The Australian and New Zealand Society for Vascular Surgery holds its 2026 Annual Scientific Meeting at QT Queenstown from 10 to 13 September, co-located with the vascular nursing society meeting and hosting the World Federation of Vascular Societies.
The ANZSVS Conference 2026 is the annual scientific meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Vascular Surgery, and it runs across four days in Queenstown. The conference website lists the dates as Thursday 10 September to Sunday 13 September 2026, with the programme opening at 11.00am on the Thursday and closing at 8.00pm on the Sunday. The venue is QT Queenstown, which the society's general information page gives as 30 Brunswick Street, Queenstown 9300. The theme is "New Peaks: Shaping the Future of Vascular Surgery" — a reference, the convenors write, to both the alpine setting and the specialty's own direction.
The scientific content is built around keynote presentations, interactive sessions and panel discussions. The industry exhibition sits on Level 5 of QT Queenstown, and all morning teas, lunches and afternoon teas are served in that same exhibition space, according to the conference site. There is no printed programme: delegates use the conference app or the website, and scientific posters are hosted electronically on the conference platform before, during and after the meeting. Abstract submissions closed on 21 June 2026.
The controlling body is the Australian and New Zealand Society for Vascular Surgery, which describes itself on its own website as the peak vascular surgery organisation in Australia and New Zealand. Its history page traces the lineage back to 1972, when a Section of Vascular Surgery was formed within the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' Division of General Surgery. A two-year training programme followed in 1981, an Australian and New Zealand Chapter of the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery in 1983, and a full Division of Vascular Surgery within the College in 1995. The Chapter took its current name in 2001 and absorbed the functions of the Division in 2002.
Conference administration runs through RACS — the conference site's contact details are a Melbourne RACS number and a vascular@surgeons.org address, and the photography and dietary notices are issued jointly as "RACS/ANZSVS". The 2026 organising committee is convened by Dr Anastasia Dean and Dr Manar Khashram, both New Zealand-based. The conference platform carries archives for the 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 editions, so this is a long-running annual fixture rather than a one-off.
The core audience is vascular surgeons and surgical trainees, but the registration categories on the official site are broader than that — surgeons, sonographers, radiographers, nurses and other health professionals. As in previous years the meeting is run in partnership with the Australian and New Zealand Society for Vascular Nursing, whose own meeting is co-located. For 2026 the society is also hosting the World Federation of Vascular Societies and its president, Dr Iman Bayat, which adds an international delegation on top of the trans-Tasman base.
The social programme is substantial. The conference site lists a Welcome Reception on Thursday 10 September from 5.30pm at Rooftop at QT; a Trainees' Dinner the same evening at Notch restaurant inside QT Queenstown; a Women in Vascular Surgery Breakfast on Friday 11 September from 7.00am, also at Notch; the Conference Dinner on Friday evening from 7.30pm; and an invitation-only educational dinner on Saturday 12 September at Botswana Butchery on Marine Parade. A fun run and a workshop stream also appear in the site navigation. The commercial base is deep for a specialty meeting — the site lists two platinum sponsors, a gold and a silver sponsor, and named sponsors for lunches, coffee carts, tea breaks, the nursing workshops and individual scientific sessions.
QT Queenstown is a lakefront hotel on Lake Esplanade at the Brunswick Street corner, and the hotel's own website describes it as a five-star property with 130 rooms and suites and 11 event spaces, the largest being a 175-guest takeover of its Bazaar restaurant. That matters for how this conference is put together: the plenary programme, the Level 5 exhibition, the catering, the Welcome Reception on the rooftop and the trainees' and women's functions at Notch all sit inside one building, so delegate movement during the working day is vertical rather than across town.
Accommodation is handled centrally — the conference site names Accommodation Link as the sole official hotel provider, with additional third-party hotels offered alongside the contracted block. QT's own site puts Queenstown's town centre at a five-minute walk, which places most of the town's hotel stock, restaurants and Steamer Wharf within walking distance of the conference floor. Valet parking is available on site.
Two elements move delegates off-property. The Conference Dinner is at Winehouse in the Gibbston Valley, which the conference site describes as a historic homestead among the vines roughly 20 minutes from Queenstown; a coach transfer departs from and returns to QT Queenstown, with times to be confirmed. The Saturday dinner is a short walk away on Marine Parade. For arrivals, QT states the hotel is about 20 minutes from Queenstown Airport — relevant given the international contingent and the fact that Queenstown handles trans-Tasman services directly.
This is a rotating trans-Tasman association conference landing in New Zealand, which means the delegate base is substantially Australian and, this year, international as well. It also stacks three meetings into one footprint — the surgical meeting, the vascular nursing meeting and the World Federation of Vascular Societies visit — which is the pattern that makes a medical conference worth chasing: one bid, several delegate streams, four nights of accommodation and a shoulder-season September date.
It is also a reminder that Queenstown wins this category on hotel-based conference floors rather than a purpose-built convention centre. A meeting of this shape — single-stream plenary, an exhibition of medical device sponsors, and a heavy evening function programme — fits a 130-room hotel with an in-house exhibition level and a rooftop bar, then exports one night of spend into the Gibbston Valley wine country. That combination of a compact walkable base and a credible off-site dinner within 20 minutes is the practical argument the region makes to association planners.
Cited links supporting this report.
Queenstown lists 65 team-building and group-activity operators on MICE, from alpine adventure and jetboating to wine, Māori culture and CSR.
The Queenstown venues that can seat 250 or more guests banquet-style for a gala dinner, awards night or conference dinner, ranked by banquet capacity.
Queenstown's unique event venues — gondola summits, lakeside wineries and a vintage steamship — for incentives, galas and offsites.
How to arrange conference and delegate transport in Queenstown: airport transfers, coaches, shuttles and private cars from 15 listed operators.
The New Zealand Food & Grocery Council brings its biggest annual FMCG gathering to QT Queenstown from 4–6 November 2026, convening the manufacturers and suppliers behind the country's food, beverage and grocery brands for its flagship three-day conference.
The New Zealand Society of Anaesthetists is holding Te Aka Tauwhiro, its inaugural trainee meeting, in Queenstown on 27–28 November 2026. A specific venue is not yet published and registrations are not yet open.