The key to winning more conferences for your city
Speakers at the Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Expo (AIME) in Melbourne last month were, as you would expect, confident that social media would not replace face-to-face meetings any time soon.
It was generally agreed, however, that social media had the potential to bypass association meetings by spreading knowledge over the Internet.
Sherrif Karamat, COO of the Professional Conference Management Association (PCMA), whose global members recorded a 3.4% increase in meetings activity last year, said no one could have water cooler chats online – "and that’s why face-to-face meetings remain important".
Professor Ian Chubb, Australia’s chief scientist, and Ambassador for Melbourne’s Business Events Week, said that it was "short-sighted" for anyone to claim that you could do just as well by reading research on the Internet.
"You can’t read body language on Twitter, that’s why face-to-face meetings are important," he said.
The big word at AIME was "collaboration" – several speakers suggested it was the key element to attracting large meetings business to Australia.
"Australia is a small fish in the sea," said Prof Chubb. "We account for three percent of the world’s research output.
"But Australia has a unique opportunity because we have the full suite of climates, marine life and geography to attract researchers from overseas."
Prof Chubb said conferences played a key role in building and nurturing networks among researchers.
Prof Paul Zimmat, programme chair for the World Diabetes Conference 2013 – the largest health conference ever held in Australia- said without the collaboration of so many organisations the bid to hold the conference in Melbourne would have been lost.
He named the Melbourne Convention Bureau, the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, the Victorian government, the City of Melbourne and international, national and state diabetes associations as crucial to the winning bid.
Ian Jarrett
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