Blazing a trail
Brisbane is coming good on its promise as a new world city with new strategies to attract
business events and some stunning new hotels coming online this year to accommodate the
delegates they will bring.
Brisbane has a plan. It’s called the 2022
New World City Action Plan, and it
involves attracting more national and
international business events to the city.
The Brisbane Convention Bureau
has hit the ground running in 2018,
notching up 15 business event bid wins
in the first half of the year, spanning
industries including health, education,
technology and finance.
Brisbane Convention Bureau general
manager Juliet Alabaster says the wins
would provide tangible benefits for
Brisbane in years to come.
“This year will see the fruition of past
bid wins by the bureau and partners,”
she says.
These included air route development
event Routes Asia in March, the IEEE
Conference on Robotics and Automation
in May, while the World Congress of
Science and Factual Producers will take
place in November.
“Brisbane is the complete package,
and we’re ramping up our focus on
attracting more business events by
offering all the sophistication and style
of larger destinations, accompanied
by the warm hospitality the city is
renowned for,” she says.
Another piece of the strategy in
attracting business events is the Lord
Mayor’s Convention Trailblazer Grant,
with the recipients of the inaugural
program including researchers in
areas of mobile robots and stem cells,
a specialist passionate about finding
solutions for children with hearing loss,
and two molecular bio scientists.
The seven successful applicants have
been awarded a share of $25,000
to attend a leading international
conference to highlight Brisbane’s
expertise and help secure the event for
Brisbane in a succeeding year.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk says the
grant program was developed to
support Brisbane’s up-and-coming
professionals and researchers while also
attracting high-profile conferences and
the world’s brightest minds to Brisbane.
www.cimmagazine.com Convention & Incentive Marketing, Issue 3, 2018 15