Conference 2010

The 2010 conference will be held on the 24th to 27th June 2010 at the Brentwood Hotel in Wellington and is being organised by the Wellington Region Home Hosts Association in partnership with @home NEW ZEALAND.

For updated details please view website www.bookin.co.nz/wellingtonconference2010

Conference 2009

The 2009 conference was held at the Ashburton Hotel on the 12th/13th and 14th June and was organised by our Ashburton regional group with Karen Mcintyre holding the reins as coordinator, ably assisted by her husband Jim and a small but enthusiastic committee. The conference theme was "Putting people first" and the 100 approximately who attended seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. The first event was the Friday morning golf tournament sponsored by FMG Insurance and this was played in fine weather at the Ashburton Golf Club. During the afternoon attendees were able to register and the conference was formally opened by His Worship the Mayor of Ashburton, Bede O'Malley followed by a cocktail party. The Mayor spoke on the versatility of the Ashburton district and mentioned the many types of farming in the district, the impressive man-made Lake Hood and the close proximity of Mount Hutt Skifield for winter sports. Trevor Knight, president followed the Mayor by introducing the candidates for the board elections giving each of them an opportunity to address the members present.

After a sponsored Saturday morning breakfast the Annual General Meeting including the election of board members took place. The M.C. Dick Taylor, winner of the 10,000 metres at the Christchurch Commonwealth games in 1974 then introduced the main guest speaker, Christine Fernyhough, owner of Castle Hill Station who enthralled those present with her exploits as a high country farmer. After lunch Dick Taylor kept the attendees amused with his endless supply of yarns as he introduced a number of speakers who provided those present with a host of information useful in this fast-growing tourism sector. The speakers included David Rush from Vision Insurance, Peter Blackwell from AA Travel, Bob Draper who updated attendees with progress on the introduction of food safety regulations and Tim Cossar from Tourism Industry Association.

A fashion display of garments made from merino and merino/possum mix organised by the Tin Shed was a highlight of the afternoon and those present were then given the opportunity to have a run-through of the association's new website by webmaster Chris Lloyd. After a short break to freshen up the evening entertainment of a dine and dance was held with music provided by an old time dance band. During the evening festivities a fund raising auction was held with items donated by the Ashburton community up for grabs and Robert Forgie managed to auction nothing raising $65 for the local St. Johns ambulance service. Several awards were presented during the evening by AA Tourism, Jasons and @home NEW ZEALAND.

Sunday morning saw several speakers holding our attention and again these were ably introduced by M.C. Dick Taylor. Sheryl Stevens from Wastebusters was intriguing and she was followed by presentations from Sleepyhead, Jasons, Zeald, Kevin Donaldson, a fire safety officer and Bill Grant an ex limousine chauffeur. These speakers were followed by a light hearted introduction to the 2010 Wellington conference presented by the Wellington members who were present. Finally before the close of formalities by Dick Taylor there were further presentations and the drawing of several raffles and donated prizes followed by a closing lunch.

Those attending felt they had been well entertained and had also enjoyed the educational content of the conference. Attendees felt the organisers had done an excellent job and the association would like to thank the following main sponsors who helped make the conference so successful.

Vision Insurance, AA Travel, Sleepyhead Bedding, Jasons, The NZ Bed & Breakfast Book, FMG Insurance and all the minor local sponsors who contributed