Parksyde Community Centre

About this place

Parksyde is a community activity centre in Rotorua for people aged 55 and over, serving Rotorua and the surrounding Rotorua lakes area. It opened in August 2001 as an event centre for the 55+ age group and was one of the Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust's (now the Rotorua Trust) millennium projects. Parksyde is owned and operated by the Older Persons Community Centre Trust, a registered charitable trust, and describes itself as the only centre of its kind in the country.

Alongside a weekly timetable of social, recreational, health and educational activities — each with a small door charge and no membership fee — Parksyde hires out its rooms to outside groups.

Spaces and facilities

• Meeting rooms and a hall with a dance floor, available for hire both during and outside the centre's normal operating hours.
• The venue hire page states the centre can accommodate groups from 10 up to about 100 people. The home page notes that for meetings, training sessions and seminars it can seat small groups up to 150.
• A full catering service is available for functions.
• An on-site cafe caters for morning and afternoon teas, lunches and functions, and there is also a salon on site.

The centre markets its rooms specifically for meetings, training sessions, seminars and hui, and welcomes both casual and regular bookings. Enquiries about availability, suitability and pricing are handled by the Parksyde manager.

For MICE purposes, Parksyde suits day meetings, training sessions, seminars and community-scale functions, with in-house catering removing the need to bring in an external supplier. Its core purpose is serving the over-55s, so hire availability sits around the weekly activity timetable and is worth confirming early. See other Rotorua venues.