The Melbourne venues strike strategic partnership

Three of Melbourne’s business events venues, CENTREPIECE, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), and Pullman Melbourne on The Park have formed an alliance to create a ‘Meet, Celebrate and Stay’ business conferencing experience. The partnership was created to drive national and international conferences and business events to the precinct, following 40 business and conference events secured by Visit Victoria for the State up until 2028. These events are expected to deliver AUS $150m (USD $82.4m) to the local economy. As a hub for Melbourne’s sports and entertainment, the venues’ aim to provide a ‘postcard’ Melbourne setting, as well as = accessible transport connections including tram, train, and boat. Furthermore, both CENTREPIECE and the MCG were recently named finalists in the Victorian Tourism Awards. According to the venues, by combining forces they are expecting interest in the coming year from domestic conferencing and business events – as well as international markets including the United Kingdom, United States, southeast Asia and New Zealand. The collaboration has already seen industry events utilise the three venues for a ‘Meet, Celebrate, Stay’ experience including Tourism Australia’s Destination Australia Conference in February, Association Forum Conference in April, and Visit Victoria’s Destination Victoria Conference held in June. The Victorian State Government is also investing heavily in positioning Victoria as a business events destination, with AUS $42.9m (USD $23.6m) in funding committed for the Business Events Program in the Victorian State Budget 2021/2022. This will enable Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) to continue to build Victoria’s reputation as business destination with the aim of attracting business events to the state. On the partnership, Troy Stasinowsky, director of sales and marketing for MCG Events said: “MCG Events was created earlier this year to increase business events with a strong focus on the international incentive and domestic association market. Being able to leverage great precinct partners and celebrate our heritage and culture has been pivotal to that journey.”