Friday October 30 – 10am to 4pm
Saturday October 31 – 9am to 3pm

St Stephens Church
61 Tāhunanui Drive, Tāhunanui, Nelson

The programme will include group discussions on topical issues, as well as reports from committees around the country on their highlights and challenges over the past year.

There will be lots of opportunities to network at lunch, morning and afternoon tea breaks, and at an optional dinner at a local restaurant in Tāhunanui on Friday night.

2026 Conference Program

The conference is open to all Abbeyfield committee and board members – that includes committees managing Abbeyfield houses and committees working to establish an Abbeyfield house in their community. We recommend every house management committee send at least one representative.

You must register to attend, as we need to know how many people to expect for catering and organisational purposes.

Registrations have now closed

There is no cost to attend the conference nor for the optional Friday night dinner (set menu, two courses – (excluding partners $55 p.p).  Participants will need to pay for their own travel and accommodation.  We suggest that Abbeyfield societies and committees cover some (or all) costs for their representatives, as their attendance will benefit everyone.  This is a discussion you should have as a committee.

It is up to participants to book and pay for their accommodation. There are a lot of motels in Tāhunanui – here are some motel options.

If you are interested in booking an AirBnb with other delegates, please state in the registration form and we will put people in touch to organize this together.

Members will be booked in at the Beachcomber motel in Beach Rd, across the road from the conference venue.

Abbeyfield national office will provide 1 pick-up from the airport to the conference venue on Friday morning, at 9:15 am, and a drop-off on Saturday afternoon at 3.30pm. If you want to be picked up or dropped off, let us know when you register.

We cannot provide pick-ups from your accommodation. Here is a link to Sun City taxis: 

If you want transport from the airport at another time you will need to arrange that yourself.  There is a bus which goes from the airport every half hour and the Tāhunanui interchange stop is right across the road from the conference venue. Here is information about the bus and timetable.

All committees are invited to submit a PowerPoint report on the past year. The report should be no more than 10 minutes – this will be strictly enforced, with a timekeeper signaling when 10 minutes is up. To help keep things brief, we ask committees to focus on key successes and challenges or major changes. You can also send photos for us to add to the presentation if you’d like.  Please choose one or two representatives to present the report.

The deadline for information and photos is Oct 1.

Conference venue, St Stephens Church, Tāhunanui

Dinner venue Friday night, Smugglers restaurant

I enjoyed the camaraderie and the energy of participants. It was great to talk to people from other societies and realise that we have similar issues.

The key takeaway for me was the sharing of information and the collaboration. The number of new committees and new people attending was particularly encouraging.