Marketing South 2026 shifts to Christchurch's One New Zealand Stadium for 3 November

Marketing South 2026 will be held on Tuesday 3 November 2026 at One New Zealand Stadium at Te Kaha in central Christchurch, running 9.00am to 5.00pm as a single-day conference. That is a materially different date and venue from the aggregator listing that seeded this record, which placed the event at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre on 10 September 2026. The Marketing Association's own event page is unambiguous: the conference "returns on 3 November 2026 - bigger, bolder and hosted for the first time at Christchurch's newly opened One NZ Stadium", with the venue address given as 218 Madras Street, Christchurch Central City. The 10 September date does appear on that page, but as the early-bird registration cut-off rather than the conference date — the most probable source of the listing error.

Who runs it

Marketing South is produced by the Marketing Association, the New Zealand industry body for marketers. The MA lists it among its conference portfolio alongside Digital Day Out, Smarter Data Meets AI, Brand Summit, Marketing That Matters, Game Changer, B2B Marketing Conference, Women in Marketing and Marketing Law, and says its conferences are staged in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and "developed in conjunction with Advisory Boards of industry practitioners and experts".

The conference has a decade-long track record. The MA's 2025 page states it has been "held every year since 2018", and the 2024 edition was billed as "now in its seventh year". Both of the two most recent editions were held at Rydges Latimer on Latimer Square, each on 5 November, each running 9.00am to 5.00pm. The organiser promoted the 2025 edition around a 170-plus audience; the 2026 page lifts that to 200-plus, and pairs the larger target with a "bigger programme, more audience interaction and expanded networking opportunities". The venue move is therefore a deliberate scale-up rather than a like-for-like relocation.

TVNZ returns as Premier Partner for a second consecutive year. One New Zealand is Venue Partner, NZME is Coffee Partner and Entegy is Event Tech Partner, with Exhibit Group and Lumo listed as Event Partners.

Who it's for

The MA pitches the day at South Island marketers, creatives, strategists and business leaders, with a single-stream programme of keynotes and case studies. As at publication the announced line-up is led by Mary Stafford, Head of Marketing for Spreads and Water-ice at Bega Group, giving an international keynote on how Vegemite rebuilt its social presence. Jess Bovey, now Head of Social at Special New Zealand and previously behind the New Zealand Police social channels, covers creative risk-taking for serious brands. Susannah Winger, Head of Brand and Loyalty, and Georgia Mahaffie, GM of Brand and Marketing, both of One New Zealand, present a joint case study on long-horizon brand building and the stadium launch. Shaun Rush, Senior Go-To-Market Manager at Meridian Energy, covers marketing to dairy farmers during the sector's annual Moving Day. The MA notes that further speakers and topics are still to be announced.

The venue

One New Zealand Stadium at Te Kaha sits at 218 Madras Street in the central city and is operated by Venues Ōtautahi. For business events the relevant space is the Ōtautahi Lounge and Terrace on level one: a 1,150sqm lounge plus a 514sqm private terrace, which the venue rates at 892 cocktail, 648 theatre, 520 banquet, 304 cabaret or 246 classroom. An operable wall splits it into two rooms, Tahi and Rua, each taking 324 theatre or 360 cocktail. The lounge looks onto the field of play and can draw on the stadium's dual LED ribbon boards and 150sqm screens, subject to other bookings.

On logistics, the venue lists 39 accessible carparks on site and directs other guests to Christchurch's parking buildings and on-street options, noting the central-city position puts transport, accommodation and city attractions within reach. Catering must run through the Venues Ōtautahi catering team; other external suppliers are welcome with prior approval and compliance with the venue's health, safety and insurance requirements. Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre, on Oxford Terrace, has no stated role in the 2026 edition.

Why it matters for New Zealand business events

A 200-delegate association conference is not, by itself, a large piece of business. What makes this one worth noting is where it has landed. Te Kaha opened in 2026 and now sits in a Christchurch venue market that already includes Te Pae, the Christchurch Town Hall and Wolfbrook Arena, three of which fall under Venues Ōtautahi. A one-day conference choosing the stadium's lounge over a hotel ballroom is early evidence that the new arena is converting non-sporting weekday business, not only concerts and rugby.

There is a second lesson in the record itself. An aggregator entry had this event on the wrong date, in the wrong building, in a city with several credible convention venues — an error traceable to a registration deadline being read as a start date. For anyone planning around published listings, the organiser's page remains the only reliable spine.