What was the original spark behind launching Cairns Crocodiles, and did you imagine it would become what it is today?
It certainly wasn’t the plan. We launched during Covid because Australians couldn’t travel to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France. We thought there was a nice play on words with ‘Cannes in Cairns’. More importantly, there was an industry desperate to reconnect after lockdowns.

Initially, we thought it might be something we’d do once. But the industry got behind it immediately and said, ‘No, this has to continue’.

Since then, it’s evolved into Cairns Crocodiles, with its own identity. We’ve added the Crocodile Awards, the only awards in the region judged by clients, recognising the best creative work across Asia-Pacific, and the event has grown every year. Today, it’s become a genuine must-attend festival for advertising, media and marketing professionals across the region.

Attendance has grown again this year. What’s driving that momentum?
This year we welcomed just over 2,500 delegates, up from around 2,200 last year. About 14 per cent came from overseas, primarily India, Japan, Singapore and Thailand, with the US also well represented.

We’re really pleased with that growth because there were plenty of economic headwinds. The technology sector, which is a major part of our audience, has been going through significant change, and there was also uncertainty around international travel.

I think Cairns Crocodiles has simply reached the point where people know they need to be there. One of our partners told us they achieve three months’ worth of sales meetings in three days because everyone they needed to see was in Cairns. Once an event reaches that critical mass, it begins driving itself.

Cairns Crocodiles is often described as more of a festival than a conference. What makes that approach so successful?
The whole atmosphere is more relaxed.

Nobody wears suits. People are networking, hearing world-class speakers, then heading off to amazing lunches, dinners and parties before coming back for more content.

That changes how people connect. They’re no longer just having business conversations. They’re connecting as people. When that happens, they’re more open to ideas, they’re willing to challenge their own thinking and they have much deeper conversations.

I think the creativity becomes more authentic because people aren’t sitting inside boardroom mindsets anymore.

Why has Cairns proved to be such an effective destination for the festival?
Geographically, it has a unique advantage.

For delegates coming from Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong or Mumbai, the flights are manageable. The weather in May is fantastic. It’s also a tourism destination, so it has the accommodation capacity, great restaurants and a convention centre that’s exactly the right size.

Just as importantly, Cairns has changed enormously over the past decade. The accommodation product has improved, the dining scene has matured and there are now some incredible venues that allow us to create experiences you simply couldn’t stage elsewhere.

Also, the council and Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ) are constantly helping us unlock venues and experiences that wouldn’t happen in most cities.

The welcome party became one of this year’s highlights. Why are experiences like that so important?
We always try to surprise people.

This year we transformed a sugar cane farm into a festival site with live-fire cooking by local restaurant Nu Nu, large-scale art installations, a bush band, DJs performing inside farm sheds and a drone show over the cane fields.

Last year we held a massive dance party inside a former Bunnings warehouse. Before that we staged a fairground-themed event in an old timber mill that had never been used as a venue. Another year we used Tanks, a former World War II oil tank complex in the Botanic Gardens.

Those kinds of venues aren’t easy to work with. For this year’s welcome party on the sugar cane farm, rain continued almost until bump-in, high winds damaged installations, and every generator, light, piece of staging and catering infrastructure had to be brought onto site.

Pulling it all together is complex, but that’s what excites us. We all love the problem and love the solution even more. Delegates remember those experiences because they’re unlike anything they’d expect from a business event.

The festival also now has its own mascot, Greg the giant gold crocodile. How did that happen?
It started as a throwaway idea. I said I wanted a giant crocodile and one of our partners rang me and said: “I think I’ve found you one.”

Greg is 10 metres long and every year he has to be transported on a logging truck before taking pride of place outside the convention centre. Then, once the festival is over, he gets wrapped in plastic and goes into hibernation for another 11 months.

Every year I repaint him because delegates climb all over him for photos and inevitably break a leg or two. This year I had to bandage one of his legs and left a marker pen beside him. A few hours later the bandage was covered in signatures from delegates.

He’s become part of the festival. Everyone wants a photo with Greg. It’s silly, it’s memorable and that’s exactly the point.

How important is the destination itself in encouraging delegates to extend their stay?

It’s a huge part of our thinking.

We deliberately start on a Tuesday and finish on a Thursday because it gives people the opportunity to add a weekend before or after the festival.

Many delegates bring their families, enjoy a few days beforehand, attend the event and then stay on afterwards to experience the Great Barrier Reef, the rainforest and everything else Cairns offers.

We know it’s a significant journey for someone travelling from Tokyo, Singapore or Mumbai, so if they’re making that commitment, we want to create every reason to stay longer.

How are you working with TTNQ to grow the festival internationally?
We’re completely aligned.

We both want to increase international visitation and extend length of stay, and we work very closely together to make that happen.

The Crocodile Awards are becoming a major driver because agencies across Asia-Pacific are increasingly competing against each other for recognition. This year, we saw very strong participation from Asia, and many of the awards were won by agencies from the region.

We’re also expanding the festival itself. This year, we introduced a film and screen stream, which exceeded expectations, and we’ll continue adding complementary creative industries over time.

At the same time, we want to keep attracting world-class speakers who don’t normally appear in Australia. Bringing someone like Taika Waititi to Cairns was a total highlight in all the feedback we’ve had, and was an absolute coup to get, as he rarely speaks publicly. This creates experiences delegates simply can’t access anywhere else.

What advice would you give destinations hoping to create their own signature business event?
Find some crazy people.

You need creative people who are willing to push ideas beyond what’s comfortable, but they also have to be clever enough to know when an idea isn’t working.

Only hindsight tells you whether an idea was brilliant or terrible, so you have to give creativity enough space to develop instead of shutting it down too early.

At the same time, you need the humility to throw an idea away if it isn’t right. That requires leaving your ego at the door.

For us, that’s been the biggest lesson. Keep pushing for experiences people have never had before because those are the ones they’ll remember.