Follow
Twitter
LinkedIn
Already Registered?
Skip Navigation
Destination Business Events Conference
18-20 September 2019, Melbourne
Home
Program
Speakers
Laneway Tours
Partners
Venues
Accommodation
Travel
Discover Melbourne
Contact Us
Facebook
Twitter
Tweet
LinkedIn
Agenda
Show
Agenda at a Glance
All Sessions
Go
[+] Show Description
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
|
Thursday, September 19, 2019
|
Friday, September 20, 2019
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Friday, September 20, 2019
Closed
Optional
Fee
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Destination Business Events 2019
3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Registration
6:00 PM - 6:30 PM
First Timers Welcome
A fantastic opportunity for AACB Conference newbies to meet others in the same boat for a quick pre-drink before the Welcome Reception. Registration for this function is required - email communications@aacb.org.au if you'd like to attend.
6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Welcome Reception
Plus 5 Bar - 37 S Wharf Promenade, South Wharf VIC
‘Laneways to Success Welcome Reception’ kicks off the pre-conference social program of the 2019 Destination Business Events - the 30th Association of Convention Bureaux Annual Conference, providing delegates with an opportunity to connect and network with friends, peers and colleagues in a friendly and relaxed environment. Taking place on Wednesday, 18 September one of Melbourne's most iconic event venues by Showtime Event Group, Laneways to Success Welcome Reception promises an interactive food and entertainment experience, complete with live music and energetic atmosphere taking guests on a truly unique Melbourne culinary and cultural journey. Dress: business casual
Thursday, September 19, 2019
8:45 AM - 9:00 AM
Welcome address
Main Plenary
Speakers:
Lynne Schinella
,
Michael Matthews
9:00 AM - 9:20 AM
Building Australia's value proposition with Tourism Australia’s Penny Lion
Main Plenary
Across the world, destinations - be it for business or leisure travel, are increasingly becoming more homogeneous. How do we redefine the ‘same, same but different’, and move compellingly into ‘different’? The two-word answer is ‘value proposition’. Your destination’s value proposition is arguably the most important element of your overall marketing messaging. A value proposition tells prospects why they should do business with you rather than your competitors and makes the benefits of your products or services crystal clear from the outset. Australia is recognised as a serious player on the global stage of business events. Join Tourism Australia’s Executive General Manager Penny Lion and hear how Business Events Australia is building Australia’s value proposition with the customer at the heart of everything they do. Penny will share the latest vision for Australia, provide recent insights and explore common challenges and strength in the business events journey for Australia destinations.
Speakers:
Penny Lion
9:20 AM - 9:40 AM
State of the Nation
Main Plenary
Portia Morgan, Roy Morgan’s Head of Client Services, will present a overview of the latest data how business events and Tourism in Australia is tracking. What are the trends, where is the room for improvement and what should we be concentrating on to evolve. The points covered will help shape the way you will respond to the questions and comments raised throughout the conference. Roy Morgan is Australia’s best known and longest established market research company, with an unparalleled reputation for reliable, accurate, meaningful, revealing market research.
Speakers:
Portia Morgan
9:40 AM - 10:30 AM
Growing Australia’s competitive advantage – a 360° perspective from industry players
Main Plenary
In our globally connected world, every destination is a competitor. Everyday cities, states and countries jostle for a slice of the lucrative business events pie for their destination. So while the choice is ever expanding, the challenge is in reinventing our destination to ensure we're telling a new, inspiring story to Grow Australia’s Competitive Edge in a crowded global marketplace. Providing a 360° perspective, hear from experts in the business events industry including representatives from a hotel group, convention centre, PCO and our national tourism organisation, as they tackle some of the hardest questions facing the industry and provide their views on how we can grow Australia’s competitive advantage when bidding to secure international business events.
Speakers:
Penny Lion
,
Roslyn McLeod OAM
,
Peter King
,
Shahnaz Bakhshay
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Morning tea
Foyer
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Group A: Accessibility is at the heart of Business Success
Breakout Room 1
Following critical acclaim, the globally renowned 'Dialogue in the Dark' experience will be part of the Destination Business Events Conference this year. The Dialogue in the Dark pop-up sensory experience is a simulated environment in total darkness, which seeks to activate the senses, challenge thinking, uncover new perspectives, and generate new ways of approaching and doing business. It draws reference from the world of those visually impaired, explored through topics of communication and accessibility to create a more inclusive society. Over the past two years ‘Dialogue in the Dark’ has had over 24,000 people participating in an experiential learning environment, held uniquely in the dark. Universal accessibility in the meetings and events industry means contribution to business growth, knowledge sharing, an improved delegate experience and a competitive advantage for the destination.
