National franchise and small business expo returns to Auckland for two days at Due Drop Events Centre

The Franchise & Small Business Expo takes place over two days at the Due Drop Events Centre in Manukau, Auckland, on Friday 18 and Saturday 19 September 2026. The organiser's site lists the event at 80-plus exhibitors, 75 seminars and 2,000 guests across the two days, with doors from 9.00am each day, closing at 5.00pm on the Friday and 4.00pm on the Saturday. Attendance is by registration through the event portal at expo.nzsme.co.nz, which is live and carries the agenda and a live exhibitor list.

The programme is built around three stages and a demonstration area. Franchise New Zealand reports that the Pathways Stage covers franchise due diligence, becoming finance-ready, comparing opportunities, training and ongoing support, and franchise readiness; the Elevate Stage runs sessions on cashflow, marketing, recruitment, sales, AI, business systems, leadership and increasing the value of a business; and the NextWork Stage carries wider sessions on the economy, leadership, confidence, technology and the changing nature of work. The same source states the programme opens with a session titled "Where to From Here? What SMEs Need to Know About the Economy, Policy and Opportunity", featuring Simon Bridges, Katherine Rich and Wilhelmina O'Keeffe, and that a Demo Lab will run product and technology demonstrations covering CRM, AI, financial data, event technology and workplace systems, alongside interactive round-table discussions and a structured networking format the organiser calls Speedy Networking.

Who runs it

The Expo is presented by NZSME Limited and supported by the Franchise Association of New Zealand (FANZ). Franchise New Zealand reports that the event is being developed by Matt Reilly and Rachel Hobbs-Price, who between them have more than three decades of experience delivering exhibitions and industry events across New Zealand and Australia.

The same report describes the 2026 edition as the first national franchise and small business expo Kiwis have been able to attend in more than a decade, and positions it as a new annual event rather than a one-off. Exhibiting, sponsorship and speaking opportunities opened first, with visitor registration opening in June 2026. The event is listed in the Westpac Directory of Franchising on franchise.co.nz under service providers, with NZSME given as a national operator.

Who it's for

The organiser's material identifies three distinct audiences. The first is people considering business ownership or a franchise purchase, who are directed to the Pathways Stage and to face-to-face meetings with franchise systems, lenders, lawyers, brokers and advisers on the exhibition floor. The second is existing small business owners, served by the Elevate Stage sessions and an SME Growth Clinic covering topics such as reducing owner dependency, building systems and preparing a business for sale. The third is the exhibitor side itself: franchise brands and the finance, marketing, digital, technology and operational service providers that sell into the SME market.

Franchise New Zealand frames the demand behind the event by noting that more than 590,000 small and medium-sized enterprises operate across New Zealand, and that flexible work patterns and economic conditions are pushing more people to consider working for themselves.

The venue

Due Drop Events Centre is at 770 Great South Road, Manukau, in South Auckland. It is owned and operated by Waka Pacific Trust, opened in April 2005, and describes itself as able to accommodate board meetings for 10, conferences for 1,200 or concerts for 4,000 under one roof. Its principal exhibition space is the Sir Woolf Fisher Arena, a pillarless flat floor, supported by the Sir Noel Robinson Conference Centre, the Four Winds Theatre and separate meeting rooms.

Delegate movement is straightforward by South Auckland standards. The venue's own directions state that traffic from the Auckland CBD exits the Southern Motorway at Redoubt Road and turns onto Great South Road, with the main gate next to the Ramada hotel; from Papakura the route is exit 449A-B onto Great South Road. Bus routes 33, 055, 361 and 362 all stop directly outside the venue. Rail passengers travel to Manukau Train Station, from which the venue states it is a 15 to 20 minute walk via Manukau Station Road and Great South Road, or a connection on bus 33 or 361 from Stop B, Davies Avenue. The venue states it sits 10 minutes from Auckland International Airport, which matters for an exhibition drawing exhibitors and visitors from outside Auckland on same-day or overnight trips.

Accommodation is unusually close for an Auckland exhibition venue. Ramada Suites Manukau is on the same site, a short walk across the carpark. The Sebel Auckland Manukau is listed by the venue at 450 metres, with Mcentral Apartments, Manukau Motor Lodge and Proximity Apartments Manukau City all within 1.5 kilometres. The venue's own accommodation list extends to the airport hotel cluster 7 to 12 kilometres away, including Novotel Auckland Airport, Holiday Inn Auckland Airport, Naumi Auckland Airport, Sudima Hotel Auckland Airport and Jet Park Airport Hotel, along with Quest Highbrook and Nesuto Newhaven in East Tamaki. Westfield Manukau sits across from the on-site hotel.

Why it matters for New Zealand MICE

A two-day trade exhibition at 80-plus exhibitors is a meaningful piece of floor business for a New Zealand venue outside the two large purpose-built convention centres, and it lands in the Manukau and airport corridor rather than the central city. For the South Auckland precinct, an event of this size tests the case that a venue best known for community events, concerts and cultural programming can carry a national trade exhibition with a substantial concurrent seminar programme.

The event also restores an exhibition format the sector has gone without. Franchise New Zealand's characterisation of the Expo as the first national event of its kind in over a decade means the franchise sector has been running without a central annual trade floor, relying instead on directory listings, brand-level recruitment and association channels. Backing from FANZ gives the new event sector standing from its first edition, and the organiser's stated intention to run it annually would add a recurring September fixture to the Auckland business events calendar.

The programme structure is worth noting for organisers watching format trends: three themed stages, a live product demonstration area, facilitated round tables and a structured networking session, all folded into a free-entry exhibition rather than a paid conference. It is a model that leans on exhibitor-funded content and high visitor throughput, and its performance in September will be an indicator for other New Zealand sector bodies weighing a return to the trade-show format.