IrrigationNZ's biennial conference will start with the official opening at Ikawai of the $32 million Waihao Downs Irrigation Scheme ahead of three days of technical workshops, irrigation infrastructure viewing and keynote speakers as the Waitaki - one of New Zealand's most ‘‘densely populated'' irrigation areas - hosts the national industry body conference this week.
With more than 400 attendees, and Oamaru accommodation fully booked, some conference-goers were staying 85km north in Timaru, INZ chief executive Andrew Curtis said.
Tourism Waitaki general manager Jason Gaskill said conferences were an as yet untapped market for the growing tourism trade in North Otago.
‘‘We hear from a lot of people that organisations, professional bodies and the like are looking for locations where they haven't been - Oamaru fits that. [Waitaki] is a compact district, it offers a lot of opportunities that other places just don't have and for the most part it hasn't been a venue for conferences.
‘‘It's definitely an area that has not been fully developed in the past, but we are taking advantage of the opportunities now.''
Mr Gaskill said conferences were ‘‘a reasonably high-value market'' that required ‘‘substantial infrastructure''.
‘‘That's one thing that puts every region - not just Waitaki, but every region - under pressure from time to time, but having said that, we are capable of accommodating conferences of this magnitude, as we are seeing now, and it is an area that we are beginning to place a lot more emphasis on and a lot more energy into developing. And we have been for the last couple of years.''
Oamaru Opera House director Francis McElhinney said playing host to the conference was ‘‘absolutely exciting''.
‘‘The Opera House is just gearing itself for more conferencing, but this is definitely the biggest we have been required to host,'' she said.
The conference would not only fill the Opera House, but would spill over into the Kingsgate Hotel Brydone and a marquee erected in Wear St, creating a conference ‘‘precinct'' for the duration.
Mr Curtis said the theme of the 2016 conference, Grow with the Flow: food, jobs, environment and play, would focus on irrigation's role in community building.
‘‘It's not just all about the farmers.''
Irrigation's impact on school rolls, spending on community assets, and other benefits to communities had been well studied in Waitaki, Mr Curtis said.
He said Waitaki was a ‘‘go-ahead area'' and was one of New Zealand's more innovative irrigation areas.
‘‘There's 80,000ha to 100,000ha of irrigation all in that one Waitaki area, so from a New Zealand perspective, it's significant,'' he said.
‘‘It's also quite a unique place to come to because you've got some very recent irrigation schemes, some modern pressure-pipe irrigation schemes.
‘‘You've got the North Otago Irrigation Company and then on the other hand you've got some of the older, more traditional irrigation schemes that have been around a while, but that are in the process of modernising. The good thing about the Waitaki district is that there's lots to look at for everybody.''
