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Speaker 1: Now, after a decade of building works, the keys for

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Speaker 1: the International Convention Center have been formally handed over to

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Speaker 1: Sky City. The works began all the way back in

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Speaker 1: twenty fifteen. They were supposed to take three and a

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Speaker 1: half years, ten years, a huge fire and an ongoing

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Speaker 1: legal dispute, and finally we've made it there. Pre Daily

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Speaker 1: is the general manager of the New Zealand International Convention

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Speaker 1: Center and with us, Hey.

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Speaker 2: Prue Kyota, thanks for having me. Is it a relief, Oh,

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Speaker 2: it's more than relief, it's absolute elation. We are so

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Speaker 2: excited to have the keys and finally get into the

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Speaker 2: building and start getting it ready.

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Speaker 1: To truly give you keys.

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Speaker 2: They literally give us a whole lot of keys. It's

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Speaker 2: not just one. Like a box of keys got handed

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Speaker 2: over to our security team and they said, here you

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Speaker 2: go and you look after it from there. So, yes,

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Speaker 2: there are keys, but not like you would think of

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Speaker 2: in a twenty first where you get a big key

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Speaker 2: like that.

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Speaker 1: To hear it, I thought that the place was supposed

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Speaker 1: to open in twenty nineteen. It was actually supposed to

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Speaker 1: open in twenty seventeen, wasn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we've I mean, as you said in the in

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Speaker 2: the intro. You know, we're supposed to be three years.

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Speaker 2: It's been ten years, so we've been patiently waiting. But actually,

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Speaker 2: you know, now we're just super focused on getting that

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Speaker 2: building ready for February and make sure that when we open,

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Speaker 2: we're delivering really well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so all of the building works is done right correct,

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Speaker 1: So what do you do now?

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Speaker 2: So our job as the operational team is to really

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Speaker 2: get in there and we're doing some commissioning of our own.

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Speaker 2: We've got a whole lot of loose equipment that needs

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Speaker 2: to come in, about one hundred and fifty thousand items

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Speaker 2: that the team needs to like what ah, So if

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Speaker 2: you imagine you're going in for a gala dinner and

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Speaker 2: we can do a gala dinner for up to three

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Speaker 2: thousand people, think of the spoons, the cutlery, the crockery,

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Speaker 2: the glass where the tables, the chairs, everything that you

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Speaker 2: touch when you come into a room for a dinner.

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Speaker 2: That's what's coming in at the moment. And the team

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Speaker 2: is unwrapping and unpacking and washing if required, and putting

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Speaker 2: it into its future homes.

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Speaker 1: So you enjoyed doing that because that is fun. If

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Speaker 1: you like when you move into a new house. That's fun?

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Speaker 1: Is this fun?

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Speaker 2: This is fun? I think, you know, through the whole

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Speaker 2: procurement process, being able to pick out plates and glasses

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Speaker 2: and make sure that we're putting a unique New Zealand

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Speaker 2: touch on it, it has absolutely been fun hard work

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Speaker 2: at the same time. But I think this is what

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Speaker 2: makes our team really proud about what we're doing, is

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Speaker 2: we hope that it'll be a little bit different, a

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Speaker 2: little bit unique, but we'll actually speak to New Zealand

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Speaker 2: for all those international visitors who are coming through our doors.

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Speaker 1: And so you're going to be bringing in events, right,

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Speaker 1: So you you've announced some, haven't you.

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Speaker 2: We have announced some. So we've already got about one

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Speaker 2: hundred events or over one hundred events confirmed for the

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty six calendar year, with plenty more to come.

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Speaker 1: From all announced. Those one hundred all announced.

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Speaker 2: Not all of them have been announced. We've got quite

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Speaker 2: a few that have, but some that are not ours

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Speaker 2: to announce there for our clients to announce as well.

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Speaker 2: So I think about you know, from a conference perspective,

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Speaker 2: we've got the Australian New Zealand College of Anethesis coming

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Speaker 2: in April sixteen hundred people, huge Medical Congress. Really great

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Speaker 2: get We've got school balls, We've got charity events. We've

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Speaker 2: got Mail Robbins coming to speak into our theater. She

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Speaker 2: just sold out tonight in March. So quite a different

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Speaker 2: mix of events that we've got. But really, you know,

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Speaker 2: great to be able to have events that will bring

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Speaker 2: new international visitors into the country, but also some for

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Speaker 2: our Kiwis to.

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Speaker 1: Enjoy space for music like musicians.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, yes them. We've got a teared auditorium that can

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Speaker 2: do just under three thousand people. So bands, speakers, any

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Speaker 2: kind of musical acts. Absolutely, we're looking forward to bringing

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Speaker 2: those in. I can't tell you any yet. I can't

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Speaker 2: tell you any yet.

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to get this out of you the whole time.

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Speaker 1: I Okay. So what I've established is it's it's not

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Speaker 1: it's not oil cool.

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Speaker 2: It's not level, it's not a stadium show. It's not aga.

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Speaker 1: Nothing that would go in the stadium. So is it

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Speaker 1: more like your your weird little random thing that you like,

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Speaker 1: Like eldest.

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Speaker 2: Hardings, definitely don't think weird and random. I think that

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Speaker 2: we've got some announcements coming up in the next couple

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Speaker 2: of months, and I think they'll they'll be artists that

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Speaker 2: definitely resonated with a lot of people.

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Speaker 1: A d floor if you want to get up and boggy, well.

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Speaker 2: Actually, our theater has retractable seating in it and it

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Speaker 2: retracts back, so we can have a general admission standing

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Speaker 2: floor in our theater as well as a fully seated space,

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Speaker 2: so quite flexible and allows us to do all kinds

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Speaker 2: of things proved.

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Speaker 1: Do you think that you're bringing an event like Extra

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Speaker 1: above what was already going to be brought in or

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Speaker 1: are you cutting the lunch of smaller venues like the Civic.

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Speaker 2: No, absolutely bringing in new business and that's where these

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Speaker 2: international conventions come in. A lot of them are the

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Speaker 2: size and scale that would never have come to New

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Speaker 2: Zealand with our ns ICC being open. So we've anticipated

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Speaker 2: that once we're up and running at full strength. You know,

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Speaker 2: we expect to bring about thirty three thousand new international

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Speaker 2: visitors into the country every year and that will equate

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Speaker 2: to about ninety million dollars of economic impact. So well, yes,

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Speaker 2: absolutely we have you know, New Zealand events as well.

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Speaker 2: We are out there and our sales teams out there

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Speaker 2: target new business for New Zealand very strongly.

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Speaker 1: Oh fantastic. And so you're doing an open day for

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Speaker 1: the public at some stage, are you.

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Speaker 2: We will do an open days for the public and

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Speaker 2: go so you can come and have a little finger

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Speaker 2: or telling you things that you come and see the

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Speaker 2: amazing artwork we've got. Come and walk through the building.

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Speaker 2: It is absolutely stunning and honestly, as a team, we

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Speaker 2: just can't wait to share it with everyone. We're really excited.

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Speaker 1: Mate, Thank you so much for coming and I really

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Speaker 1: appreciate it. Prank daily having me general manager of the

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Speaker 1: New Zealand International Convention Center. For more from Hither Duplessy

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Speaker 1: Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be from

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Speaker 1: four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio