I engaged Emma Newman Events to coordinate elements of the University of Canterbury AUC2019 conference, which attracted 80 delegates, 60 of which came from around the world. I needed someone with cool ideas and superb planning to organise an excursion day to treat the delegates to a New Zealand experience, and an evening celebration dinner the following day. I wanted to showcase what Canterbury had to offer and I needed it to be well run and enjoyable. Having Emma on board meant I could concentrate on planning the actual conference papers, symposiums and lectures, but I didn’t need a full conference company either and Emma provided a number of options, which was great.
Emma kept me up to date with the arrangements and was great with details and keeping track of everything (including the budget). On the day, she was superb at people movements and smiling and chatting to people as well. Prof. Karen Fleming remarked “Emma is amazing, so friendly!”. Her ideas were spot on—the excursion entailed truffle hunting and a winery lunch, which was a massive success, and the dinner was stunning. I received lovely comments from many of the delegates and we have set the bar very high for the next conference somewhere else. Prof. Borries Demeler, who is organising the next meeting in Canada, quipped “We will have to hire her for our event in 2021!”.
Emma was great, she kept to budget, and to have a right-hand person to help you enjoy your event knowing someone is there in the background sorting everything was so valuable!
Ngā mihi nui, Renwick Dobson