Port Industry Association
Conferences

Registration Open - PIA 2026 Conference

THEME: Charting the course: Threats, opportunities & future of the port sector

New 1.5-day format (+ Subcommittee meetings day)
- based on feedback from 2025's post-conference survey

Registrations are now open for this year's conference at Rydges Latimer Christchurch on Sept 29 - 30th, delivered in partnership with Lyttelton Port Company (LPC)

Tues Sept 29: 1pm start = afternoon of conference presentations, evening networking drinks
Wed Sept 30: Full day of conference presentations, conference dinner at the new One NZ Stadium
Thurs Oct 1: Subcommitee meetings, held offsite from Rydges Christchurch (no port tour)

Email eo@portindustry.co.nz to
register, providing each attendee's name & each attendee's email address

PRICING: PIA members $525 pp (+GST) | Associate members $900 pp (+GST) | Non-members
$1,550 pp (+GST)
(Pricing covers the entire Sept 29 - 30 conference, not changing if you choose not to attend some elements.)

Conference Dinner at Christchurch's new One New Zealand Stadium

Discounted conference accommodation

Rydges Latimer Christchurch is offering discounted event accommodation pricing, available until August 14th, when the link to access it will disappear.
Until 11:59pm August 14, you can book a Deluxe King room for $259/night (includes breakfast), on a 'first come, first served basis, via:

Ports Industry Association Conference | Rydges Hotels & Resorts

NB: Make sure you've selected the correct number of guests/room.

Once the link expires you'll need to book accommodation directly via the hotel, subject to availability and at the best available rate

A sneak peek at a couple of our speakers

Further details about speakers and the agenda will be provided soon.

speaker

James Meager

Associate Transport Minister

speaker

Leonard Bentley

MD Mediterranean Shipping Company NZ (MSC)

Speaker

Francois Barton

CE Business Leaders' Health and Safety Forum

speaker

Elsamari Botha

University of Canterbury Associate Professor & Director of Future Forge Ltd

panel member

David Gawn

CEO National Emergency Management Agency (NZ) & former CEO Pike River Recovery Agency

panel member

Justin Watson

CEO Christchurch International Airport Limited

We look forward to seeing you at conference and know you'll join us in thanking those fantastic corporate sponsors who have committed to sponsoring our 2026 conference to date:

PIA conference 2026: Save the date & slight format change

The PIA Conference 2026 is proudly being hosted by Lyttelton Port Company and will be based at Rydges Christchurch.

Format Change: We listened to the feedback about last year's conference in which people felt there was too much information crammed into the main presentation day of our conference.

So the main body of Conference 2026 Company will commence on Tuesday September 29 at 1400 (after 1330 registrations) and continue throughout the day of Wednesday September 30, culminating with the Conference dinner on the evening of Wednesday 30th.

This dinner will be held at Christchurch's very new and impressive central city venue, officially named the One New Zealand Stadium, due to open in late April. The fully roofed venue is a new landmark for Christchurch, the Canterbury earthquakes of February 2011 having irreparably damaged Lancaster Park, which has since been demolished.

PIA Subcommittee meetings will be held on Thursday October 1.

We'll share more details about Conference 2026 as they are locked in.

The Port Industry Association’s 2025 Conference

Our well-attended 2025 PIA Conference on Sept 16-18 was held at Rydges Wellington and proudly hosted by CentrePort Wellington. Speakers included Associate Transport Minister James Meager, KiwiRail Executive GM Sales & Commercial Alan Piper, economist Cameron Bagrie and a panel of our members’ GMs Commercial, with journalist Paddy Gower speaking at the conference dinner. For the first time attendees included port industry representatives from Fiji, Niue, Tonga, Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands.

2025 Conference Sponsors

2025 Grant Wilson Memorial Award Announced

The 2025 Grant Wilson Memorial Award was awarded to Ruth Parris, which was announced during the conference dinner. More information here

2024 winner – Troy Evans (posthumously)
2023 winner - Adam Harvey

Photos from the 2025 Conference

The panel of GMs Commercial assembled from our members, discussing our industry's future. Left to right: Blair Hamill, Justin Williams, Simon Munt, Andrew Locke and Justin Scholes.