Meetings and Events Australia (MEA) has rallied together with the Exhibition and Events Association of Australasia (EEAA) and the Australian Association of Convention Bureaux (AACB) to distribute a survey to their members which aims to highlight perceived gaps in experience and skills in the industry.

The collaboration between associations will ensure all sectors of the events industry are represented, with the findings to be used to develop training packages to help the industry appropriately address shortfalls.

Commenting on the initiative, MEA’s chief executive officer Robyn Johnson said “maintaining the highest service levels is critical to ensuring the continued growth of the Australian events industry and protecting our reputation as one of the leading countries for professional event delivery”.

Andrew Heibl, chief executive officer of the AACB agreed with the sentiment, adding: “Australia will forever be competing on an uneven playing field when attracting international business events to our shores due to our geographic location in the world. However, we remain on everyone’s bucket list and have a reputation for delivering world-class events.”

“To maintain this competitive advantage, we must continue to lead with the professionalism of our workforce. This requires experienced and qualified professionals within all areas of the business events industry, from bidding and marketing creativity, to operations, logistics and technical expertise.”

“The current economic climate forces us to do more with less, which requires a strategic shift in focus to superior skills and qualifications.”

Joyce DiMascio, Chief Executive of the Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia (EEAA) applauded the collaboration between the industry Associations on the research project.

“By joining forces on this timely study, we aim to get a more holistic perspective of the skills needs of the business events sector. The more comprehensive the input, the more valuable the insights will be for the Australian business events sector,” she said.

“We encourage the industry to complete the simple survey and so help us better understand how to service and support our Members, irrespective of which Association they belong to.”

Outcomes of the survey will be presented at MEA’s National Conference 30 April – 2 May 2017.