Behind the Scenes of WIPCE 2025: Aotea Centre Delivers Auckland’s Largest-Ever Conference

Auckland Conventions, Venues & Events (ACVE) recently had the honour of hosting the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education (WIPCE) 2025 at our flagship venue, Aotea Centre and Aotea Square. This marks the largest academic conference Aotearoa New Zealand has ever seen, and a milestone moment for us, our region, our communities, and our place on the global stage. 

Bringing together thousands of delegates from more than 25 countries around the world including the United States, Guam, Colombia, South Africa, Canada, Taiwan and Japan, WIPCE 2025 transformed the Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s city centre into a hub of cultural exchange, innovation, and shared learning. Over several days, we welcomed participants celebrating, preserving and advancing Indigenous knowledge, languages and ways of learning. Our acknowledgment and gratitude go to Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau - Auckland University of Technology, the hosts of WIPCE 2025, and Auckland Convention Bureau and Tourism New Zealand for securing this meaningful gathering for Auckland. 

Crunching The Numbers 

The scale of WIPCE 2025 was evident across every part of Aotea Centre and Aotea Square. The week started with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei welcoming 3,000 guests with a powerful pōwhiri at The Cloud. The conference welcomed around 3,800 attendees over the four days, plus Aucklanders coming out to enjoy Indigenous food, dance and stalls at Te Ao Pūtahi Festival in Aotea Square. The closing dinner on Thursday saw 1,200 guests celebrating the end of the conference together. 

The entire ACVE team worked with precision and heart, from technical operations and event production to the sales and marketing team, to front-of-house, security, catering, logistics, housekeeping, and cultural advisory support. Their combined expertise ensured the event ran smoothly and was aligned with the cultural values and expectations of WIPCE. 

To support an event of this magnitude, Aotea Centre’s 34-screen network was used for the entirety of the event – hosting a wealth of information about the conference, directional signage and branding. To support sustainability initiatives, the conference agenda was fully paperless, enabling attendees to access the programme via the event app. In order to achieve this, Aotea Centre’s Wi-Fi capacity was upgraded to support 8,000 connections – normally only able to support 4,000! 

Speaking of the programme, one conference day alone hosted an incredible 175 breakout sessions spread across 26 different spaces. From Aotea Centre to Aotea Square and Herald Theatre, every space was activated to support a rich and diverse programme of kōrero, workshops, presentations and the festival. We also utilised the spaces in Event Cinemas, our first time working with them, which proved an enormous success. 

Another key contributor to the success of WIPCE 2025 was catering. Through our partnership with Urban Gourmet, we delivered an exceptional food experience at scale. Over the four days, we served 26,600 sweet items, 15,200 savoury items, and 14,480 lunch boxes – and impressively, the team achieved an average service time of just 20 seconds per delegate. 

Activity was equally strong across our food and beverage outlets. At The Terrace Café and the Container Bar, delegates purchased 5,345 coffees, with Flat Whites proving most popular, followed closely by Iced Lattes. Over the week, 200 kilograms of coffee beans and 600 litres of milk were used to keep attendees fuelled. Corona emerged as the top‑selling beer, with local craft favourite Halfway Down Lager close behind, often paired with shoestring fries. In total, the two outlets processed 16,040 transactions: 12,134 at The Terrace with an average spend of $6.97, and 3,906 at the Container Bar averaging $6.20. 

Te Ao Pūtahi Festival was also a standout feature of the week. Aotea Square transformed into a bustling hub of creativity, with stalls, kai and performances from the likes of kapa haka rōpū Ngā Tūmanako, and artists and bands including Corrella, Jackson Owens, IA, Betty-Anne and Sons of Zion. Each day of the festival drew more and more crowds – it was amazing to see our spaces come to life like this with attendees packing out The Terrace, Container Bar, filling the Square with aroha, energy and spirit. 

It Takes a Village 

Delivering this event required close collaboration between ACVE and Auckland Live, the largest platform for live arts and entertainment in New Zealand, with both teams working together to optimise the city’s event schedule and ensure a seamless experience for delegates, and visitors to the festival. Adjustments were made to existing programming to accommodate the conference, recognising its cultural and global significance.

For ACVE hosting WIPCE 2025 stands as a milestone achievement, a celebration of Indigenous knowledge, a catalyst for economic activity, and a demonstration of our capability to deliver world-class events of extraordinary scale and significance. 

As we reflect on the event’s success, we extend our gratitude to all partners, teams, suppliers, cultural leaders, and volunteers who contributed to this remarkable occasion. WIPCE 2025 was more than a conference; it was a monumental gathering that will leave a lasting legacy for our city. It was an honour!