Events & Events sponsorship
Events play a key role in creating a vibrant, urban CBD environment and drive social and economic benefits. We are therefore focused on creating, developing and supporting city based events, that will bring people into the city, and profile some of the great businesses we have in the CBD.
Heart of the City Events
Over the coming year our event focus is on four major pillars of the city offering - Dining, Fashion, Nightlife, Art/Culture plus Christmas. This allows us to focus on finding specific opportunities to promote and have participation from a range of our business membership.
Auckland Restaurant Month 2012
Planning is underway for Auckland Restaurant Month 2012, to be held in August. Auckland Restaurant Month aims to raise awareness of the great restaurants in the central city and get Aucklanders to dine out over the traditionally quieter winter months. The inaugural Auckland Restaurant Month in 2011 featured more than 60 participating restaurants.There was a fantastic interest from the media, particpants and from Aucklanders, with over 83,000 'Restaurant Month' pages viewed on the BIG little City website in three weeks.
The event was supported by a marketing and PR plan that included Television Ads, a NZ Herald magazine, along with a consumer prize to New York City Restaurant Week, generating more than 6000 entries.
Christmas 2012
The biggest month in the retail calendar year is December, and in 2012, we will again be working to make Auckland CBD the home of Christmas and a place for all Aucklanders to come together to celebrate.
Here is what we did in 2011:
- Theming of Queen St - Banners and Spirals joined by Santa, presents and his reindeer on the Whitcoulls Building
- Lights in Durham Lane and new decorations in High Street
- The addition of banners in Aotea Square plus the 3 baubles and Santa's post box
- Angels in Elliott Street and on K'Road
- KZ1 Maritime Tree with baubles and lights
- Street banners in Britomart & Quay Street
- Random Acts of Christmas & Christmas in the Square - a programme of free performances throughout the month of December to entertain and delight all visitors to the city centre.
Fashion Festival 2012
New Zealand Fashion Festival is the opportunity for Fashion to be celebrated on the streets, and for people to come in to enjoy the city's great fashion offering. Heart of the City was a major sponsor of Fashion Festival 2012, working with the organisers to develop a programme of activities in the city, with a strong focus on the Fashion in the BIG little City event.
Fashion in the BIG little City
Fashion in the BIG little City was a one-day retail-focussed event held in central Auckland. More than 100 retailers participated, offering special sales, gifts with purchase or in-store experiences to customers. There were seven free catwalk fashion shows in key city locations, and two great fashion competitions running throughout the day.
Event Sponsorship
Heart of the City is a direct supporter of many city based events through sponsorship and assistance including The Auckland Arts Festival, Auckland Comedy Festival, Farmers Santa Parade, the High Street Long Lunch, the Auckland Seafood Festival, The International Buskers Festival and many others.
If you are organising an event and are looking for support and sponsorship, we have developed a set of guidelines to help understand our Events Sponsorship.
> Download our Events Sponsorship Guidelines <
> Download the Events Sponsorship Application form <
Event Calendar
Our event calendar has listings of all the major events and business related events.
