Dunedin's largest conference and event venues by capacity

Choosing a venue for a sizeable conference in Dunedin usually comes down to one room: the plenary space that has to seat every delegate at once. The city's heritage buildings, its university and its purpose-built event spaces give organisers a spread of options, but they differ sharply in scale, ceiling height, staging capability and whether they can also host the exhibition and catering alongside the main session. This page ranks Dunedin venues by theatre-style seating capacity, drawn live from the MICE directory.

At the top of the list you will typically find the city's largest multi-purpose and civic event spaces, followed by hotel conference rooms and university venues that suit mid-sized meetings. Theatre capacity is the maximum number of seats in rows facing a stage; it is the right measure for a plenary or keynote, but the usable number falls once you add a stage, AV desk, catering stations or breakout zones. Read the ranking as a shortlist of the biggest rooms, not a guarantee that each will fit your full floor plan.

Confirm the real capacity for your layout — and whether a venue can also hold your breakouts, exhibition and meals — directly with each venue. Compare rooms nationally on the capacities index, and browse the full venues directory for conference and event spaces across Dunedin and the south.