The Langham, Auckland

We were delighted to be back at The Langham Auckland, which suited this conference in size and proportion perfectly.

The theme for this conference was ‘What matters most?’. When time is short, we want to do what matters most. The conference theme challenged each delegate to consider what matters from a range of perspectives. What matters most to patients, to their families, to the carers and to our communities when it comes to end of life care? What maters to us most personally?

How we translated this theme into the conference was have each hospices ask staff, patients, those in the communities to write what matters most to them, and photographed them, which was showcased on the screens to music at the beginning of every plenary session. It was a way of centering the room, prior to the session starting and kept the theme in the for-front of everyone’s mind.

With five international keynote speakers, the programme is always going to be heavy hitting, but we ensured the speakers were well brief on the theme and the layer behind it, in the lead-up.

Along with some amazing entertainment elements in the conference, the conference dinner provided a night of great fun, with The Great Gatsby theme.