2026 Auckland Boat Show

In late 2025 I was given the opportunity to join the Auckland Boat Show team at NZ Marine.

My role was the public relations part.

In my experience PR isn't a term used a lot in New Zealand these days and it means different things to different people so at the start, I asked what PR meant to the client.

For this job, as they had inhouse people to look after social content and marketing, it was storytelling, focused on external media and the event's own website.

My approach:

• Thinking deeply about the channels, the news angles and the strategic messages angles that could promote the event while also supporting and benefiting the marina industry.

• The brief, over and above anything else, was to raise the profile of the event in a way that would get attendance (sitting alongside a paid campaign) and fortunately we have three print publications in the marine industry, plus some excellent digital channels, who made that possible to reach our target audience with a range of stories in the months leading up to and post event

• The news story is a business one, and I reached out to business journalists early to see what would interest them

• Capturing the interest of television with some fun and appealing angles

The outcomes:

• Extensive coverage with an equivalent advertising value many times the amount the client invested in my time (the exhibitors themselves also did a huge amount on top of this)

• Timely stories delivered to boating media with solid, genuine news angles that they could run with minimal editing (which they appreciate)

• New connections with exhibitors and media that I can build on for the future

• I really enjoyed it and had a lot of fun

Thank you to Stacey and NZ Marine for the opportunity to be part of this event.