A RECENT study by the Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) on international association conferences held in the destination has found that medical and health conferences are the most lucrative for Victoria state in terms of organiser spend and daily delegate expenditure.

In the 2014/15 financial year, medical and health association conferences in Melbourne brought in more than 63 per cent of the total A$212.7 million (US$155) economic contribution to Victoria. The 20th International AIDS Conference in July 2014 attracted more than 11,700 delegates, and was a significant contributor.

According to ICCA, Melbourne hosts an average of 41 per cent of all medical and science conferences in Australia.

This supports MCB’s continued focus on attracting large international health and medical conferences to Melbourne.

The Melbourne Conference Expenditure Study 2015 also reported that international association conferences are supporting a broader range of businesses than once thought.

“Each international association conference delivers an average A$4.9 million to the Victorian economy from conference organiser spend, based on our most recent survey of nine international association conferences,” said MCB CEO Karen Bolinger.

“This is ‘new money’ that would not have come into Victoria had these conferences not been hosted here and is spent on businesses that supply a diverse range of services including venue hire, catering, printing, exhibition set up, audiovisual, training, marketing, financial, legal and accounting.”

International conferences also see a delegate expenditure of more than A$5,500 per person per trip.

Melbourne hosted 33 international association conferences in last financial year, and these supported more than 2,550 jobs.

Bolinger pointed out that MCB draws an average of 190 business events annually to Melbourne, 17 per cent of which are international association conferences. These conferences deliver 57 per cent of the total economic value of business events over a typical 12 month period.

“Our new research adds conference organiser spend into the mix to paint a compelling picture of the broader importance of international association conferences to a wide range of businesses that may not be directly connected with the event industry, and that’s great news for the economy,” Bolinger said.

AMWAY China has announced today that it will be taking its 10,000-delegate Amway China Leadership Seminar to Sydney in March 2017, making it the company’s third trip to the Australian city since 2005.

Associate director of special events of Amway China, Charming Cao, explained that Sydney was chosen to present a tempting reward for top performers.

Cao said in a press statement: “We aim to motivate our Amway China team to reach and exceed their sales targets, knowing that their reward will be an exciting trip to the always beautiful and thrilling city of Sydney. Our delegates will experience the modern, world-class facilities of the newly-opened ICC Sydney (International Convention Centre Sydney) and an exciting, appealing programme of activities.”

He added that his delegates had reported a 93 per cent satisfaction rating during their last visits to Sydney in 2005 and 2011.

“We look forward to inspiring and entertaining our delegates again in 2017,” he said.

Commenting on Business Events Sydney’s (BESydney) latest triumph in the incentive business, Destination New South Wales CEO Sandra Chipchase said her agency was delighted to have assisted BESydney in securing the event for New South Wales (NSW), and remarked that “China is the number one visitor market for NSW”.

“ICC Sydney will be Australia’s largest and most impressive events space, and securing the coveted Amway China Leadership Seminar for this state-of-the-art facility reinforces Sydney’s international reputation for hosting major events,” Chipchase added.

BESydney has done well in the incentive sector, delivering more than 45,000 Asian incentive delegates into NSW over the past three years and injecting A$213 million (US$155.6 million) into the economy.

“We’ve experienced a 20 per cent year-on-year growth in this sector in NSW over the past decade,” remarked Lyn Lewis-Smith, CEO of BESydney.

“Last year, 858,500 Chinese tourists arrived in Australia, spending more than A$5 billion, and many came to attend a business event or join an incentive programme.”

THE ASEAN Secretariat and TTG Events have joined hands to co-organise the first ASEAN MICE Forum on September 29, a half-day event aimed at showcasing the South-east Asian region’s MICE developments and capabilities.

Located within the annual Incentive Travel & Conventions, Meetings Asia (IT&CM Asia), the forum will offer a mix of panel discussions and presentations. Highlights include A One-Stop MICE Wonderland: Multi-destination Programmes in ASEAN, a panel discussion on how multi-destination programmes can be put together in the region; Learning from Success: Case Studies, which will see industry players sharing mini case studies on their events in relatively “fresh” ASEAN destinations; and Discovering ASEAN: A Rising Star for International Exhibitions, which looks at the region’s current exhibition performance and its future.

The organisers are targeting a turnout of 50 delegates, of which a majority will be buyers, exhibitors and the media.

The ASEAN MICE Forum is open for free to all IT&CMA delegates. Industry members who are not registered for IT&CMA can access the forum for a fee of US$50.

By Samuel Ng