Speakers:
Kathryn McPherson
,
Charlie Spendlove
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Group B: Prepare an Asian Destination Bid Pitch
Breakout Room 2
From convention to congress, world annual meeting to a symposium – for business events, the bid planning, feasibility and preparation stages are critically important. Securing event rights is increasingly a hotly contested process, as traditional host cities and countries — as well as emerging nations — realise the benefits of hosting major events. There are now many more players in the market. This level of international competition means that the bar is constantly being raised for the quality, depth and thoroughness of event bids; and event owners are becoming more demanding and more prescriptive in their requirements. As a rapidly evolving discipline, bidding for hosting rights is an intensive, high-risk and time-consuming business How does your bid cut through the clutter - the same-same, to distinguish your destination to be truly different and win the right to host an event? Test your mettle in this high-focused interactive destination bid workshop. It doesn’t matter if you’re new or experienced to the world of bidding, this session will have you working in teams to put together a successful bid presentation on an Asian destination.
Speakers:
Mike Williams
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Lunch
Foyer
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Group A: Prepare Asian Bid Destination Bid Pitch
Breakout Room 2
From convention to congress, world annual meeting to a symposium – for business events, the bid planning, feasibility and preparation stages are critically important. Securing event rights is increasingly a hotly contested process, as traditional host cities and countries — as well as emerging nations — realise the benefits of hosting major events. There are now many more players in the market. This level of international competition means that the bar is constantly being raised for the quality, depth and thoroughness of event bids; and event owners are becoming more demanding and more prescriptive in their requirements. As a rapidly evolving discipline, bidding for hosting rights is an intensive, high-risk and time-consuming business How does your bid cut through the clutter - the same-same, to distinguish your destination to be truly different and win the right to host an event? Test your mettle in this high-focused interactive destination bid workshop. It doesn’t matter if you’re new or experienced to the world of bidding, this session will have you working in teams to put together a successful bid presentation on an Asian destination.
Speakers:
Mike Williams
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Group B: Accessibility is at the heart of Business Success
Breakout Room 1
Following critical acclaim, the globally renowned 'Dialogue in the Dark' experience will be part of the Destination Business Events Conference this year. The Dialogue in the Dark pop-up sensory experience is a simulated environment in total darkness, which seeks to activate the senses, challenge thinking, uncover new perspectives, and generate new ways of approaching and doing business. It draws reference from the world of those visually impaired, explored through topics of communication and accessibility to create a more inclusive society. Over the past two years ‘Dialogue in the Dark’ has had over 24,000 people participating in an experiential learning environment, held uniquely in the dark. Universal accessibility in the meetings and events industry means contribution to business growth, knowledge sharing, an improved delegate experience and a competitive advantage for the destination.
Speakers:
Kathryn McPherson
,
Charlie Spendlove
3:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Afternoon tea
Foyer
3:30 PM - 3:50 PM
Universal accessibility in meetings industry
Speakers:
Charlie Spendlove
,
Beverley Williamson
3:50 PM - 4:50 PM
Customer Engagement and Key Learnings, Amplifying the Customer Experience through Major Events
Main Plenary
What happens when you place two of Australia’s most successful and internationally renowned major sporting events leaders and the CEO of the world’s largest event for fans, creators, executives, and brands on a panel? You get magic. Major events industry players ranging from elite sporting events to superhero business events are amplifying the customer experience by diving deeper into data. Delivering a breakthrough customer experience requires close collaboration between marketing and technology. In today’s digital world, events that are successful recognise that business intelligence, along with analytics, are key to driving successful business outcomes. Our speakers will deliver an inspiring and insightful discussion on the importance of understanding your customer; capturing the right data; developing new and untested ideas/taking risks; using customer insights to achieve greater ROI from marketing; improving customer engagement and real-world case-studies in fan engagement; and customer centric strategies to fuel growth.
