APLS brings its Paediatric Acute Care (PAC) conference to Aotearoa for the first time, staging 'Te Awa Ora' at Te Pae Christchurch on 15-17 October 2026 for a trans-Tasman audience of paediatric acute-care clinicians.
The Paediatric Acute Care (PAC) conference will be held for the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre in Ōtautahi, from 15 to 17 October 2026. The organisers have named the 2026 edition Te Awa Ora ("the living river"), drawing on the braided rivers of Canterbury that meander through the city. Registration and the programme are live on the event website.
PAC is the conference of APLS (Advanced Paediatric Life Support), whose Australian body is based in Melbourne. According to APLS, the 2026 conference is being hosted by APLS New Zealand, with the scientific programme led by the New Zealand team, and is convened on behalf of the Conference Organising Committee by Damaya Rasanathan. APLS reports that PAC last ran in Adelaide in 2024 and will return to Australia in 2027, when APLS Australia marks 30 years. This is a rotating trans-Tasman event, and 2026 is its first outing in New Zealand.
The conference targets the paediatric acute-care community, including doctors, nurses and paramedics, drawn from Australia, New Zealand and beyond. Per the organiser, the programme opens with the APLS Director and Instructor Day on 15 October before moving into the two-day conference of lectures and workshops. The academic programme is organised into thematic "river" streams, spanning early recognition and triage, high-acuity interventions, complex slower-progressing cases, multidisciplinary teamwork, system pressures and surges, connecting care with families, and transition to long-term care. Confirmed speakers named by APLS include Lucy Hone, Simon Craig, Christine Beasley, Joanna Lawrence, Elliot Long, Gabrielle Nuthall and Ben van der Griend, and abstract submissions for oral and poster presentations are open.
The organiser lists the venue as Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre, 188 Oxford Terrace, in the central city. Per the event's venue page, Te Pae is a 15-20 minute drive from Christchurch International Airport, the regional hub for South Island flights. There is no on-site parking at Te Pae; the organiser notes parking, EV charging and bicycle parking in the surrounding area, and points delegates to the city's public transport, shuttle, taxi, ride-share and rental options.
Winning the first New Zealand edition of an established trans-Tasman medical conference is a meaningful piece of association business for Christchurch and for Te Pae, reinforcing the South Island's convention-centre proposition and drawing an international clinical delegation into the central city during October. The rotation back to Australia in 2027 underscores the competitive, rotating nature of this trans-Tasman event.
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