Dear industry colleagues,

I am delighted to have been appointed to head up Tourism Events Australia at such an important time for our industry.  With my team, Pippa McCreery, Renee Baker, Alicia Hutchinson and our BE colleagues in the regional offices we look forward to working with you to help maximise the returns generated by business events. While we have some outstanding infrastructure and events capability around the country, Australia faces growing competition from destinations around the world. Tourism Events Australia has many important initiatives underway to build Australia’s reputation as an outstanding location for corporate, incentive and association events.

In working with you, we hope we can focus more and more on developing ways to effectively measure the major contribution made by the business events sector to the Australian economy. This will help ensure that our programs and initiatives are adequately resourced and supported.

In this issue, we have covered details of some of our recent work particularly the successful participation at IMEX 2007. We are also inviting you to keep an eye on IT&ME applications which will open soon. The roll-out of our ‘Re-energise in Australia’ campaign targeting the incentive market continues with the launch this week of our enhanced events.australia.com website.

This website will be a valuable tool globally for accessing up to date information about our

destination and experiences around Australia. I invite you to click on the link and take a look at the vast improvements that have been made to this important marketing resource.

Many thanks for your warm welcome.  I look forward to working with you and to meeting you personally over the coming months.

Joyce DiMascio 
Head of Tourism Events Australia

Australia’s stand, coordinated by Tourism Australia with 11 industry partners, was abuzz with visitors throughout the event including five hosted buyer groups from the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.

The theme for Australia’s stand this year was ‘Taste of Australia’. Buyers were able to sample Australian inspired canapés, beer and wine and

Want to get involved in the world’s biggest exhibition of motivational products?  Tourism Australia is coordinating the Australian pavilion at the Incentive Travel and Meeting Executives Show (IT&ME) - the world's largest exhibition of motivational products and services, featuring nearly 2,000 exhibitors. This year the event will be held from 26 to 28 September in Chicago, USA.

IT&ME is a three-day annual trade show and is regarded as the incentive and motivation industry's premier showcase for product. IT&ME is attended by the majority of North America’s influential incentive agents.

Applications will be open from late May 2007. To get involved, please contact Skye Baird, Business Events Manager, Tourism Australia, North America.

For information on IT&ME 2007, please click here.

The Meetings & Events Industry Awards were recently announced at a spectacular gala event during Meetings & Events Australia’s national conference in Hobart last month. 

From the 24 award categories covering all segments of the industry, the ‘Event of the Year’ award went to Jack Morton Worldwide for the Opening of the XVIII Commonwealth Games and the Platinum Award for the highest score of all entries went to Perth Expohire & Furniture Group.

The awards recognise leading edge business

The Australian Events Expo, which runs from 16 to 17 May 2007, promises to showcase an innovative and exciting range of new exhibits, attractions and features that will surprise and delight even the most experienced and show-weary of visitors.    
    
The two-day event features a line up of great speakers and entertainers from the events industry including one of the world’s great thinkers, Dr Keith Suter; magician Raymond Crowe; fascinating futurist Mark McCrindle; comedian Vince Sorrenti; TV journalist Jacinta Tynan, the Cheeky Food Group; Trippas White Catering; Lisa Wilkinson, co-host of channel seven’s Weekend Sunrise; Avanit Events’ David Addison, Gerard Ryan of Fabmosphere and Turrific Health.