Speakers:
Andrew Westacott
,
Josie Brown
,
Jim Louderback
4:50 PM - 5:00 PM
Day 1 Wrap
Main Plenary
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
IMEX Geocaching
Melbourne CBD
IMEX helps everyone in the global meetings industry to make the connections that matter. Our sole aim is to unite and advance the meetings industry – doing everything we can to educate, innovate and help you make powerful connections with the right people. This year, IMEX is supporting a team building activity that connects delegates with each other, as well as the host city, Melbourne, and its amazing laneways. Technology is all around us, and mostly accessible by our very own hand held smart devices. In 2019, we will gamify connection to Melbourne's subculture with GPS technology through Geocaching - the world's largest treasure hunt. Try it when you get home. You will be surprised how many there are. There are more that a mere 1,400 caches in Melbourne alone. How could you use this concept to promote your venue or destination?
Friday, September 20, 2019
8:30 AM - 8:45 AM
Welcome and recap
Main Plenary
8:45 AM - 9:15 AM
“How to stand out from the crowd” – what clients are looking for in events
Main Plenary
A hotel ballroom, convention centre and general function venues, to a certain extent, all look and offer the same services. Yes we provide this, yes we can provide that and we’ve definitely got lots of the other things as well. So really what is the point of difference between them? And why does one get the event and not the other? Peter Jones will take you through how being a little creative can make a difference between delivering an event or delivering an amazing event!
Speakers:
Peter Jones AM
9:15 AM - 10:00 AM
What do customers & clients really want?
Main Plenary
Do you know what your customers and clients really want? It’s not as easy as you think. A common question on most event brief templates: “What do we want our audience to think, feel and do?” A few innocuous words. A sentence rooted in common sense that, no doubt, all would agree on being essential to delivering a good business event. Yet it’s a difficult question to answer. Is the business events industry delivering what our customers want? And how do we find out what our audiences really want? Hear from the customers directly themselves as they tell us what they are looking for. Join expert panellists from Associations, Event Management and Corporate and Incentives Travel as they share their customer perspective, on what we can do better and explore what challenges their industries face that we need to be aware of.
Speakers:
Peter Jones AM
,
Melissa Holdsworth
,
Sarah Breheny
,
Marie Jackson
10:00 AM - 10:25 AM
The Future of Meetings and Events
Main Plenary
PCMA & Marriott International conducted future of events research and uncovered some intriguing trends. Focused on five key areas: emotional intelligence, orchestrated serendipity, multi-modal design, making a meaningful impact and leveraging your surroundings, the study reveals how they will usher in a new era of experiences. This session will share the results and provide you insights into the research.
Speakers:
Michelle Crowley
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Morning tea
Foyer
11:00 AM - 11:45 AM
1A: Marketing Technology Uncovered - The changing customer experience landscape
Event attendees are humans and react best to relevant and personalised pieces of information. A flawless operating software and platforms are expected to provide an excellent user experience. Fullfilling those expectations is not an overnight job and often not cheap either. Tune into this session where experts will share their success stories and insights about digital marketing tools to enhance customer experience with a brand. Maurice Riley is the head of data strategy at the creative agency Saatchi and Saatchi. He will share case studies offering a glimpse on his team's ingredient of success. Katlynn Land is the CRM manager at Simpleview providing data management solutions to DMOs across the globe. She will share how her role equips customer facing teams with the tools to deliver an excellent digital experience. Both will be available for your questions following their presentations.
Speakers:
Maurice Riley
,
Katlynn Land
11:00 AM - 11:45 AM
1B: Enhancing your relationship with government stakeholders
We rely on government support at all levels for marketing and bid funds, key infrastructure development and investment attraction. So how do you manage your government (and wider stakeholder) relationships and are you doing this as effectively and efficiently as you could? A well thought out government and stakeholder engagement strategy, and operationalised, is a measurable means by your Board and senior Management to build and maintain constructive relationships with all tiers of government and your primary stakeholders. Effective stakeholder engagement can also support ongoing funding certainty, mitigate against policy and personnel change and decision making within government and help advance your organisation. Simon Westaway is the recently appointed Executive Director of the Australian Tourism Industry Council (ATIC). With 20+ years of experience at the corporate level in government advocacy and stakeholder relationship management, hear his insights around government stakeholders with a focus on the visitor economy.
