Success is a dish best shared - Why our events business is booming in tough economic times

Perhaps surprisingly, large-scale events have not been hit as hard by tough economic times as many other sectors in New Zealand. Our events business is booming and 2025 is shaping up to be one of Stuff Events’ most successful years. Here’s why.

Henry McLernon is the Director of Stuff Events with well over a decade’s experience in the industry leading a number of large-scale events across the globe.

As many businesses and households tighten their economic belts, you might think that large-scale events would be some of the first things people look to cut. But Stuff Events is bucking the trend and positioning to grow even more and an important part of this success is that we share it with the communities, businesses and charities who get involved in our events.

We own and operate Aotearoa’s most loved and iconic events, such as Central Districts Field Days, the NZ House & Garden Tours and the Southern Cross Round the Bays fun run. They’re continuing to see success in these tough economic times - more than half of tickets for the 2025 NZ House & Garden Tours are already sold months out from the event, and we recently announced we are expanding Round the Bays to a three-city series next year.

Having a positive economic impact on the areas we bring events to, creating memorable experiences for people and communities, providing opportunities for businesses to invest in their people and boost their brand, as well as a strong charitable element to our events are contributing to the boom.

Boosting local economies and communities

During the 2024 season, our events drove more than $50 million into local economies across the motu. We have a real focus on using and showcasing local suppliers where we host our events to have maximum positive impact on the community.

Central Districts Field Days - held in Feilding in March - hosted more than 500 exhibitors, generating tens of millions in sales, and saw 27,000 people flock to the town for the event. We’re very proud that Central Districts Field Days won Best Business Event at the NZEA New Zealand Event Awards this year.

The NZ House & Garden Tours brought visitors from across the country to Queenstown, Christchurch, Whanganui and Tauranga to explore beautifully curated homes and gardens. Their spending on travel, accommodation, food and more helped support local businesses and the economies of the regions they’re in. Tickets are on sale now for the 2025 edition which will take visitors to Dunedin, New Plymouth, Cambridge and Wairarapa.

We have run Auckland’s Southern Cross Round the Bays for many years, and it too brings a large injection of cash to our biggest city, with almost 30,000 participants in 2024. We’re expanding Round the Bays to become a national series in 2025, adding a Christchurch event and bringing Wellington’s Round the Bays into the series - to the benefit of the economies of all three cities.

Unmissable opportunities for individuals, businesses and brands

Our events business is a key part of Stuff’s multichannel offering to our commercial partners - another important factor in its success. We can deliver large-scale and targeted experiences and activations across a huge range of touchpoints, helping brands stay top-of-mind as consumers keep a closer eye on their spending.

A great example of how our partners can leverage this is Chemist Warehouse. We deliver trade events and company activations for them, Stuff produces and distributes their The House of Wellness magazine and hosts an associated lifestyle hub on the country’s number one digital news site stuff.co.nz.

Our events themselves also offer huge exposure opportunities for brands, be they exhibitors at Field Days, hospitality partners at Round the Bays or overall event sponsorship such as Resene for the NZ House & Garden Tours.

Round the Bays also presents further opportunities for businesses through its corporate participation packages. These allow companies to invest in their people’s health and wellbeing by entering as a corporate team, and the new national series even allows for some healthy inter-city rivalry for companies with multiple offices across the motu. This kind of culture-building can help set a business apart from the rest to drive recruitment and retention.

For individuals, we’ve found that after the pandemic many Kiwis have a new-found appreciation for in-person connection, especially at large events where there is a real sense of community and positive vibes. If you deliver memorable and high-quality experiences, Kiwis will turn out, they will support local businesses and they’ll have a lot of fun along the way - even when the cost of living is high.

Raising money for charitable causes

One of the best things about the events that we run is all the incredible charities we support. I’m always blown away by the generosity of Kiwis and Kiwi businesses, especially when times are tough and more people need our support.

Round the Bays has been instrumental in raising more than $3.5 million for a range of charities since its inception through participant sponsorship, peer-to-peer fundraising and donations from Stuff. The NZ House & Garden Tours and Central Districts Field Days have also raised well in excess of $1 million over the years.

The Live Ocean Foundation was the official charity partner for Southern Cross Round the Bays in Auckland this year. Stuff Events donating $24,000 to the foundation and a further $10,000 to The Y (YMCA) for their sports camps. Round the Bays is a huge fundraiser beyond our official charity partner, with the 2024 event seeing $225,000 raised for 94 charities.

The 2025 official charity partner for the three-city Round the Bays series will be Make-A-Wish NZ, to help it fund wishes for children living with a critical illness. Make-A-Wish will receive $25,000 plus a $40,000 Stuff media package to help promote its work.

NZ House & Garden Tours continues its long-standing partnership with Breast Cancer Foundation NZ. The 2024 tours raised over $130,000 for the charity. Central Districts Field Days also raised money, with a focus on regional charities. The majority of the $15,000 raised in 2024 went to the Rural Support Trust which provides mental health support to families when times on the farm or in the family are tough.

2025 is set to be one of the best years yet for Stuff Events as we launch three new events - an exciting challenge. We’ve got a strategic focus on aligning with growth audiences and putting our event participants, exhibitors and suppliers at the forefront of our decision making to ensure they have great in-person experiences. Because that’s what we’re all about. I can’t wait to share our success with the communities, businesses and charities that make it possible.