The National Convention Centre Canberra can fill to a capacity of 500 under relaxed coronavirus rules from Friday.

General manager Steve Wood hoped the centre would nab a few last-minute bookings but said most end-of-year celebrations had already been planned, or cancelled.

However, the changes were a key part of ensuring bookings down the track, he said.

"What this does is it gives confidence to people that are organising events, that the risks to do so are manageable," he said.

"It sends a really strong signal to the marketplace that it's OK to do this kind of event. We think that'll be a key demand driver."

Business events brought $1.1 billion to the ACT economy in the 2018-19 financial year, an Ernst and Young report found.

As diaries emptied and workplaces went virtual, 96 per cent of events disappeared nationally, Business Events Council of Australia figures showed.

Canberra Convention Bureau chief executive Michael Matthews said regardless of future rule changes 2020 had been written off, with the hope of a return to COVID-normal in 18 months.

"It's going to take a while to get going," he said.

"[Next year] will be when we'll start to see business events kick off. It's really too late now because we're relatively seasonal, you don't really see business events happen over school holiday periods."

Following the federal government's $50 million package to prop-up business events into next year, a BECA survey found more than 40 per cent of events between January and March would be postponed.

By October 2021, just half of all business events were expected to be held in-person.

But the reopening of state borders and Canberra's relatively restriction-free lifestyle would aid future planning, Mr Wood argued, after a year when thinking ahead had been fruitless.

By the end of November, every jurisidiction would be open to ACT residents, and the capital would once again welcome Victorians.

The changes would give businesses planning for March and beyond a bit of security, aided by Canberra's long runs without COVID-19 cases, Mr Wood said.

Open borders were a "key piece of the puzzle" for businesses, particularly across Melbourne and Sydney.

"So it's an important step for us for events in the first half of next year," he said.

Corporate events were key not only for event planners but for hotels, caterers and transport services used by attendees.

Canberra Airport has seen a slow resurgence in business, hoping to be back at 40 per cent by Christmas as borders opened. But it said it wouldn't return to any semblance of normality until businesses were up in the air.

"We won't see the growth in business travel that we're all hoping for until people are in the office and there's a point in flying to have a face-to-face meeting," head of aviation Michael Thomson said.

Mr Matthews said before a resurgence in business travel could begin, workers needed to get back to the office.

"People need to be doing be comfortable doing leisure activities and travelling a bit further afield. We've done a pretty good job here but people in Victoria have just left their house," he said.

"The next thing is people need to be returning to work as well. You can't ask someone to travel across the country to attend a work event if they're not going back to [the office]. It's a step too far."