Speakers:
Simon Westaway
11:00 AM - 11:45 AM
1C: “The Future of Meetings and Events” Part 2 (Collaborative Workshop)
Following the keynote where the research results are shared, this will be a collaborative session, allowing participants to work through each trend and determine steps they can take to enhance their role in meetings and events. This facilitated workshop will bring participants together to brainstorm how they can leverage the destination ecosystem, harness the trends and shift offerings to be more aligned to the five trends shaping the future of meetings and events. Learner Outcomes: • Describe five key trends and how they can be brought to life • Recognise the importance of embracing these trends and the implications for organisers, attendees and suppliers • Identify ways to infuse these elements into events to propel your destination forward
Speakers:
Michelle Crowley
11:45 AM - 12:30 PM
2A: How conference management technology is enhancing the customer experience
Event management technology platforms are a significant aspect of the customer experience today, providing efficiencies in process management, enabling better connections between people and building stronger relationships with product and service providers. Hear case studies from our three panellists how their customer-centric approach impacts their tech innovations, as well as trends being introduced around the world.
Speakers:
Nikkita Mitchell
,
Robert McCall
,
Harris Meitanis
11:45 AM - 12:30 PM
2B: Growing, Engaging and Retaining your members before it's too late
A key success factor for delivering business events is the way you engage your stakeholders and having strong relationships with your customers and partners. Relationships can be strengthened in many ways and retaining your customers is vital for a successful journey. Mark Anderson, Club Manager for Melbourne Cricket Club, one of the oldest sports clubs in Australia and Tanya Daw, AusBiotech’s Director Membership and Engagement will speak about how to engage with your members and share strategies to maintain strong and efficient relationships with them. Learn how other industries approach membership engagement and retention. What can the business events industry learn from them? This session will explore effective methods other organisations have implemented to grow their membership base..
Speakers:
Mark Anderson
,
Tanya Daw
11:45 AM - 12:30 PM
2C: Unearthing the World of Associations
Associations are worlds of their own, with the majority of them having to host business events of all sizes for the ongoing professional development of their industry members. Both International and national associations can be as small as a 2-man-band or as a large as a multinational with thousands of members. Your objective is always managing an effective and efficient communication with associations that lead to strong business relationships and successful outcomes. The only way to do that is to understand the different structures and governance of the associations you work with, the similarities among them across sectors and the major differences that make each of them distinctive. This session will give you everything you need to know about world of associations, and how you – the supplier, fit into the puzzle.
Speakers:
Melissa Holdsworth
,
Rebecca Thompson
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Lunch
Foyer
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
3A: Developing a national model to measure event impact
The Australian business events industry has long sought a national solution to the measurement of economic impact. While destinations across the country report on economic benefit, methodology and analysis has been inconsistent since the 2005 National Business Events Study. Earlier this year, the AACB entered into a global partnership with Destinations International and Tourism Economics to address the need for national consistency in Australia. The solution undertaken was to develop an Australian version of the globally tried and tested Event Impact Calculator (EIC), currently distributed across USA, Canada and Europe. The EIC is available in three modules - meetings, sports and festivals/cultural events - measuring the economic value of an event and calculating its return on investment to the destination. Armed with this information, the industry is better prepared to make the case to policymakers and stakeholders for the ongoing development and growth of the meetings and events sector. Join this session to explore the opportunity and better understand the model and functionality of the EIC.
Speakers:
Adam Sacks
,
Deanna Varga
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
3B: Lasting Social Legacies
What is all this carry on about legacy? What is everyone actually talking about? Legacy is only important if it makes a difference – to people. Professors Foley and Edwards from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have recently published the results from a multi-year study, commissioned by the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC), and worked with Business Events Sydney for a decade, looking at the legacy benefits of business events. In this workshop they will outline the “Six Golden Rules for a Highly Successful Business Event” gleaned from the JMIC case studies. This is a practical workshop in which you will have the opportunity to work with tools that can assist you and your organisation to measure more than just coffee cups and satisfaction.
Speakers:
Carmel Foley
,
Deborah Edwards
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
3C: Venues of the future
Are you keen to learn about how venues need to adapt to latest trends in the industry? What are the future expectations from customers when it comes to venues and their experience at an event? Changing customer needs and emerging trends are driving venues to be more innovative in their offering. They need to make the experience relevant and relatable while leaving a lasting memory. Come and hear experts from renowned venues, attractions and retail precincts to learn about how they are leading changes and disrupting the market; what are they doing to become pioneers?
