilities so guests have more time to relax.
The Copthorne, Distinction, Holiday Inn, Millenium, Novotel, Princes Gate, Rydges and Sudima are all 4 or 4.5 star hotels, or the brand new 5 star Pullman Hotel have everything you need to host a great meeting or conference for small or large groups.
Keeping everything in one place means guests don’t have to spend any time or headspace navigating the city and have more time to explore the joys of this geothermal wonderland when the work day is done.
Events and Social Function Venues
Rotorua has so many unique venues for the cocktail events, banquets and functions that are so important for a good conference.
The architecturally stunning Blue Baths; modern, fun Terrace Kitchen; Black Barn Tuahiwi (a stylish renovated barn on sixty-two private acres of native bush); traditional hangi experience at Mitai, Te Puia or Tamaki village; Under the Sails – a canopied, open air, all-weather function space in the middle of the majestic Redwood forest; Volcanic Hills Winery on it’s hilltop perch atop Mount Ngongotaha with 180-degree views of twinkling city lights; and Stratosphere only accessible by cable car.
While Rotorua can definitely do ‘practical and ordinary’ if required, it does ‘unique, special and memorable’ very well.
Team Building Activities
Aside from its world-class conference and meeting infrastructure, the big draw card in Rotorua is the attractions. Who doesn’t want to attend a conference where team building activities could be anything from strolling in magical forests near crystal-clear streams and soaking in natural hot pools, to raising your blood pressure on a zipline, giant swing or enormous inflatable Zorb.
And of course the geothermal activity is incredible – Pohutu, the largest active geyser in the southern hemisphere, mesmerising pools of bubbling mud, volcanic multicolored terrain that’s almost otherworldly. The crowning glory is the deep Maori history that surrounds this part of New Zealand and the opportunity to experience it in truly authentic ways.
With all these options for team building, no one will ever leave a conference in Rotorua saying they had a boring time.
