Delegates up for a Cannes return to Cairns

Organisers of the highly successful Cannes in Cairns event for the advertising, marketing and media industry say they are expecting to attract 2,000 delegates in June 2024 after numbers doubled this year from the 650 who attended the inaugural Cairns event in 2022. Event organiser Dan Uglow from The Misfits said Cairns was the perfect destination for a return event as the city offered exceptional convention spaces including the newly upgraded Cairns Convention Centre and unique offsite venues such as historical oil tanks in lush tropical gardens. “This enabled Cannes in Cairns to cater to an audience that had been to the region previously and loved getting away from the southern cold,” he said. “Indigenous themes were central to the 2023 event which coincided with National Reconciliation Week, starting with a spectacular Welcome to Gimuy (Cairns) by local Yidinydji representatives from Indigenous cultural group Minjil,” Uglow added. “Exploring diverse and unique avenues for fun was essential to the event’s overall success, with Cairns providing opportunities for our conference sponsors to create out-of-the-box experiences for large and small gatherings of delegates,” he said. “These included a Palm Cove beach dinner at Nu Nu, the exclusive Cannes in Cairns Yacht with Parisienne DJ Safire, a VIP dinner at Hemmingway’s Brewery, cocktail parties at Crystalbrook Riley’s rooftop bar Rocco, days of seafood on the iconic Prawn Star, and a Tik Tok takeover of the Cairns Party Bus. The event’s wow moment was bringing delegates together for the Pinterest-sponsored Pinchella Welcome Party at the Tanks Arts Centre, an historical venue featuring three World War II oil tanks within the Cairns Botanic Gardens. Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ) general manager of partnerships and events Rosie Douglas said Cannes in Cairns showcased the diverse event possibilities in Cairns where the two World Heritage Areas were a natural delegate booster. “Successfully increasing delegates numbers each year in the same destination shows the diversity of our destination’s offsite event venues, world-class catering options, and the professionalism of the business events industry in Cairns and Great Barrier Reef,” she said. “With increased direct flights from Singapore, Haneda, Tokyo, Osaka and Auckland Cannes in Cairns has the opportunity grow delegate numbers from across the Asia-Pacific region.” Douglas will be leaving TTNQ to pursue consultancy work and the bureau has announced that she will be replaced by Tara Bennett, currently CEO of Tourism Port Douglas Daintree, early in 2024. Over 300 travel agents from around the world also recently gathered in Cairns to gain insight into Australia’s world-class tourism offerings at the G’day Australia trade event. The event was Tourism Australia’s first international mega familiarisation and workshop event to be held since 2019. Held at the Cairns Convention Centre, the event was delivered by Tourism Australia in partnership with Tourism and Events Queensland and supported by Tourism Tropical North Queensland.