Let's AIME for meeting stars Down Under

More than 400 hosted meeting and incentive buyers and an estimated 2,000 trade visitors attended the first day of Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME) at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) on Tuesday to meet some 350 exhibitors from destination marketing organisations, hotels, conference centres, and other meeting industry suppliers.

Owned by the Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) and managed by Talk2 Media & Events, AIME has grown into an important fixture for the region’s events industry and is considered one of the top five meeting trade shows globally.

This trade show marked its 30th edition this year, having skipped only one year in its 31-year history. An open-air 30th celebration party was held at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on Monday night to highlight this milestone.

Aside from 12,000 pre-scheduled buyer meetings, AIME also includes educational elements for attendees. The Knowledge Programme included an address from Australian tennis star, Jelena Dokic, along with discussions led by industry leaders and professionals as keynote speakers. During the two-day show, regular Ideas Academy sessions introduce short presentations on issues of importance to the events industry.

With 25 different countries represented at the show, MCB chief executive Julia Swanson stressed that AIME’s importance was not simply confined to the city or even Australia but to the whole region’s events industry.

“AIME enables new and valuable connections to drive commerce not just for us here in Victoria, but for the wider Asia Pacific region," she said. “At the core, we are about business events and providing the best access to key decision-makers and the people who make it all happen. AIME has proven itself as an essential platform for this.”

MCEC CEO Natalie O’Brien said: "As Australia’s largest convention and exhibition space, we’re well placed to create spaces for people to connect, collaborate and learn. And, of course, our riverside location makes for spectacular settings to celebrate 30 years of AIME.”

She also announced that MCEC will also manage a new convention centre in the neighbouring Geelong region of the state of Victoria. The new centre is scheduled to open in 2026. 

Among several Asian exhibitors, Arnold Gonzalez, department manager at the Tourism Promotion Board of the Philippines, said he was delighted by the quality of buyer meetings he had on the first day and believed they would lead to confirmed business for the country.

Outlining Tourism Australia’s events strategy for 2023 and beyond, executive general manager of commercial at  Business Events Australia Robin Mack said he was “super-excited” by the return of China’s outbound market although the return of direct flights between China and Australia to pre-pandemic frequency would still take some time. Mack also noted that Indian corporate groups were showing particularly strong interest in the country.

Mack said that Australia will be welcoming a special Asian events buyer familiarisation trip in April, and in November the city of Adelaide in South Australia will host hundreds of incentive buyers from across the globe for Tourism Australia’s dedicated incentives event Dreamtime.