New AUD$25K fund on offer for ‘exceptional’ keynote business event speakers in Australia

Business Events Perth is offering up to AUD$25,000 to help secure ‘extraordinary’ keynote speakers for national business events anywhere in Australia. For a limited time, Western Australia’s convention bureau is offering a cash incentive to help business event planners lock in an outstanding headline speaker and in turn boost registrations for their 2021 business event. Business Events Perth chief executive Gareth Martin said the new fund was designed to offer a helping hand to business events around Australia this year, which are still recovering from the impacts of the Covid pandemic. “We recognise that to revitalise the business events industry we need to invest in it and provide immediate support, so events can proceed with certainty,” Martin said. “That is why this offer is available to national business events taking place anywhere in Australia in 2021, not just in Western Australia. We have to support events that are taking place now, so they’ll still be here in the years to come.” Martin said the right keynote speaker can inspire and motivate a conference audience and a high-profile personality is often a decision-making factor for delegates to attend a business event. “We hope if the right keynote speaker is secured for an event, it will lead to bigger delegate numbers, more successful events and a faster recovery,” he noted. Eligible events can access up to 50% of the funding once the speaker is confirmed. “All we ask is that you book a new future national or international business event for Western Australia within 12 months of your 2021 event and the future event is held in our beautiful State before the end of December 2024,” Martin said. The keynote speaker incentive is open to business events taking place before 31 December 2021, that have a duration of three days or more and a minimum of 200 in-person delegates. This new funding is independent of other subvention funding offered by Business Events Perth for business events held in Western Australia. Full event eligibility and terms & conditions can be found here.   Photo courtesy of SM Perth: Kate Walsh at State of Social 2020.