World champion cyclists, immunotherapy experts, tropical agricultural scientists and nursing and education professionals are making their way to Australia's Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC) during the coming weeks as the venue moves into its peak exhibition and conference season.
BCEC is scheduled to host 60 conferences through to mid-December with some 30,000 delegates descending on Brisbane delivering 94,000 room nights to city hotels.
The medical research and healthcare sectors headline the agenda, reflecting Brisbane’s continuing strength and dominance in these disciplines.
The conferences cover a broad cross section of interests from science and research to energy, agriculture, education, technology, the environment, government and social services. The 60 conferences are part of a total 400 events scheduled between now and the end of the year attracting some 250,000 visitors to the centre.
This significant line-up of conferences secured for Brisbane by BCEC, many of which were in conjunction with convention partners Tourism and Events Queensland and Brisbane Marketing, will deliver a number of the world’s leading academics, scientists, medical professionals and researchers who will share their knowledge and expertise with the local scientific and business communities.
The 2015 busy conference season is further indication of the increasing popularity of BCEC as a major events venue following the successful hosting of the 2014 G20 Leaders Summit and affirmation of Brisbane’s reputation and track record for hosting world class events and its appeal to the international scientific and research sectors.
Among the conferences to feature at the centre:
♦ Gastro 15 – AGW and WGO International Congress (1,000 delegates)
♦ Asia Pacific Autism Conference 2015 (1,300 delegates)
♦ World STI and HIV Conference 2015 (500 delegates)
♦ Australasian HIV and AIDS Conference 2015 (1,000 delegates)
♦ FPA Professionals Congress (1,000 delegates)
♦ ASFA National Conference and Super Expo (1,300 delegates)
Meanwhile, new statistics from New Zealand’s official, membership based association for the conference and business travel industry, Conventions and Incentives New Zealand (CINZ), indicate increasing numbers of Australians are travelling to New Zealand for business events.
CINZ’s Australia manager, Sharon Auld said Australia continued to be the strongest market for New Zealand, accounting for 65 per cent of international business event arrivals.
July’s figures from the association showed a 20.9 per cent increase in Australian business event arrivals for July 2015, while the annual figure to July 2015 was up 10 per cent.
“The value of Australian visitors is highlighted in the most recent Convention Delegate Survey from December 2014. They stay an average of 3.8 nights in the event region, plus another 1.1 nights elsewhere and spend NZ$374 (US$234) per night,” said Auld.
Auld added new connections to Western Australia would bring more opportunity to the market. Air New Zealand is increasing its services to Perth, in particular.
CINZ has said it is planning a new familiarisation programme to allow more Australian decision-makers to experience New Zealand in the coming year.
