‘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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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..

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.

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.

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.

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.