New Seeds: the 2026 Biodynamics Conference brings Aotearoa's biodynamic growers to Christchurch

A two-day gathering of Aotearoa's biodynamic community

New Seeds: Growing the Future of Biodynamics runs across Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 August 2026 at the Christchurch Rudolf Steiner School, 19 Ombersley Terrace, Opawa, Christchurch 8023. The organiser describes it as a conference "focused on weaving in fresh ideas with the foundational practices of biodynamics", spotlighting the next generation of biodynamic practitioners and projects taking root across the country. The Humanitix listing gives the running window as 8am Saturday through to 5pm Sunday NZST.

This is a community-scale sector conference rather than a large congress. No delegate figure has been published, and the practical detail on the organiser's own page - free marae-style sleeping in the school hall, campervan parking on site, woodfired pizza made by the school team - points to an event sized to a hall and a set of classrooms, not a convention centre. That is worth stating plainly: it is a genuine national gathering for its sector, held at the scale that sector actually operates at.

Who runs it

The conference is run by Biodynamics New Zealand, the trading name of the Bio Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association in New Zealand (Inc). The Association states it was formed in 1939 to promote biodynamic methods, and that its objectives are "to foster, guide and safeguard in New Zealand the biodynamic approach to agriculture, horticulture, forestry and animal husbandry initiated by Rudolf Steiner in 1924 and practised progressively since". Its stated membership spans farmers, viticulturalists, processors, orchardists, and commercial and home gardeners. The Association also administers Demeter certification in New Zealand and publishes the NZ Biodynamic Calendar and Harvests magazine.

That 1939 founding date makes it one of the longer-running primary-industry membership bodies in the country, and it gives the conference a lineage: this is an established gathering of an existing membership, not a new commercial event launch. Ticketing is handled through Humanitix, where Biodynamics NZ maintains a host profile carrying both this conference and a linked Friday 28 August field morning at Black Estate Wines in Hawkesbury, North Canterbury - effectively a pre-conference vineyard visit for delegates arriving early.

Programme and audience

The organiser names Hamish Mackay as keynote speaker. Mackay has been involved in biodynamic agriculture and nutrition for more than 50 years, was founding chairman in 1989 of the Australian Biodynamic Farming & Gardening Association (now Biodynamic Agriculture Australia Ltd), later served as its CEO, and has presented over 500 workshops across Australia, the UK, USA, South Africa, Namibia and Brazil.

Day one features Dr Jessica Hutchings (Ngai Tahu, Ngati Huirapa, Tuhoe, Gujarati), a founding trustee of the Papawhakaritorito Charitable Trust and a leading advocate for Hua Parakore (Maori organics) and Maori food and soil sovereignty. Day two features Monique Macfarlane of Natural Wisdom, a holistic food systems facilitator working across biodynamic, organic, regenerative and no-till practice in Waihi, and Dr Leane Makey, a marine ecologist and ecosystem restoration researcher who also part-time farms sheep.

Alongside the talks sits a workshop stream - Gita Krenek on the basic principles of biodynamics and the practical activities at the core of biodynamic growing, Katrina Wolff on floral composting, Peter Bacchus on making the biodynamic preparations easily available at extensive-farm scale, and Steve Erickson on managing farm energetics. A panel hosted by Angela Clifford and Ruby Gill-Clifford of The Food Farm, joined by Kaitlyn Lamb and Samuel Hogg of Quorum Sense, takes on farm succession: how knowledge and living systems pass between generations. Saturday closes 5pm-7pm with a woodfired pizza evening and a stargazing session led by biodynamic practitioners.

The audience is explicitly both ends of the experience curve. The listing frames it as an invitation "whether you're deeply experienced or newly curious" - working biodynamic and Demeter-certified growers, viticulturalists and orchardists alongside newcomers, students and the regenerative-agriculture adjacent.

The venue and delegate movement

The Christchurch Rudolf Steiner School - Te Kura o Rudolf Steiner i Otautahi - is a special-character Steiner Waldorf school in Opawa, an inner suburb southeast of the Christchurch central city. The organiser cites the school's "thoughtfully designed architecture and flourishing organic gardens" as the reason for choosing it, which for a biodynamics conference makes the venue itself part of the programme: workshops on composting and preparations have somewhere real to happen.

Using a school rather than a hotel or conference centre shapes how delegates move. Accommodation is handled largely on site: the organiser offers free shared sleeping space in the school hall and free self-contained campervan parking on the grounds, both requiring advance registration by email, with full-ticket holders given first priority. For delegates wanting conventional accommodation, the Association has arranged a negotiated rate at Hotel Give in the central city for stays across 28 August to 1 September. Opawa's position close to the CBD means central-city hotel stock is a short drive or bus trip from the venue.

On air access, the organiser notes Air New Zealand operates non-stop services to Christchurch from Auckland, Wellington, Queenstown and Nelson with regional connections, and also lists Sounds Air and Origin Air as options. Christchurch Airport sits on the northwest side of the city, so arriving delegates cross the urban area to reach Opawa. The Association is coordinating car-pooling for out-of-town attendees through the same operations contact - a practical, low-cost response to a venue with no on-site shuttle infrastructure.

Why it matters in NZ MICE

New Seeds is a useful example of the layer of the New Zealand events market that sits well below the convention-centre tier but still functions as genuine national industry infrastructure. It draws delegates from across the country to a single South Island location, generates two nights of Christchurch accommodation demand plus a satellite winery visit in North Canterbury, and carries a sponsorship programme. For Christchurch, it is the kind of repeat, sector-anchored gathering that fills shoulder-season August weekends. And with a programme built around succession, Indigenous food sovereignty and the next generation of practitioners, it sits at the intersection of primary industry, environmental practice and Maori food systems - a combination that increasingly defines how New Zealand's agricultural events position themselves.