Of the grand order of folio leviathans, the Sperm Whale and the Right Whale are by far the most noteworthy. They are the only whales regularly hunted by man. To the Nantucketer, they present the two extremes of all the known varieties of the whale. As the external difference between them is mainly observable in their heads; and as a head of each is this moment hanging from the Pequod's side.
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Venues
The event industry is once again being affected by COVID as governments and unions call for working from home where possible, with the flow on effect on events of all sizes. As we know working from home is not practical for 80% of the time when it comes to events. Sure events can be planned from home but they cannot be delivered from home. The core premise of the …
July 22, 2022
There has been a lot of talk around suppliers walking away from shows with little notice even with long term relationships; in other cases some have used it as a way to force pricing up. Venues have been more interesting. At first they crammed in every booking they could get, and then realised they didn’t have the staff to support those events and so started capping event bookings. I …
July 15, 2022
Recent announcements made by the MCEC and BCEC about changes to senior management opens the door to some interesting changes that will no doubt play out in the coming period. The appointment of Bob O’Keeffe as Chief Operating Officer of ASM Global APAC means that all their Australian venues will now report to him – this includes BCEC, ICC Sydney, Darwin, Cairns and Christchurch Convention Centres. With other recent …
June 15, 2022
ASM Global APAC has activated long-held succession plans for Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC). Harvey Lister AM, Chairman and CEO of ASM Global (APAC) said the executive restructure was integral to future proofing the venue for continued growth as it heads into a period of unprecedented infrastructure development ahead of Brisbane’s Olympic era. Lister said he was delighted to announce that BCEC’s current General Manager Bob O’Keeffe AM, will …
June 15, 2022
My company has recently completed several events across three states and we have another in the next two weeks. I am left wondering when will the industry stop using covid as an excuse for poor service, increased costs and haphazard delivery? It’s become the default to everything, when anything falls short the top-drawer answer is it’s because of ‘covid’ !! What was underestimated by many, particularly venues and some …
June 2, 2022
Centrepiece is a new venue in the Melbourne tennis precinct. During the Australian Open it is the media centre, for the rest of the year it is Melbourne newest function space that boasts a 2,000 sqm Grand Hall (essentially a pillarless box that can be divided into two), a 250 seat Auditorium and 10 Studios that can accommodate around 20 pax each. Ideal for a 250 pax conference with …
April 29, 2022
For some time I have pointed out that the industry will see changes this year that will impact us until 2024 when I predict is when we will really start to rebuild. The concern I raised in the story “Bumpy road to recovery” around a sustainable industry is starting to pan out for the worse with the (currently) biggest freight service company advising staff and some key clients that …
April 21, 2022
Peter King is the long term CEO of MCEC and Melissa Sweetland is the relatively new Chief Commercial Officer. They are very pleased that the MCEC is now host of The Lume and how it almost became a COVID hospital – complete with a morgue.
April 8, 2022
Across Australia business confidence is returning, and with it, an increasing desire to reconnect in person with teams and networks. From today, the NSW Government is providing them with up to 60,000 reasons to make it happen, with a call for applications to the second round of the Accelerate Sydney Business Events Fund. Accelerate is designed to stimulate the return of business events across Greater Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong and …
April 7, 2022
Venues | Australasian Special Events
Transforming our business in challenging times
If you told me in 2019 of the challenges that lay ahead of our business at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) I would never have believed you. The pandemic presented existential questions about the future of our business. We had to close our doors for events for the first time since we opened more than 25 years ago. Our very successful business fundamentally changed overnight. Rather than …