business events news Page 1

business events news

12th February 2014
Editor: Jill Varley
[email protected]
www.businesseventsnews.com.au
1300 799 220
Weve
got you
collared!
WHEN we
took part
in a recent
Ghan famil from Alice Springs
to Darwin, (BEN 03 Feb) the frst
morning was spent on an Alice
Springs update.
During our time at the Alice
Springs Convention Centre the
famil participants were given a
rather clever neck cooler.
Not only did it look good, it
works: the non-toxic cooling
material inside the neck tie swells
when placed in cold water.
Available in an assortment of
colourful indigenous designs,
its cooling properties brought
remarkable relief on a hot Red
Centre day.
Our famil group were so
impressed by the cooler and the
fact that it makes a clever gift for
conference delegates, we asked
for the contact details of where
they can be purchased.
We now pass it on to our
readers.
Contact Sue, Centralian Sports
Shop 1, 40 46 Todd Mall, Alice
Springs, NT 0870.
Phone 08 8952 6344.
Jill
Strictly fancy dancers
AN impressive display that is
sure to draw large crowds to the
Sydney Opera House forecourt is
all set for 23 Feb at 9am.
A spectacular dance-of is being
staged with 4,000 dancers, under
the creatve directon of the
master of the dance and guru of
the spectacular, Baz Luhrmann
himself.
Strictly Sydney is described
as the largest outdoor ballroom
dancing event ever seen in
Australia.
Held in celebraton of the
imminent opening of Strictly
Ballroom The Musical in March,
it is a collaboraton between
Luhrmann, Global Creatures and
Destnaton NSW.
The Minister for Tourism Major
Events and the Arts George
Souris said the event was sure
to atract great interest from not
only Sydneysiders but also visitors
from intrastate, interstate and
overseas.
With the Opera House back
drop, he said it would be one
of the most spectacular outdoor
setngs on earth.
This impressive display of
thousands of dancers, selected
by ballot, in vibrant costumes
outside one of the worlds most
iconic buildings will be captured
in an exclusive aerial shot.
BEN at AIME
BEN will be at this years Asia-
Pacifc Incentives and Meetings
Expo (AIME), bright-eyed and
bushy tailed at stand #1118.
Come and meet some friends
with BENefts!
Miss Australias AIME
THEYLL be beatng a path to
The Grace stand #2008 at AIME as
they host Miss Universe Australia
winner, Olivia Wells.
Appearing on 18 Feb between
1pm to 2pm, she will help
promote the hotel and Australia
as a destnaton for domestc and
internatonal travellers.
Drop in and say hi to The Grace
team and have your photo taken
with Olivia.
Hoardings, Darling
TWO kilometres of hoardings
have gone up at Darling Harbour.
This is in preparaton for
the constructon of the new
conventon, exhibiton and
entertainment facilites in the
area.
The current facilites will
be dismantled, recycled and
removed from the site, in its
$2.5 billion transformaton, with
70,000 tonnes of concrete to be
removed, NSW Deputy Premier
Andrew Stoner said.
Sue Hocking to retire
WEVE seen her here and weve
seen her over there in Doha
and now, afer many years in
the industry, The Royal Natonal
Agricultural and Industrial
Associaton of Queensland
venue sales & marketng general
manager Sue Hocking has
announced her decision to retre
at the end of April.
I am looking forward to this
next phase of my life, enjoying
smelling the roses and being back
in my home environment in South
Australia afer almost six years
away.
You can bid Sue a fond farewell
at AIME next week; in the
meantme, the recruitment
process has begun for the role.
Proudly managed by AEG Ogden
The Oman Convention & Exhibition
Centre is being constructed in two
stages. Stage One, incorporating
22,000sqm of exhibition space will
be completed in 2015, followed by
Stage Two, featuring 3,200 and 450
seat tiered theatres, 14 meeting
rooms and two ballrooms due for
completion in late 2016.
All interested candidates must
address the requirements within the
position descriptions available on:
www.omanconvention.com/careers.aspx
Applications must be received by
email at:
[email protected]
no later than 19 February 2014.
Sales & Marketing
Director of Sales & Marketing
Sales Manager Exhibitions
OMAN CONVENTION
& EXHIBITION CENTRE
The Oman Convention & Exhibition
Centre is now seeking suitably
qualifed candidates for the
following key positions:
Exiciting Career Opportunities
business events news Page 2
business events news
12th February 2014
crumbs!
Visit inPlace Recruitment at AIME &
WIN a trip for 2
to Mauritius!
Robust Mid East growth
REED Travel Exhibitons and
GIBTM 2014 exhibiton manager
Lois Hall said confdence in
the already robust Middle East
meetngs industrys future growth
was improving, which came as no
surprise.
This indicated another
successful year ahead, she said,
commentng on IBTM Global
Events Portolio and other MICE
sector professionals predicton
that expediental growth would
occur in business events across
the Middle East this year.
One of the key factors currently
contributng towards the global
spotlight on the Middle East MICE
industry in 2014 will be Dubais
successful World Expo 2020 bid.
This will undoubtedly accelerate
the economic growth throughout
the region and will provide a
renewed stmulus to the meetngs
and incentves sector there.
With an antcipated 25 million
visitors to Dubai for World Expo,
71% are expected to hail from
overseas.
It will raise the profle of
the Middle East even further,
highlightng its status as a global
meetngs hub before, during
and afer the event and will be
supported by an estmated US$7
billion worth of transport and
tourism-related infrastructure
development.
GIBTM 2014 is being held
24-26 March at the Abu Dhabi
Conventon Centre.



