by Trevor Connell

Once again AIME presented a range of well-attended seminars. Rather than provide a full coverage of the seminars here are a few observations and items of interest from some of the sessions.

Technical production for the seminar series was provided by Solution RED

AIME Business Events Forum – Trendspotting

60 Minutes of Special Events Ideas

Big Ideas for Big Events

AIME Business Events Forum – Trendspotting

Panel - Paul Kennedy MBE, Reed Travel Exhibitions; Patricia M Durocher, HelmsBriscoe International, USA; Martin Sirk, CEO, ICCA, The Netherlands; Anthony Wong, Managing Director, Asian Overland Services, Kuala Lumpur; Sandra Chipchase, CEO, Melbourne Convention & Visitors Bureau and moderator Elizabeth Rich, Business Events Council of Australia.

In his keynote address Paul Kennedy noted that there is now much greater freedom for people to travel from many more countries, which translates as new markets for inbound business tourism operators to tap into. An example is the influx of incentive trips to Australia from Amway China (20,000 pax coming this year).

Anthony WongKennedy challenged venue bookers in particular to break away from the mindset that often prevails when initial enquiries are made asking, “how many rooms and what are your dates.” Instead he suggests, “What is the objective of your event?"

’s philosophy struck a chord – “Don’t go where the path leads, go where there is no path and leave a trail”

Martin Sirk suggested that the market is cyclical. It is a sellers market now so there is a rush to build more venues, however the risk is that the market will shift to a buyers market as the new venues come online.

Australia can never compete on price for international business (long haul travel issues) so the uniqueness of the destination is a great selling point.

ICCA has identified the top external or global trends expected to impact the industry in 2007 as:

Impact of terrorism and war on business and travel
Cost of oil and gas, including impact on travel costs
General inflation of costs
Current or impending economic downturn or recession
Current or impending economic upturn or improvement
Changes of advances in technology
Increasing globalisation

Sandra Chipchase pointed out that although more and more students are studying event management courses the young people are mainly interested in the glamour events rather than the meetings industry.

The panel agreed that corporate executives now see a business imperative to consider environmental issues when considering venues and events.

60 Minutes of Special Events Ideas

Peter Jones hosted a very lively session with panellists Jennifer Trethewey, Ant Hampel, Michael Milburn and Dave Deveny along with plenty of input from the audience.

Here is just a sample of some of the ideas that came up

Find entertainment that is fresh and new – go to festivals and alternate venues to source your entertainment rather than relying on agents and what you have used before.
Ensure the entertainment has the right fit with your audience.
Make sure your personalities have a personality
Ensure a comedian is fully briefed and is suitable for the range of your audience
Reality events – based on TV shows such as Dancing with the Stars
Current food trends include sustainability, fair food trade, and Arab and Latino themes.
As always – match the food to the event and design menus around seasonal produce.
Staffing – ensure all staff are properly briefed on your event.
If the staff are themed make sure you allow enough time and budget to pay them for the extra time for costuming and makeup.
Awards – plan your night, make a schedule and stick to it. The MC can make or break your awards event, choose someone who can control your crowd, particularly with humour.
AV content can also reduce time if used effectively.
Fix the seating plan so your award winners are not coming from the back of the room and use wranglers to get them through the crowd.
Try splitting your awards event – hold the awards theatre style and then move to dinner and/or after party.
The wow factor – if your budget is limited use it for one wow – could be the food, a special wine or the entertainment.
Biggest impacts on events over the next five years – technology and environmental issues (more clients are looking to be good corporate citizens by looking for green events)

View the full list on the AIME website

Big Ideas for Big Events

Peter Abraam is the CEO of the Victorian Major Events Company. He pointed out that because Melbourne has no iconic buildings like the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge they have focussed on major events, and sporting events in particular, to entice visitors to Melbourne. This strategy ensures that 42% of the international event visitors to Australia head for Melbourne (around 230,000 a year).

The VMEC was the first to introduce branding on the courts for major tennis events. MELBOURNE is quite prominent in the TV coverage as is PERTH and SYDNEY who followed suit along with other cities around the world.

PS Don’t rush to their website – the latest event listed is from 2004 and the Premier’s letter is from Jeff Kennett announcing the 1998 President’s Cup.

The appropriately named Stephen Silk is General Manager Strategic Marketing for the Victoria Racing Club

Silk’s presentation was on the branding of major events – in this case the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

First some statistics

The Melbourne Cup Carnival covers four racing days plus public events on and off course including
Chairman’s Dinner (800)
Corporate Breakfast with the Stars (460)
MCC Federations Square Live Site (10 days, 100,000)
Melbourne Cup Parade (80,000)
Melbourne Cup Tour
VRC / Crown Oaks Club Lunch (1,450 ladies)
Myer Fashions on the Field (1,000 entrants / $350,000 prizes)
Kids Fashions on the Field (1,400 entrants / $100,000 prizes)
FTV – 40hrs live oncourse broadcast TV, 16 super screens, 200 TVs
Pre-Cup entertainment (10 million live TV audience)
170 corporate marquees
35 sponsor marquees in Birdcage
6 Dinning marquees (2500 patrons), 6 restaurants (2500), 2 enclosures (3000)
Whole range of members events / functions for 35,000 to 55,000 / day

The Melbourne Cup Carnival consistently draws more women to the event than men and has a major impact on the fashion industry in Melbourne with an estimated $17.2m spent on clothes for the carnival and a large proportion of that goes to the millinery sector.

Over the last 3 years the Victoria Racing Club has progressively implemented a new brand strategy, involving all aspects of the Club’s operations and facilities.

The "flemington" brandmark takes its cues from Flemington's most unique feature, the rose garden. The design represents a dynamic visual expression of rose petals flooded in dappled sunlight against a background of the greens of the lawns and the famous track.

The new branding and its associated application and relationship with other Flemington sub-brands, such as the Melbourne Cup Carnival, has been developed to protect the integrity and intellectual property, and thereby enhance the value of the Flemington brand.

Branding is an important element of any event and website branding was overlooked by the VRC until a few years ago when they discovered the brand name was being used by numerous other websites. The VRC then set about a vigorous campaign to buy or shut down those sites impinging on the brand names of Melbourne Cup and Flemington in particular. The result of this action resulted in a huge upsurge in visitation to the official Melbourne Cup / Flemington website which is now accessed directly from www.vrc.net.au www.flemington.com.au www.melbournecup.com and .com.au