Coast Group an NZICC preferred supplier: Auckland’s next era of events

The New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) was a massive undertaking. It spans a full city block, with space to host thousands of people. Now, more than 11 years since the project broke ground, we have an opening date – and preferred suppliers for event delivery. As a full-package event delivery partner, Coast Group will play a key role in ensuring NZICC can deliver complex events back-to-back – and live up to the expectations that come with a world-class convention centre. That’s important for more than just the NZICC’s owners. It’s also a win for Auckland –and New Zealand as a whole. After a decade of upheaval, the CBD is ripe for a renaissance, with new infrastructure and the city rail link set to bring thousands of people back to the city. “That foot traffic doesn’t just fill venues – it supports hotels, hospitality and retail, and brings back the kind of energy Queen Street once saw every weekend,” says Dane Botherway, National Manager of Exhibition Hire, one of Coast’s companies.

Broad offering to cover every kind of event

The Group’s proven expertise will be all-important in managing the sheer scale of the venue and the diversity of events it can accommodate. Covering an area of 32,500 m², the venue’s carefully designed spaces have movable walls and seating to suit everything from conferences and tradeshows to weddings and awards evenings. The Group will be able to cover them all efficiently and creatively with its experienced team and full suite of services: design & build, production, temporary structures, event marquees, flooring and furniture, signage and print, and power and lighting. The company has already been inside NZICC, running test builds, moving trucks through loading docks, seeing how lifts perform under weight, and planning processes for fast turnarounds between events. That knowledge reduces uncertainty for organisers and helps NZICC operate like a “well-oiled machine,” says Dane.

Hard-won experience

In a market the size of New Zealand, there are only so many truly large, complex events each year, which makes hard-earned experience especially valuable. “When you need to deliver the amount of events we have, it’s something that people can have trust in us for,” adds Dane. Coast Group has delivered some of the country’s biggest seated dinners, trade exhibitions and festival builds. One example is Barfoot & Thompson’s 100th anniversary celebration. This was a seated dinner for 4,000 people, held entirely in temporary structures on greenfield land. The event required kitchens, toilets, access ways and a vast amount of marquees to deliver an event of this size and scale. Then the February 2023 floods hit. Ground conditions changed overnight, infrastructure had to be dismantled and rebuilt, and heavy machinery brought in to make the site workable again. It was a real-time test of planning, problem-solving and resilience – the kind of learning that can’t be gained from theory alone. “We’ve seen what works and what doesn’t, and we factor all of that into every new event,” says Dane.

Prepped for the next era of events

Since COVID, the events landscape has shifted. Some legacy events have paused or scaled back, while others have evolved into smaller, more targeted series spread across regions. At the same time, there is still strong demand for big anchor moments: exhibitions, home shows, large conferences and major brand events. NZICC is well-placed to serve both ends of that spectrum. Its flexible spaces can host conferences, trade shows, concerts, awards nights, and even large-scale dinners and weddings. On the supply side, one of the areas Coast is investing in is more efficient lighting and smarter and more sustainable print substrates and inks, and exploring cleaner power options as alternatives emerge. Continuous staff training ensures teams are familiar with new products and methods, and that local delivery keeps pace with international expectations – while still reflecting New Zealand’s already strong standards. As NZICC opens its doors and Auckland steps into a new era of events, Coast Group is ready to help welcome the world in.

Learn more about Coast Group’s family of companies:

·  Exhibition Hire Services, NZ’s leading exhibition company

·  Displayworks, nationwide experts in signage design, manufacture and installation

·  Show Light & Power, suppliers of lighting design, production, power and event staging

·  Carpet & Rug, NZ’s leading carpet-hire company

·  Carlton Events, premier marquee hire specialists

·  Carlton Partyhire for decorations, entertainment, catering and more – a party one-stop shop