Free WIFI

72 Liverpool St
Sydney

02 8268 8888
EVERY year in the USA, Career
Cast conducts a survey that
identfes the most and least
stressful jobs.
Last month they released
their latest report which noted
that jobs requiring you to face
unpredictable conditons,
immediate dangers and high-
stakes situatons ranked among
the most stressful of 2014.
Now heres the rub - on the
Most Stressful jobs list, event
coordinator came in at number
fve, surpassed only by enlisted
military personnel at number
one, military general at second
most stressful, fre fghter at
third and airline pilot at fourth.
Themed Events posted on
Career Casts website to say
event planner was stressful
because every detail fell on you
and there was a lot of behind
the scenes work and extremely
high expectatons to unfold in
front of a large audience where
anything could go wrong.
You are constantly moving
a mile a minute and juggling
multple tasks.
Then there are the clients,
who absolutely hate planning
and organising; which brings
its own emotonal instability
because they can underestmate
the magnitude of what it takes
and can disregard boundaries
and tmelines.
Phew, we salute you!
Swissotels new GM
SWISSOTEL Sydney has
appointed Christan Hirt as its
new general manager.
Hirt has more than 17 years
hospitality experience in luxury
internatonal propertes, and
was previously the director
of operatons at Swissotel the
Bosphorus.
Hirt has also worked within the
Le Meridian and Kempinski hotel
groups.
Hirt said he was delighted to
join the efervescent hotel.
AIME breakfast invite
CROWN Hotels will sponsor
a breakfast being held by the
Incentve Associaton (IA) at
Crown Towers Hotel, preceding
AIME on 17 Feb at 8am.
The event is focused on
individuals and
companies interested
in incentves as
a marketng and
communicatons tool.
Crown Hotels business
development manager
conference, incentves and group
sales Naomi Dawes said Crown
was pleased to associate with the
event and the IA.
Crown Melbourne and Crown
Perth are uniquely positoned to
host large scale incentve reward
programmes with world class
locatons, facilites and the latest
in audio visual technology.
Practtoners and others
operatng in the feld of incentves
are welcome to the breakfast,
however an invitaton is a must.
For further informaton email
[email protected]
or phone 03 9005 7707.
CSR programs launch
TEN Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) programs
have launched in Townsville,
North Queensland.
The programs gave corporatons
and conference delegates the
opportunity to make a diference
to society and the environment,
Townsville Enterprise Ltd said.
One of the CSR programs is a
Coral Reef Health Check.
Going to the 2014 MEA conference?
Sabahs premier resort and
MICE venue, Sutera Harbour, is
offering fantastic pre and post
conference packages.
3 free tours for frst 30 guests!
Visit us at the Sabah stand at
AIME or see our packages on
the MEA Conference site.
For more information call (03) 9818 1858 or visit suteraharbour.com
business events news Page 3
business events news
12th February 2014
CONTACT US:
Publisher Editor Contributor/Coordinator
Bruce Piper Jill Varley Alex Walls
For advertising enquiries email Christie-Lee:
[email protected]
P: 1300 799 220 F: 1300 799 221
PO Box 1010 Epping, NSW, 1710
Business Events News is part of the Travel Daily group of publications
which also include: Travel Daily, Cruise Weekly & Pharmacy Daily.
Disclaimer:While every care has been taken in the preparaton of Business Events News no liability can be
accepted for errors or omissions. BEN takes no responsibility for the opinions of its contributors/columnists.
Informaton is published in good faith to stmulate independent investgaton of the maters canvassed.
l-|c|
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Visit the Cairns 6 Creat arrier Reef

