After a successful first year as new organisers of Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME), Talk2 Media & Events is gearing up for an even bigger AIME 2020.

Spice News checks in with Talk2 Media & Events managing director Matt Pearce to find out what visitors can expect from next year’s show.

While 2019 was all about reinventing the show, what will your focus be for AIME 2020?

Ultimately, 2019 was the outcome of us listening to our exhibitors and visitors, and how we used those conversations to create real change.

2020 will be a similar show in terms of overall look and feel, however, the quality conversations with our stakeholders are ongoing. This, coupled with our own learnings from AIME 2019, will see a series of important incremental improvements, rather than wholesale change.

Our single-minded focus remains the same. Simply, to ensure visitors and exhibitors alike derive strong ROI. The event will be at least 30 per cent bigger and have a broader mix of geographies with a diverse mix of products on the show floor.

We’ve also committed to increase the hosted buyer numbers to ensure we have the appropriate level of quality meetings.

How many buyers have registered to attend AIME 2020 since the buyer program opened early in May?

We have had over 220 registrations to date – but in many ways that isn’t the complete picture. Of this number, almost 100 have been approved but 50 did not reach our minimum criteria requirement. The rest are works in progress.

This is testament to why we opened up the hosted buyer program early this year, as we knew we needed to increase the numbers. So we took the time to ensure our vetting process wasn’t compromised by rushing.

How do you plan to grow visitor numbers in 2020?

A strategic marketing approach utilising the industry network is, of course, intended to drive and grow visitor numbers – but we can’t give away all our marketing secrets!

However, this would all be undone without a strong product offering. Listening to feedback from our first AIME and the market in general, we have refined how we make it an experience to be designed distinctly for our end users – our attendees!

We are providing attendees with a unique show program that we believe will resonate from a business standpoint as well as on a personal and professional development level. We are also excited to be bringing new exhibitors to the show floor.

We intend for AIME to be a leader in providing visitors with new destinations, properties, entertainment, event production and tech to enable our visitors to be ahead of the game.

Attending AIME is not just showing up on the show floor –  we are creating more than that, we are creating an industry community of connected individuals from the Asia Pacific region who can converse, engage and conduct business all year round.

Will there be any changes to the Knowledge Program?

Our Knowledge Program is shaping up to be more dynamic than ever, with a tailored offering for people from across all sectors – including associations, corporate, government, education. We look forward to announcing the program and presenters in the coming months.

Will the on-floor knowledge sessions be more prominent?

We received really strong feedback from this year’s show, so we’re currently reviewing how best we incorporate this for AIME 2020. All the content will be fresh and place a greater emphasis on the ideas academy.

Will the Atrium be making a comeback in 2020?

Yes, very happy to let you know that the Atrium will be returning! Whether it will be exactly the same or not, will be revealing too much.

Overall the concept of the networking break in the Atrium worked really well – and frankly, we weren’t initially sure how it would perform. We now know it’s a fantastic gathering spot for the industry.

AIME 2020 will take place in Melbourne on 17 – 19 February. Click here for all the details.