In early 2000, a number of recognised and respected event organisers identified the lack of professional training, networking and experience-sharing opportunities for New Zealand industry professionals - for those working in the industry and for students graduating from event management courses.

The first ETF conference was organised by Anne Hindson, Peter Burley and a group of industry colleagues and held in 2001, in Christchurch. It has grown from these humble beginnings to be the recognised National conference for the events industry and a key vehicle for industry networking and professional development.

The NZ Events Association (NZEA) was born out of the conference in 2005 and while the conference has since been closely aligned with NZEA, and includes NZEA's AGM, it has been owned and delivered independently of the Association until NZEA purchased the event in 2020.

Unfortunately, the 2020 event was cancelled due to COVID, however we held our first conference in Napier in 2022. And for 2023, we brought Eventing the Future to Auckland on 22 & 23 August 2023.