5 March 2024

Erwin Matheeuwsen, Research Coordinator at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre is honoured to be awarded the 2023 ICCA Researcher of the Year Award. 

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The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) is a global community and knowledge hub for the global association and governmental meetings industry. ICCA offers data, education, communication channels to the international meetings sector, as well as business development and networking opportunities. 

Te Pae Christchurch Director of Business Development, Gillian Officer says “I am incredibly proud of this achievement for Erwin.  He works incredibly hard to source lead-opportunities for Te Pae Christchurch; is well connected within the ICCA community and has made a significant impact in a short space of time.  We’re off to an amazing start here at Te Pae Christchurch, achieving results in our first 18 months of operation that we were not expecting to achieve until year 10, and Erwin’s abilities as a researcher to generate quality leads for our team has been invaluable to this result”. 

To recognise this year’s top ICCA Data Provider, ICCA announced “it gives us great pleasure to select Erwin Matheeuwsen as “ICCA Researcher of the Year 2023” for which he will receive a certificate, together with a sum of €500 to be put against any ICCA product. 

The ICCA judges said “we appreciate Erwin’s cooperation to help contribute excellent meetings information to the ICCA database. We are confident he will be an inspiration for other members who are not yet using the database and its update functionality to their fullest potential.” 

Erwin was thrilled to receive this award and believes that the ICCA Business Intelligence system is a very helpful and efficient tool for finding relevant international association conferences that have the potential to be hosted in New Zealand. The more organisations in our industry who contribute their meeting information to ICCA Business Intelligence, the more beneficial this data is for everyone, leading to better hosting opportunities for all.”  

Erwin plans to utilise the prize money from his award toward attending the upcoming ICCA Skills Course being hosted in Christchurch, New Zealand from 10-12 September 2024. “In partnership with Tourism New Zealand Business Events and ChristchurchNZ, Te Pae Christchurch is hosting this highly regarded three-day ICCA course. I look forward to attending this training, which will be a great opportunity to brush up on my knowledge and meet others from the industry.” 

For more information about this ICCA award, visit: Researcher of the year 2023 (iccaworld.org) 

Date: 4 March 2024 

Media Contact: Mel Gurden, Te Pae Christchurch, Marketing and Communications Manager  
T: +64 21 190 2434 | E: [email protected]