Strong history of events keeps Alzheimers NZ on the world stage

Hosting the first international dementia conference in Aotearoa New Zealand was daunting for many reasons – most notably the infamous September 11 attacks just a month before delegates were flying in.

However, the resounding success of conferences hosted by Alzheimers NZ continues to set the standard for the sector.

In the early 2000s, Wendy Fleming was running education programmes for care partners in Canterbury when approached by Alzheimers NZ to Chair the event.

By this time the organisation already had a strong history of running dementia conferences in the country.

Hosted on behalf of Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), registrations were streaming in with hundreds of people confirmed to attend in October 2001.

However, the September 11 attacks nearly put it all to a stop.

“Within about quarter of an hour of those attacks I got my first cancellation… I thought ‘oh no, they’re going to all pull out,” says Wendy, who is now an Alzheimers NZ Life Member.

Then the principal international sponsor put a ‘no fly’ on all staff

“I rang Wellington and asked to speak to the Member of Parliament who was responsbile for air travel and I asked him ‘is New Zealand still the safest country to fly to in the world?’ And he said yes.

“So I then sent out an email to everyone who registered and I said I can understand how they may feel about flying but ‘I’m sorry, there will be no refunds’. I didn’t receive any more cancellations and representatives from 50 countries came.”

Wendy says the conference was a sucess and put dementia at the forefront for many New Zealanders for the first time.

It was also the first conference where a person living with dementia mate wareware was asked to be a keynote speaker.

“Now for an ADI conference, they wouldn’t think of not having a person with dementia speaking… back then it was very special!”

The conference made a profit so funds were put aside to establish the Alzheimers New Zealand Charitable Trust Incorporated. Wendy was Chair for many years, as well as Vice President of ADI.

“At that time, it was the only trust in New Zealand that was solely raising funds for dementia research,” she says.

“In 2022, we wound the trust up and distributed the funds to Alzheimers New Zealand and Dementia Prevention Research Clinics, Centre of Brain Research who the Trust had been the founding sponsor for their establishment.”

The last decade or so

Since then, Alzheimers NZ has hosted a mix of conference-style events including the ADI Asia Pacific Conference in Wellington in 2016.

Alzheimers NZ Lived Experience Advisory Group member Alister Roberton says the lived experience voice has become more prominent over the last decade or so – people with lived experience are often key note speakers.

“Or it seems to be one of the highlights of the conferences that people do get to hear the voice of the lived experience,” he says.

Chief Executive Catherine Halls says the organisation takes pride in hosting events shaped around the lived experience voice.

“We also respond to the changing context within which we operate with our events which means they have had a different look and feel over the years,” she says.

“We drive debate and thought leadership to support the cause as we work towards a future where people living with dementia mate wareware and their whānau are heard, valued and supported.”

Terri van Schooten, CEO of event organisers Verve, has been supporting Alzheimers NZ to run events since 2016.

She describes that  conference as a “learning curve,” particularly around creating an environment that works for people with lived experience.

“We were hosting a whole lot of international people, so we wanted to showcase New Zealand as best we could,” she says.

“It was exciting to create something that people would remember for years to come that was very New Zealand focused and also delivered for the sector.”

Conferences continued in a similar way every two years until Covid-19 forced the 2021 conference online.

“It definitely changed the face of the conference moving forward – from there we introduced streaming and then realised how valuable that was for the sector,” says Terri.

“For those living with Alzheimers or dementia and their care partners it made it much more accessible.”

In recent history, Alzheimers NZ hosted a series of one-day events during 2023 and 2024 before hosting a two-day Summit last year.

Terri says there continues to be power in having people together in a room and using the forum for everything from policy change to advocacy and innovation.

“It keeps people connected – conferences have a lot of purpose. And I think now, particularly with the times of AI and everything’s online, it’s one of the few real experiences people can have.”

Preparation for our 2026 conference is underway and the dates are locked in for September. Keep an eye out for more details and a registration link – and we hope to see you there!

Caption above: Alzheimers NZ Conference Chair Wendy Fleming (left) pictured at the 2001 international conference with Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) Executive Director Elizabeth Rimmer