Whakamanawa 2026 sells out at the Due Drop Events Centre, with government chief executives on the bill

Whakamanawa 2026 — The National Social Services Conference will run for two days, Thursday 24 and Friday 25 September 2026, at the Due Drop Events Centre in Wiri, Manukau. That confirms and sharpens the directory record, which listed only "Auckland" with no venue: the official conference page settles the question in favour of a confirmed, purpose-built venue in Auckland's south rather than a CBD site.

The event is hosted by Social Service Providers Te Pai Ora o Aotearoa (SSPA), the national membership body for community-based social service providers, and is run to a stated capacity of 450 delegates. At the time of writing the conference is listed as sold out. Day one runs 8.30am to 5pm and day two 8.30am to 3.30pm — an intensive two-day format typical of sector-wide annual conferences rather than a multi-day congress.

The confirmed programme, still being finalised, already carries genuine weight. Speakers include Brendan Boyle, Acting Secretary for Social Investment and chief executive of the Social Investment Agency; Amanda Malu, Secretary for Children and chief executive of Oranga Tamariki; Dr Lucy Hone, a resilience psychologist trained at the University of Pennsylvania; Professor Tracey McIntosh (Ngāi Tūhoe), Head of Te Wānanga o Waipapa at the University of Auckland and a Commissioner of Te Kāhui Tātari Ture; Dame Marilyn Waring, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy at AUT and a former three-term MP; and Saunoamaalii Karanina Sumeo, former Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner. Provider-sector chief executives on the programme include Matt Reid of Barnardos and Tania Pouwhare of Good Shepherd New Zealand. Broadcaster and former Silver Fern Jenny-May Clarkson is confirmed as MC.

Government engagement with the conference is not new. A published address to the 2025 edition by the then Minister for Children referenced up to 20 workshops exploring new practice models for the care system, and framed the conference as a venue for briefing the sector on the Oranga Tamariki System Action Plan and the Te Aorerekura family violence prevention plan. Whakamanawa functions as a recurring policy touchpoint between government and community-based providers, not simply an internal sector event.

Who runs it

Social Service Providers Te Pai Ora o Aotearoa is a national, membership-based organisation open to community-based social service providers across New Zealand. SSPA states its own history spans over 20 years, with a mission centred on representing members nationally, advocating on workforce and funding issues, and ensuring members' experience shapes law, policy and practice affecting children, rangatahi and whānau.

Whakamanawa is run annually as SSPA's flagship public event, sitting alongside its ongoing learning-and-development programme, policy and advocacy work, and its biannual sector magazine, Kia Mauri Ora. SSPA's own materials describe the conference name and kaupapa as gifted by Ngāti Toa Rangatira, reflecting the organisation's Te Tiriti-grounded values.

Who it's for

The stated audience is sector-wide: kaimahi and leaders from community-based social service providers, iwi and kaupapa Māori social services, Pacific providers, region-specific and national organisations, and affiliated government agencies.

Confirmed conference supporters include Oranga Tamariki and the Ministry of Social Development, while platinum and gold sponsors include the National Hauora Coalition, the Social Workers Registration Board, Careerforce and the Crown's Survivor Experiences service. Together with the speaker list, this points to a delegate mix of frontline social workers, sector chief executives, iwi and Pacific provider leadership, and public servants working across child protection, family violence prevention and social investment policy.

The venue

The Due Drop Events Centre sits at 770 Great South Road, Wiri, Manukau, between Auckland's Southern and Eastern motorways, roughly 10 to 15 minutes' drive from both Auckland Airport and the Auckland CBD, with more than 500 on-site car parks. This is a confirmed detail rather than an assumption carried over from the directory record, which had recorded no venue at all.

SSPA's own event page also references discounted accommodation arranged for delegates, though the specific accommodation partners were not detailed in the material available.

Why it matters for New Zealand business events

At a stated 450-delegate capacity, sold out well ahead of its September date, and carrying a speaker roster that includes two government agency chief executives, a former Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner, and some of the country's most senior Māori and Pacific sector leaders, Whakamanawa 2026 sits in the major-conference bracket for a single-sector gathering.

Its recurring role as a platform for ministerial addresses on family violence prevention and child protection policy also gives it a dimension beyond a standard sector conference. For Auckland's business events market, it is a useful marker of government-and-community-sector conference activity clustering around the Due Drop Events Centre and the wider Manukau precinct, distinct from the CBD conference circuit, and dependent on the venue's proximity to Auckland Airport for out-of-town, iwi and government delegates.