About AWES 2025

Programme Details

About the AWES 2026 Workshops

The theme for the AWES Workshop 2026 is "Wind Matters: The Impact of Misjudgement in Wind Engineering."

A wide topic, you can expect the discussions to be varied and to include more than a few cautionary tales, along with plenty of practical knowledge sharing.

Exactly what will be covered in the workshop is yet to be confirmed, but we do know that when wind is underestimated, things go wrong, and the consequences can be catastrophic. So we expect to cover what we can learn from past situations where misjudgements have been evident, and what can be done in the future to better mitigate wind-related risk.

Programme Overview

Workshop Day 1

Wednesday 18 th February 2026.

Field Trip to Insol
AWES Delegate Dinner

Thursday 19 th February 2026.

Workshop Day 2

Friday 20 th February 2026

Field Trip to WindLab

19 th February 2026

Insol’s WindLab is the Southern Hemisphere’s only specialist wind testing facility for facade elements.

The facility is used for full 1:1 scale testing of complex facade construction details and features 4 x oversized fans capable of delivering constant wind speeds approaching 200km/h (50 metres per second).

The Field Trip to WindLab includes a presentation, tour of the facility, and a full demonstration of the wind tunnel capability.

Included in the Field Trip is return transport from Queenstown to Accommodation and a catered lunch at Bill Richardon’s Transport World.

Registration Fees

The table below details delegate registration fees. Please make note of the Earlybird Options, which are available for purchase up until November 31 st 2025.

Workshop Wednesday 18 th Feb & Friday 20 th Feb

Member

$600.00

Early Bird

$650.00

Standard

Non Member

$700.00

Early Bird

$750.00

Standard

Student

$300.00

Early Bird

$350.00

Standard

Wind Loading Day - Thursday 19 th Feb

Member

$250.00

Early Bird

$300.00

Standard

Non Member

$350.00

Early Bird

$400.00

Standard

Student

$200.00

Early Bird

$250.00

Standard

Dinner - Thursday 19 th Feb

Member

$120.00

Non Member

$140.00

Student

$95.00

Workshop Registration Includes: Access to sessions, proceedings, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.

Wind Loading Day Registration Includes: Transport by bus from Queenstown to Invercargill return, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.

The Dinner on Thursday evening is a 3 course meal with some beverages included.

Keynote Speakers

We have a fantastic line-up of speakers for AWES Workshops 2026, all experts in their fields and ready to share their knowledge and insights with members.

Angela Mejorin, PhD

Angela is the Founder of Performance-Based Facade Design, author of 'Cyclone-Glazing and Facade Resilience for the Asia Pacific Region', and recipient of the 2023 Facade Tectonics' Vitruvian Honours for Outstanding Facade Research. With hands-on engineering experience in complex projects like the Alfa Romeo Museum and Intesa Sanpaola Bank Headquarters in Italy, Anglea is on a mission to redefine building performance through serviceability, sustainability, safety and efficiency.

Dr. David Henderson

David needs no introduction to many of you. Chief Engineer of the Cyclone Testing Station at James Cook University, he has over 16 years of experience as a research engineer conducting studies into low rise buildings and their components. David's doctoral research investigated the impact of cyclonic wind loading on low-rise building envelopes, and his secondment to the University of Western Ontario saw him collaborate on the 3LP full scale house testing research project.

Peter Richards

Peter Richards is certainly well qualified to speak at AWES Workshop 2026. With a BSc (Mechanical Engineering) and PhD, along with being a Fulbright Scholar and an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, Peter is a true leader in wind engineering, computational fluid dynamics, and sail aero dynamics.

  • 18 th - 20 th February
  • 19 th February Field Trip
  • QT Queenstown, 30 Brunswick Street, Queenstown 9300