| 8.00am-9.45am |
BUSINESS EVENTS FORUM: WHAT IN THE WORLD’S GOING ON?
AIME’s annual headline Forum examines the outlook for the business events sector with commentary from a business futurist; the release of new industry research focusing on the Asia-Pacific; and observations from the field.
It’s the economy ....
Earlier optimistic signs of growth in business travel have been undermined by the latest eurozone debt crises and the threat of a global recession. WTTC has revised its 2011 and 2012 forecasts for travel and tourism downward. Other reports point towards continued strong growth in business travel, underpinned by the booming economies of the BRIC countries. To understand what is going on and how it is likely to impact our industry, leading commentator Phil Ruthven will provide his observations and forecasts in a presentation tailored for the business events sector.
Latest industry research
Detailed analysis of the Asia-Pacific region based on industry research by researcher Sally Greenhill from The Right Solution based in the UK.
This global outlook will provide an insight into the meetings industry’s suppliers and clients responses to today’s business climate, highlighting pockets of strength and growth, along with signs of market weakness in destinations and sectors.
In the field
Tass Messini is overseeing AMEX's business travel expansion (including meetings and events) in the Asia-Pacific, a region encompassing one-third of the world's population. His comments will draw on AMEX's own research into the meetings market, together with his observations of the Asia-Pacific market particularly in relation to the corporate sector. |
Phil Ruthven, IBISWorld
Sally Greenhill, The Right Solution
Tass Messinis, American Express Global Business Travel (Asia Pacific)
Facilitator:
Elizabeth Rich, Agenda Pty Ltd |
| 8.00am-9.45am |
Topic: Growing Association Events: Tools and Perspectives
Venue: Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre (MCEC), Meeting Rooms 2 & 3
Session précis:
The success of any association convention or congress is highly dependent on attracting the right number of the right delegates for both financial and brand reasons. This session will include leading edge knowledge from Julie Sheather of the Australian Associations Project plus a panel discussion featuring association perspectives on running events ranging in size from workshops and seminars up to conferences, exhibitions and international.
Julie Sheather, Manager of the Australia Associations Project will bring to life the recently released Australia Associations Project tool kit to help you achieve this objective by providing you with some practical hints and tips to attract more delegates to your event, whether running your conference in-house or alongside your nominated Professional Conference Organiser (PCO).
Topics to be covered by Julie Sheather include:
- Developing a successful event marketing strategy
- Templates to help plan and execute successful events
- Examples of pre-event and post-event surveys
- Marketing and communication plans
- Budgets
- Maximising the right communication channels
- Digital marketing, PR, advertising, sales promotions & social media
- Learning from experience and measuring your success
The expert experienced panel will discuss topics such as:
- Using small events to build attendees at large events
- Tailoring marketing strategies to subsets of the potential audience
- Utilising a mix of communication channels
- Finding the right marketing channels: what is most valuable; what doesn t work; whats new
- Utilising volunteer contacts and connections
Hosted by the Australia Associations Project in conjunction with Associations Forum, the event is free-of-charge for associations attending AIME. To register for the session, contact Hannah Lewis on 02 9904 8200 or at hannah@associations.net.au |
Facilitator: John Peacock, General Manager, Associations Forum
Presenter: Julie Sheather, Manager, Australia Associations Project
Panelists:
Dr Wayne Castle, National Events Manager, Australian Water Association
Vicki Smith, General Manager Learning and Development, Australian Physiotherapy Association
Bronwyn Wilcox, Events Manager - Victorian Division, Australian Institute of Company Directors |
| 10:45-11:45am |
Open your mind: How to come up with ideas that drive innovation and business growth
To find ideas that drive growth, outpace competition and boost profits, you need to invite the creative beast into your business life and change the norm, because creativity leads to ideas and the right ideas make money.
So how do you creatively open your mind to find commercially viable ideas? Move away from: finding adequate ideas and move forward to finding ideas that make a difference.
This session will help you open your creative mind to come up with ideas that mean business growth.
Choose your preferred area of growth from the lesson learned in this session:
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Finance – the creative dollar
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Human resources – encourage the creative in people
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Marketing – creative intelligence
Walk away from this session with an open mind and move forward.
In association with MEA
This MEA Session: 2 PD points for Meetings & Events Australia Members towards MEA accreditation |
Nigel Collin, CEO, Thinkativity
Chairperson:
Nicky Rasmin
Program Manager
Meetings & Events Australia |
| 12:00pm-1:00pm |
Planning an Effective Social Media Strategy for Your Next Event
Social media is a natural fit for nearly every facet of event planning but, all too often, an ad-hoc approach reduces its effectiveness. A sound strategy for managing all social media activity increases attendance, enhances the conference experience for delegates, and improves the overall return on the event. Incorporating a case study from a major USA conference, this presentation addresses the need for a comprehensive social media strategy using several different tools including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Designed for people with experience in social networking, the session will include practical advice, hints, tips and traps to help you manage your next conference from promotion right through to wrap-up.
In association with PCO Association |
Sarah Mitchell,
Content Marketing Consultant, Global Copywriting
Chairperson:
Rob Henshaw PCO-DIR, CEM, The Professional Conference Organisers Association |
| 2:00pm-3:15pm |
Face-to-Face Networking for Events - there is so much more to it!
Not another networking event! In our industry we sure go to a lot of events, but do we get the most out of them and even more importantly, do our members/ guests? With the rise of social networking, this timely session will ensure we remember why face-to-face networking is more effective. After all, our collective futures depend on it!
This session will look at the balance between behaviours and outcomes to ensure you align a networking strategy that works for you!
- Utilise leading networking techniques specifically for the event industry
- Learn techniques for all 3 stages of building effective networks
- Understand how to manage attitudes and emotions through NLP to create a positive networking state
- Be more Emotionally Intelligent by learning skills to help guests at your events network better to ensure they keep coming back
|
Julia Palmer, Networking Strategist and CEO Business Networking Academy
Chairperson:
Charis Heelan, Acting Director, Marketing + Communications, Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau |