Girls In Business 2026: New Zealand's largest women's business conference books the new NZICC

The Girls In Business 2026 Conference & Awards is scheduled for Saturday 5 September 2026 at the New Zealand International Convention Centre, 101 Hobson Street, Auckland CBD. The organiser's website lists doors open at 9.00am, a formal welcome at 10.00am and closing remarks at 3.50pm, with a published dress code of formal or black tie. The event ticketing page on Humanitix describes it as the organisation's 13th conference in New Zealand and states an expected audience of "800+ like-minded women".

The published programme is a single-stream day rather than a multi-track congress. Toni Street opens with a keynote on public speaking; a panel on personal branding follows with Erin Adam of The Social Lab, broadcaster Jenny-May Clarkson and coach Sarah Robb. Kristy Campbell of Pink Pony Creative speaks on brand identity before lunch. The afternoon carries a gold sponsor address from Fujifilm Instax, a short-form content session from Jony Lee, the awards ceremony, a founders' panel with Caitlin Crisp, Lara Henderson of Pure Mama and Lisa Perese-Cullen of Harper James, and a closing interview with Dame Valerie Adams. The organiser states there is a Q&A after each speaker and panel, plus two structured networking activities and a light lunch.

Who runs it

The event is run by Girls In Business Organisation NZ. Iyia Liu is listed on both the official site and the Humanitix listing as founder and host of the conference, and also appears in the speaker line-up in that capacity. The organisation describes itself as New Zealand's largest women's business community and states its Facebook group has 58,500 members.

The organiser's own past-events page shows a venue history that has moved steadily upward in scale: Glasshouse, Villa Maria, The Maritime Room, Shed 10 and Life Venues in earlier years, before the 2024 and 2025 editions. Independent ticketing listings on Eventbrite record a 2024 edition on Saturday 31 August 2024 and a 2025 edition on Saturday 20 September 2025 running 9.00am to 4.00pm. The 2026 move to NZICC is a clear step up in room size.

The awards run on a published timeline: nominations opened 17 March 2026 and closed 7 April, five finalists per category were announced in mid-April alongside the ticket release, public voting closed 31 July 2026, and winners are announced live on stage on 5 September. Categories are Excellence in Marketing, Excellence in Innovation, Best Place to Work, Best Up & Coming Business and People's Choice. The organiser states entry is free and that judging runs in two rounds, with public voting influencing the final result. Fujifilm Instax is named as gold sponsor, with a further roster of partner brands listed on the ticketing page.

Who it's for

Despite the name, this is an adult professional audience, not a school or student event. The organiser addresses it to "aspiring entrepreneurs, established business owners, or ambitious professionals", and the ticketing copy points at marketers, ecommerce operators, founders and entrepreneurs. Men are explicitly welcome to attend. The organiser states it cannot accommodate infants or young children. Attendees are described as travelling from across New Zealand and, in some cases, from Australia. Seating is reserved and allocated at the point of purchase, and the organiser notes previous editions have sold out.

The venue and the logistics

NZICC opened on 11 February 2026 and is the largest conference, exhibition and entertainment venue in the country, spanning 32,500 square metres over four floors with capacity for up to 4,000 people. Its Te Paepae theatre seats 2,850 and the Ariki Hall can host 3,300 for a banquet, so an 800-delegate conference sits comfortably inside a single space.

The venue lists three entrance points: 101 Hobson Street, 83 Wellesley Street West and 50 Nelson Street. Onsite undercover parking runs to 1,327 spaces with accessible bays and EV charging, entered via the ramp at 46 Nelson Street, and there are 120 bike racks on parking level B1. NZICC puts Auckland Airport at roughly a 45-minute drive, with the SkyDrive Airport Express shuttle and InterCity coaches both terminating at the InterCity SkyCity Bus Terminal, a two-minute walk from the venue. Britomart, the CBD's rail and ferry hub, is a 20-minute walk. The venue also flags the new Te Waihorotiu City Rail Link station, opening in 2026 with entrances on Victoria and Wellesley Streets, which will put a station within a few minutes' walk. Being a Saturday event, CBD road and parking pressure is lower than a weekday conference would face.

Why it matters for New Zealand MICE

This is a domestically generated conference of genuine scale, and it is exactly the kind of business that the new NZICC needs alongside the international association circuit. An 800-plus delegate, single-day, ticketed conference with an awards ceremony, sponsor activations and exhibitor stalls is a full-venue day built entirely from the New Zealand market.

The trajectory is the interesting part. An organisation that ran editions at Villa Maria, Shed 10 and The Maritime Room has scaled into the country's largest purpose-built convention centre within a decade. That is the domestic pipeline working as intended, and it demonstrates that Auckland's new capacity is being absorbed by more than inbound international congresses. With delegates travelling from around the country and from Australia for a Saturday event, the accommodation and hospitality tail runs across the weekend rather than a single weekday night.