The Neurological Association of New Zealand holds its 2026 Annual Scientific Meeting at the Napier War Memorial Centre on 4-6 November, bringing neurologists, trainees and allied health professionals together around functional neurology, dissociative seizures and paediatric-to-adult care transitions.
The Neurological Association of New Zealand (NANZ) holds its 2026 Annual Scientific Meeting at the Napier War Memorial Centre from 4 to 6 November 2026. The three-day medical congress gathers the country's neurology community in Hawke's Bay around a programme built on functional neurology, dissociative seizures, and the transition of patients from paediatric to adult care, alongside sessions spanning epilepsy, neuromuscular disease and member case presentations.
The meeting is the annual scientific gathering of the Neurological Association of New Zealand, the professional body whose stated purpose is to promote the standards, delivery and profile of clinical neurology, neurosurgery and related disciplines such as neurophysiology and neuropsychiatry in New Zealand. Conference organisation and delegate management are handled by the New Zealand professional conference organiser Conferences & Events Ltd, with the event website hosted on the EventsAir platform.
According to the organisers, the meeting is aimed at clinicians, researchers, trainees and allied health professionals engaged in neurological care. The confirmed programme opens on Wednesday 4 November with a Special Interest Group session on case-based treatment of functional neurological disorder (14:00-17:00) and an evening welcome function at the Hawke's Bay Club. Thursday 5 November runs from 08:15 to 17:00 with sessions on FND and epilepsy plus registrar talks and a poster session, followed by the conference dinner at Church Road Winery. Friday 6 November runs 08:30 to 16:30, covering neuromuscular disease across the lifespan, trainee audits, a clinico-pathological conference session, member presentations and the awards and closing session.
The organisers have confirmed an international and national speaker line-up, including keynote speakers Professor Markus Reuber of the University of Sheffield, an authority on epileptic and dissociative seizures and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Seizure, and Professor Jon Stone of the University of Edinburgh, a leading figure in functional neurological disorder. Invited New Zealand speakers include neuropsychiatrist Dr Chris Kenedi and Starship Children's Hospital paediatric neurologist Dr Gina O'Grady.
The meeting is staged at the Napier War Memorial Centre, a beachfront conference venue on Marine Parade in the heart of the Napier CBD. The venue operator describes multiple configurable event spaces, with its principal ballroom seating up to 350 delegates theatre-style and catering to around 300 for a seated dinner. For arriving delegates, the operator notes approximately 350 hotel rooms within walking distance of the centre and Hawke's Bay Airport around a 10-minute drive away, with the surrounding Marine Parade precinct placing accommodation, dining and the city centre within a short walk of the sessions.
The NANZ Annual Scientific Meeting is an established recurring medical congress that rotates through New Zealand centres, and its 2026 edition anchors a multi-day clinical event, with associated social functions at the Hawke's Bay Club and Church Road Winery, in Napier. For the Hawke's Bay business-events sector it represents the kind of specialist national association congress, drawing domestic and international delegates and their accompanying spend, that regional conference venues are built to host.
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