Waikato Home & Garden Show moves to North Port Events

North Port Events, one of New Zealand’s foremost event management companies, has acquired the Waikato Home & Garden Show, the second largest home show in New Zealand.

“We love the Waikato Home & Garden Show, just like many thousands of other Kiwis,” says Dona White, CEO of North Port Events.

“It’s an iconic event that has consistently grown and attracted big audiences for the last 31 years. It’s a proven marketing and sales vehicle that has helped the hundreds of businesses that exhibit every year to flourish. It’s a show that comes with a long history of making it happen for exhibitors and visitors alike – and we’re keen to build on that.”

Rebecca Hannah, daughter of the show’s founder Graham Hannah, will remain at the helm as Event Director and will work closely with North Port Events to grow the event while maintaining the unique elements of it’s winning formula.

The Waikato Home & Garden Show is an ongoing success story, attracting more than 30,000 visitors from throughout the Central North Island who attend every year to check out the latest ideas, trends, products, and services for building, renovating, decorating, and landscaping.

North Port Events stages multi-award-winning consumer and trade exhibitions in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch each year, including The Food Show, The Baby Show, Fine Food New Zealand, Facilities Integrate, and Auckland Art Fair.

When Graham Hannah decided to sell his show, he immediately thought of North Port Events as the most appropriate buyer.

“North Port Events is a highly professional event management company that has been responsible for establishing some of New Zealand’s most successful shows, so the decision to sell the Waikato Home & Garden Show to them was an easy one,” says Graham.

“Their commitment to excellence and their ethos of striving to create ‘must-attend’ events aligns them perfectly with the values and objectives that have helped us make the Waikato Home & Garden Show such a long-term success.”

“At North Port Events we’re great at supporting the experiential aspects of our shows with extensive marketing campaigns across traditional media but with a strong emphasis on online,” says Dona.

“We make smart use of online assets like our sophisticated show-specific websites, highly readable e-newsletters to our opt-in databases, and social media presence to drive activation of our audiences. We use a wide variety of channels to create real ‘buzz’ in the lead-up to each show and provide increased promotional value for our exhibitors.

“In the case of the Waikato Home & Garden Show, we believe we can grow the already strong audience for this show even more in the years to come.”