AIME 2013 brought 507 Hosted Buyers from 31 countries to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) for the show’s 21st edition. Organised by Reed Travel Exhibitions and owned by the Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB), the show featured 750 exhibitors, including 196 first time exhibitors.
“The buzz on the show floor was fantastic with lots of energy, but more importantly people were talking about good quality buyers and of course, that’s what drives the show because it’s all about booking business,” MCB Chief Executive Officer, Karen Bolinger, told CMW. “Buyers were here ready to book business.”
Bolinger said AIME is important for the business events sector in terms of generating opportunities for conferences, meetings and events. “To have over 750 exhibitors in one place is a great asset for a buyer,” she added. “For Melbourne it’s a great opportunity to showcase exactly what we do.”
Sally de Swart, RTE Director for AIME said the focus for this year’s show was on delivering new initiatives to add value for attendees and creating forums to spur industry engagement and discussion. “AIME is a fitting place to debate the challenges and opportunities faced by our industry and we have tried to encourage this further, particularly around ways to better leverage the potential of new technology in the meetings and incentives industry.
“At AIME we want to represent the future of the industry and that’s technology. The Future Events Experience, we have developed, showcases the latest technology and innovation in the business events industry, ” she said.
Industry experts leading technology discussions included Eric Ly, the Co-founder of social networking site LinkedIn. The theme of technology and innovation was woven throughout AIME’s new education programme, AIME Knowledge, which grew to include two full days of content with 16 sessions.
AIME also gave business travel a greater focus with a dedicated stream focusing entirely on the sector in the AIME Knowledge programme, sponsored by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives.
De Swart said the new addition was the direct result of feedback from previous shows and would increase the return on investment for exhibitors and buyers. “In 2012, 42 per cent of Hosted Buyers told us they organised business travel and 15 per cent were corporate buyers; this clearly revealed potential for an increased focus on business travel.
“Adding business travel has allowed AIME to attract a wider range of buyers and visitors, including those responsible for the procurement and management of business travel programmes,” she said.
De Swart added that exhibitors such as Flight Centre Group Travel, Virgin Australia and Starwood Hotels and Resorts indicated that business travel at AIME was an important factor in driving their attendance at the show.
Other new initiatives included a new recruitment service, mobile App and concierge service, electronic appointment diaries for all visitors and networking events, including a welcome reception, ‘Melbourne Live’, a networking hour on the show floor and club night at Club 23.
While AIME 2013 did not follow RTE’s EIBTM lead with a hybrid element, the show did include audio recording and Portfolio Director for the IBTM Meetings and Event Portfolio at RTE, Craig Moyes said plans are in place to feature hybrid conferences across the RTE portfolio of shows, including AIME 2014. “As a result of the success and trial run of the Hybrid Conference at EIBTM last year we will now be rolling out hybrid events throughout our portfolio at appropriate times in the future,” he said.
Business Events Week
AIME 2013 was the centrepiece of Melbourne’s inaugural Business Events Week (BEW), a new initiative to showcase the value of business events to Victoria. Organised by MCB, the week which took place 25 February – 1 March, featured over 50 events.
“Business events are one of Australia’s least recognised business sectors yet we employ thousands of people and generate billions of dollars in income to Australia. It seemed appropriate to launch BEW around AIME as the attention of the world was focused on Australia’s biggest tradeshow,” said Bolinger.
Tourism Australia CEO, Andrew McEvoy, lent his voice to the BEW initiative when he spoke at the official launch of AIME 2013. “The business events sector in Australia is incredibly lucrative and is growing ahead of the leisure sector. This year $5m is being invested in the business events sector, and we will invest more as time goes on,” he said.
In 2012 the business events sector in Australia was worth AU$12.5m (US$12.8m) while business event visitors for the year ending December 2012 grew 11 per cent. India had the biggest increase in percentage terms of all international markets growing by 33 per cent, while China grew 23 per cent, the US 26 per cent and the UK 17 per cent.
McEvoy recognised a need for increased infrastructure space in Australia due to more demand for face-to-face meetings around the world.
“Conventions are getting bigger not smaller and the need for human interaction has never been greater; so much so the MCEC has planned an extension project, Sydney is revamping its Convention Centre and Perth has development plans on the horizon.”
MCEC has submitted plans to the Government for a 12,5000sqm extension and hopes to hear in May, when the Government has concluded budgetary discussions, whether the expansion can go ahead. “A lot of conventions these days have big exhibition elements so it will give us much better flexibility. We are at full capacity at the moment and we need some space to grow; customers are coming to us looking to grow their business and they can’t grow unless we have more space,” said Chief Executive of MCEC, Peter King.
AIME 2014 takes place on 18 – 19 February at MCEC.
This was first published in Issue 71/2013 of CMW. Any comments? Email cmw@mashmedia.net
