La Vida Centre

About this place

La Vida Centre is a purpose-built multi-function conference and event facility at 34a Hansons Lane in Upper Riccarton, Christchurch. It was established by Life Church in 2006 and operates as a commercial venue alongside its church use. The site sits back off the street in a quiet setting, close to the Bush Inn Centre and the surrounding Riccarton hospitality strip.

Spaces

• Auditorium — a two-tiered room seating in the region of 700 (listings cite 700 and 725). It has premium seating, a triple-wide projector for presentations, and a floor plan that can be rearranged, so it suits both large plenaries and smaller configurations.
• West Wing — one large room seating 80 theatre-style, or divided into two or three smaller rooms, with a kitchenette.
• Additional function rooms — the centre lists a total of around seven meeting rooms across the building.

Movable walls, staged lighting and in-house AV give the venue a good degree of layout flexibility.

Catering and amenities

There is a commercial kitchen on site along with a fully equipped café. The centre works with a preferred caterer but also accommodates outside catering. The building is wheelchair accessible, and there are 190 on-site car parks — a significant practical advantage for a Christchurch venue with an auditorium of this size.

Meeting and event capability

La Vida is marketed for conferences, seminars, meetings, training sessions, shows, concerts, ceremonies and community events. The pairing of a large tiered auditorium with a divisible West Wing and several smaller rooms means a multi-stream conference can be run entirely on one site: plenary in the auditorium, concurrent sessions in the West Wing, catering through the café and foyer areas.

Suitability for MICE

The centre suits mid-to-large conferences, AGMs, training programmes, seminars and awards or graduation ceremonies where projection quality, seating comfort and parking are priorities and a central-city address is not essential. Its scale of seating is uncommon outside the major purpose-built Christchurch venues, which makes it a useful option for association and community-sector conferences working to a moderate budget.