Physiotherapy New Zealand will hold its biennial national conference, themed Uru Kahikatea – Strength Through Unity, at Tākina Wellington Convention & Exhibition Centre on Friday 11 and Saturday 12 September 2026, with pre-conference masterclasses on Thursday 10 September. The organiser expects more than 400 delegates and is running a trade exhibition alongside the scientific programme.
Physiotherapy New Zealand will bring its biennial national conference to Tākina Wellington Convention & Exhibition Centre on Friday 11 and Saturday 12 September 2026, under the theme Uru Kahikatea – Strength Through Unity. The organiser's conference site places the event on Level 2 of Tākina in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, and adds a pre-conference evening of two-hour masterclasses on Thursday 10 September. The event also appears on World Physiotherapy's international events calendar, which lists the same theme, dates and host city.
PNZ describes the conference as the largest physiotherapy event in Aotearoa, held every two years, and says it is set to attract over 400 physiotherapists across the two main days. Delegates are expected to span a broad cross-section of the profession, from students and early-career physiotherapists through to experienced clinicians, educators, researchers and leaders working across a range of practice and employment settings.
Physiotherapy New Zealand is the national membership organisation for physiotherapists and physiotherapy students. Its own About page states that PNZ provides over 3,800 members with advocacy, education, information and services, that it has been an active membership organisation since 1950, and that it is a founding member of World Physiotherapy. PNZ's Māori partner organisation is Tae Ora Tinana, which represents Māori physiotherapists, students and assistants. The association also publishes the New Zealand Journal of Physiotherapy, and its conference page notes that an NZJP conference supplement is scheduled for November 2026.
On the theme, PNZ's own explanation is that 'Uru Kahikatea' draws strength from the kahikatea tree, which the organiser describes as one of Aotearoa's tallest native giants, typically found growing in groves with roots above ground and deeply interconnected. PNZ writes that kahikatea in this reading represent unity, resilience and collective growth — that, like these trees, the profession flourishes together, grounded in whakapapa and strengthened through connection. That interpretation is the organiser's, offered as the framing for the whole programme.
PNZ has published a full programme document, updated 11 August 2026, that maps the event across three days and five concurrent rooms — Tāwhirimātea A, C, E and G, plus the Whatatai Room.
Thursday 10 September opens with registration from 4.30pm and five parallel masterclasses running 5.30pm to 7.30pm, which PNZ says can be purchased without a full conference ticket. Friday 11 September begins at 8.45am with the official opening and mihi whakatau, and runs through to a 5.35pm social function and a 7.00pm close. Saturday 12 September opens at 8.15am and finishes with a closing karakia at 4.55pm.
The scientific programme is built around four sub-themes PNZ has set out: sustainability — of the earth, the workforce and clinical care, including preparedness for challenges such as pandemics; unity and interdisciplinary practice, explicitly intended to draw in presenters from aligned professions; innovation, covering emerging technologies and new methodologies; and investing in career development.
The published lineup mixes international and New Zealand names. Enda King opens Friday with a session on assessment-guided rehabilitation after ACL reconstruction; Dr Joshua Pate delivers Saturday's opening keynote on pain science; and Jo Gibson closes the conference with a session on hormonal change and shoulder pain. Also programmed are Dr Heather Came on Tiriti allyship, Will Reedy on AI reshaping health care, Hon Dr Verrall in a Friday keynote slot, Dr Martin Chadwick of the Ministry of Health, Dr Michelle Paton, Prof Gisela Sole, Prof Peter McNair, Dr Nada Signal, Dr Melissa McConaghy and Dr Lilo Oka Sanerivi. Around sixteen podium sessions, a PNZ panel on the future of physiotherapy in New Zealand, and poster presentations over lunch and afternoon tea fill out the two days.
An exhibition runs alongside. PNZ's sponsorship material confirms an exhibition area with spaces allocated first-come, first-served, and the conference site already lists confirmed exhibitors including the University of Otago, Auckland University of Technology, the Physiotherapy Board, ASICS, VALD, Cubro and Healthpoint. PNZ has also published an exhibition guide and courier forms for Tākina deliveries.
Tākina's own rooms and spaces listing describes Tāwhirimātea as a 1,640-square-metre hall with a capacity range of 300 to 1,600, able to be split into six spaces using operable walls with dedicated AV zones — which is exactly how PNZ is using it, with four concurrent streams plus plenary configuration. The venue's Rongomātāne Foyer offers roughly 1,800 square metres of open-plan exhibition space with harbour views, direct drive-on access and room for 106 three-by-three-metre booths. Smaller meeting rooms on Levels 1 and 2 range from 55 to 130 square metres.
PNZ's venue page reports that Tākina sits across the road from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in the heart of the capital, that it is a short walk from most hotels, and that it is about a 15-minute drive from Wellington Airport. The association also notes Tākina's Five Green Star Design certification — the first convention centre in the country to achieve that standard — and that the building was designed by Studio Pacific Architecture, drawing on its maritime location, Wellington's weather and landforms, and Te Upoko o Te Ika, the head of the great fish of Māui.
Accommodation is left to delegates to arrange. PNZ has secured delegate rates at a spread of central Wellington properties, including Bay Plaza, Haka House, Sojourn Apartment Hotel, the Village Group properties, Accor's Ibis, Novotel and Mövenpick hotels, Quest 256 Lambton, Oaks Wellington and the InterContinental — all within the compact CBD footprint that puts Tākina within walking distance. There is no conference dinner: PNZ says 2024 survey feedback asked for a two-day format and told the association a dinner inside the registration was unnecessary.
A 400-plus delegate association conference over three days is a solid piece of mid-size business events trade for Wellington in a shoulder-season September window, and it lands squarely in Tākina's design brief — a plenary that subdivides, an exhibition floor, and a walkable hotel catchment. For the allied health sector it is the profession's principal national gathering, run by a body that has been organising since 1950 and that sits inside the World Physiotherapy network. The biennial rhythm also means the 2026 edition sets the reference point for where the profession convenes next.