Speakers:
Catherine Basterfield
,
John Autelitano
,
Lara Burnes
2:15 PM - 3:00 PM
4A: How to better understand our delegate behaviour through complimentary data sources
This session will explore the current tourism data landscape, including potential benefits of complimentary data sources and the challenges for the tourism industry in using them. While ‘big data’ is not a new concept, today’s offering includes a range of new commercial and government data sources that were previously unavailable. From transactions (including financial) to social media, telecommunications, bookings and ticketing… we will look at potential uses, opportunities and challenges, future initiatives, and current data gaps.
Speakers:
Rod Battye
,
Christian York
2:15 PM - 3:00 PM
4B: Future-proofing our people
A lot of focus these days is on technology and innovation within the workplace but the key to staying relevant in this rapidly changing world is to engage our people, encourage high performance and equip them with the skills to lead Australian convention bureaux into the future. Besides the AACB Annual Conference there is limited opportunity to share, collaborate and educate. What is the succession plan for our leadership? How do we build the ‘bench strength’ in our leadership team for long term growth and stability? Shannon’s project investigates ways to cultivate this specialised talent, to analyse methods to transfer knowledge and experience and to connect current leaders with future leaders. Listen to what Shannon has learnt and how she plans to use her learnings to support the business events industry.
Speakers:
Lynne Schinella
,
Shannon Thwaites
2:15 PM - 3:00 PM
4C: Beyond the Carbon Footprint - the growing importance of social sustainability
Social sustainability could be classified as the underdog of sustainability as it’s often overlooked when it comes to sustainability, contrary to the environmental and economic aspect of this matter. When does Social Sustainability occur? When processes, policies and structures positively and actively impact generations to be able to create healthy communities. Events have always shaped the lives of people. But in recent years, we’ve begun to recognise that business events are also a powerful force for positive social change. While our understanding of sustainability initially focused on economic and then environmental sustainability, we now see that social outcomes are inextricably linked to the long-term sustainability of businesses and the communities they serve. As advances in technology and changing social values intensify more often events are encouraged to demonstrate their social licence to operate. Understanding the impacts of organisations on society is key to achieve social sustainability, recognising the importance of relationships with communities is another significant aspect of being socially sustainable as a business. Be inspired and learn from leading examples of social sustainability and how you can implement programs within your organisation.
Speakers:
Lynn Fairbrass
,
Peter Haycroft
,
Graz van Egmond
3:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Afternoon tea
Foyer
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Keynote - Velocity Frequent Flyer CMO
Main Plenary
One to One Platform Marketing. Velocity Frequent Flyer, part of Virgin Australia is an organisation with 9.8 Million Members. Velocity also has 90 partners across 300 brands that are part of its ecosystem. Its job is to connect the buyers with the sellers, and to do that at scale. You will hear from Dean who is an industry leader, ranked #24 in Australia’s CMO50 club and also the winner of Australia’s Marketing Team of the Year. Dean will give an informative and entertaining look at how Velocity goes to market with some of its innovative partner campaigns.
Speakers:
Dean Chadwick
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Keynote Presentation from Nicole Livingstone
Main Plenary
Chief Executive Officer of AFL Women's Football and recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia, Nicole Livingstone OAM, will wrap up this year's Destination Business Events conference with a bang. Nicole's key topics will include a fine blend of achievement, commitment and motivation, as well as a unique insight into the rocketing growth of women's sport and its engagement with the public in a competitive and commercially driven world.
Speakers:
Nicole Livingstone
4:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Conference wrap
Main Plenary
7:00 PM - 11:00 PM
Gala Dinner
Crown Aviary, Crown Towers
Round out the Destination Business Events 2019 program in style an enjoy this year’s gala dinner with colleagues at a truly unique venue - Melbourne’s newest rooftop space, Crown Aviary. The space is nestled on the rooftop of the distinguished hotel, Crown Towers, enjoying landscaped beautiful gardens with uninterrupted city views over Melbourne’s skyline. Taking place on 20 September you are in for a treat of spectacular views, fine food and exceptional entertainment to get you up and dancing. Dinner tickets are inclusive with full registration. RSVP your attendance to: communications@aacb.org.au Dress; Cocktail
Printer Friendly
Already Registered?
Top