Town Hall promotion ‘good for region’

Press, 30 August 1985, Page 5

Town Hall promotion ‘good for region’

The promotion of the Christchurch Town Hall as New Zealand’s premier conference venue would benefit Christchurch and all of Canterbury, said the Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay, last evening. Sir Hamish was speaking at the launching of the Town Hall conference brochure and promotion campaign. “The Town Hall is one of the city’s major assets and we want to see it more extensively used because this is important to the ratepayers who foot the bill,” he said. Sir Hamish said the Town Hall promotion would be

good for the region because those who attended conferences were big spenders.

The campaign aimed to attract conferences from throughout New Zealand and overseas, but Wellington, Auckland, and Dunedin had or were building rival conference centres.

“Everyone is trying to jump on the convention bandwaggon and perhaps it needs a new look for its promotion. The Town Hall Board has endeavoured to react to this competition,” Sir Hamish said.

The completion of the adjacent Christchurch Parkroyal Hotel in late 1987 or

eary 1988 would make the Town Hall the finest conference centre in Australia and New Zealand. The new hotel would benefit the entire South Island by providing an impetus to employment and tourism, which could be worth as much as $5O million, said Sir Hamish.

The Town Hall manager, Mr Ray Sleeman, said that at present the Town Hall hosted a dozen conferences a year, but he hoped this figure would increase to 20 as a result of the campaign. The 30-page brochure launched last evening details the capacities and

facilities of the Town Hall’s Auditorium, James Hay Theatre, Limes Room, Cambridge Room, and Conference Room. It says that the Town Hall can handle as many as 2300 people, but is equally suitable for smaller conferences or workshops of 20 people. Other aspects of the Town Hall promotion include the appointment of Guthrey Travel as sales agent, and the employment of Ms Fran Atkins to co-ordinate promotions and sales. Ms Atkins was appointed two months ago and previously worked for the Sheraton Hotel in Sydney. Picture, page 3.