How Selwyn Sports Centre Delivered the Selwyn Awards
When the Selwyn Awards outgrew previous venues, Selwyn Sports Centre provided the scale and flexibility to host the district’s biggest celebration.
05 March 2026
When the Selwyn Awards outgrew previous venues, Selwyn Sports Centre provided the scale and flexibility to host the district’s biggest celebration.
The Selwyn Awards has been recognising business innovation and community contribution across Waikirikiri Selwyn since 2002. What started as a modest five-category event at the Rolleston Community Centre has grown steadily over two decades - moving to the Lincoln Event Centre, then Lincoln University, and eventually outgrowing them all.
By 2025, the event had become something considerably more demanding: 172 applicants across nine award categories, 600 guests, a three-course seated dinner, full AV production, on-site catering, and the expectation of a black-tie evening worthy of the district's best. The venue had to be able to handle all of it - and it had to be local.
For Jessie Kingsbury, Strategic Events and Sponsorship Manager at Selwyn District Council and the event's organiser, taking the Selwyn Awards out of district was never on the table.
By 2025, Selwyn Sports Centre was the only local venue with the capacity to hold it — but what sealed it wasn't size. It was flexibility.
"The great thing about Selwyn Sports Centre is that it's a blank canvas,” she says. “You can make it fit your event rather than making your event fit the venue. There's nothing in the way that you have to work around or compromise on - if you want to do something a bit out of the ordinary, you can make it work."
With a venue purpose-built to accommodate any event format, the team had the freedom to configure the space exactly as the evening demanded.
Selwyn Sports Centre sits at the heart of Foster Park in Rolleston - a short drive from Christchurch, with the Southern Alps on the horizon. At 8,000m², it’s built for sport, but as Jessie quickly discovered, it's equally well-suited to something considerably more formal - this is, after all, a black-tie event, not a volleyball tournament.
The team brought in their own AV, including a curved LED screen that wrapped the room and gave every guest a clear sightline regardless of where they were seated. Caterers came in and built their kitchen on-site - a full-sized, purpose-built kitchen space that made catering 600 guests a manageable undertaking rather than a logistical gamble.
The floor was configured for a three-course dinner that alternated courses with award presentations throughout the evening - entree, first awards, main, second awards, dessert - giving the night a rhythm that kept the crowd engaged from start to finish.
And with a small but highly attentive venue team on the night, Jessie says the human element was just as important as the physical space.
"The staff anticipated my needs before I even did,” says Jessie. “They were amazing and only too happy to do whatever we needed of them."
All suppliers were local and familiar with the venue, which meant the lead-up was smooth and communication was easy. Parking and accessibility presented no issues for the 600-strong crowd. The one hiccup of the night - trophies accidentally printed with the wrong year - was handled quietly with a colour-matched sticker, and a return trip to the engraver afterwards.
Feedback from guests was overwhelmingly positive, with the theme and atmosphere drawing particular praise. But beyond the survey results, Jessies says the evening carries a significance that's harder to measure.
"It's not often people get to dress up and be recognised for the work they do and the contribution they make," she says. "It gives those who don't ask for anything an opportunity to be thanked - and that brings people together in a way not many events can."
That community dimension is central to what the Selwyn Awards sets out to do, shining a light on businesses driving economic impact in the district, and individuals who give their time without expecting recognition in return.
Hosting it locally, therefore, is part of the point. The Selwyn Awards looks set to return to Waikirikiri Selwyn for its 2027 edition - an event that has grown alongside the district it celebrates for more than two decades.
For event organisers who've only ever looked at city venues, Jessie has a simple message:
"Everything we needed was there, and nothing got in the way of the evening. The staff just get stuck in and make it work, everyone you deal with is local, and there are no surprises when the invoice arrives. Don’t underestimate what's achievable out here. You don't have to compromise on what you want - you just have to give it a go."