stand #2AIA to enter.
Meet 24 Macau
MEET 24, an initatve that
provides fexible check-in/check-
out tmes, has launched.
Instead of the usual fxed hotel
tmes, Meet 24 allows smaller
meetng groups to check-in any
tme and check-out at the same
tme on the day of departure at
no additonal cost.
Also, meetng space booked will
be held for the same duraton.
Available only to members of
the Starwood Preferred Planner
program, Meet 24 has a minimum
booking per day requirement of
20 guestrooms and a maximum
of 100, plus at least one full-day
meetng for all partcipants.
Peters gets Verve
MEGAN Peters will join Verve
Creatve Events as producton
director.
With more than 10 years of
event and catering management
experience, Peters is renowned
for her keen eye to detail.
Previously general manager of
Avocado catering group, Peters
will head the producton team
and drive the new strategic event
management plans.
Mantellato joins ICC
YOU cant keep a good woman
out of the industry.
So the news that events
industry executve Helen
Mantellato has been appointed
as exhibiton sales manager at the
Internatonal Conventon Centre
(ICC) Sydney, is welcome.
Mantellato was with the Sydney
Conventon and Exhibiton Centre
since it opened in 1988 and its
director of sales (exhibitons) for
the past 10 years.
AEG Ogden director of
conventon centres Geof
Donaghy said Mantellato brought
exceptonal knowledge and
understanding of the exhibiton
industry.
He said the ICC Sydney pre-
opening ofce would soon
be in place and recruitment
of a number of other
senior appointments to the
management team would
commence over the next few
weeks.
The inPlace crowd
INPLACE Recruitment,
exhibitng at AIME on stand
#2238, note that over the past
few years companies have been
tghtening their purse strings and
consolidatng their businesses.
This year they say theres a
new confdence in the air, with
business manager Ben Carnegie
saying the company had notced
an increase in the need for temp
and contract staf, as businesses
recognised growth in the near
future and were looking to secure
industry professionals to assist in
inital growth stage.
This has also led to an increase
in demand for permanent front
line staf including event travel
coordinators, administraton and
support staf.
This demand for skilled
candidates across the MICE
industry is also being refected
in salaries as we are seeing small
to medium companies willing to
ofer higher salaries to atract and
retain quality talent.
Larger companies are stll
limited by rigid salary structures,
which at tmes can reduce their
compettveness.
Visit the inPlace Recruitment
stand and go in the draw to win a
trip for two to Mauritus staying
at the beautful Lux Belle Mare
Resort.
Luxperience recruits
AS Luxperience 2014 gains
momentum, new staf and a
new board member have been
appointed.
These include Meeko Tien as
buyer programme manager,
responsible for overseeing the
recruitment and management of
the Luxperience VIP Buyer, and
Bronwyn Towers as customer
relatons executve, to ensure
the buyers experience during
Luxperience in Sydney is
managed with premium service.
Well-known industry
personality, Teree George,
director of global sales at
the Jumeirah Group, is the
most recent additon to the
Luxperience Advisory Board.
Luxperience 2014 will take place
31 Aug to 03 Sep in Sydney.
Register IT&CM Asia
A FINAL call has gone out to
those buyers who wish to atend
IT&CM China to register by 10
Feb.
Being held at the Shanghai
World Expo Exhibiton &
Conventon Center, 15 to 17 Apr,
it is located on the east bank of
the Huangpu River.
The event will bring Chinese and
internatonal MICE exhibitors and
buyers in one marketplace.
To register, visit the website at
www.itcmchina.com.
Hilton Hawaiis look
THE Hilton Hawaiian Village
Waikiki Beach Resort is sportng
a new look afer a series of
rejuvenaton projects.
Upgrades include the redesign
of the Villages iconic Bali Steak
& Seafood and Paradise Lounge,
Tapa Bar, and a new lobby.
The main lobby area features a
new chandelier, which is styled
to be a metaphorical reference
of a sof cluster of banana leaves
suspended in a tall pyramid-
shaped space.
Mercures new look
THE four-star Mercure Sydney
Central has completed the fnal
stages of a multmillion dollar
renovaton to its 517 rooms.
Mercures conference space has
also undergone renovaton, with
a Modern French image, as has
the balcony area.
General manager Greg Brady
said the hotels change came
as the Central Staton area
underwent a renaissance.
The upgrading of the conference
facilites is partcularly signifcant
given the closure of the Sydney
Conventon Centre.
To celebrate, the hotel launched
its new conference ofering Meet
and Sleep, from $239 per day,
including full day conference
package, which included
accommodaton, he said.
For more, visit www.
mercuresydney.com.au.