Portia Morgan from Roy Morgan and Michelle Crowley from PCMA are among the speaker line up at Association of Australian Convention Bureaux’ (AACB) rebranded annual conference, DestinationBE.

Celebrating its 30th year, the rebooted conference heads to Melbourne this September with the theme of “Customer Experience: Laneways to Success”.

Portia Morgan, Roy Morgan’s head of client services, will deliver the conference’s keynote speech, giving a rapid-fire overview of the latest data on how business events and tourism in Australia is tracking.

Her presentation will cover what the latest trends are, where is the room for improvement and what we should be concentrating on in order to evolve.

Michelle Crowley will discuss PCMA and Marriott International research conducted on the future of events.

Her session will share the results of the research, which covers five key areas: emotional intelligence, orchestrated serendipity, multi-modal design, making a meaningful impact and leveraging your surroundings.

Michelle oversees regional brand development, content outreach and innovation as PCMA’s first chief growth and innovation officer.

Peter Jones (Peter Jones Special Events), Penny Lion (Tourism Australia), Roslyn McLeod (Arinex) and Shahnaz Bakhshay (TFE Hotels) are also among the speaker line up)

AACB CEO Andrew Hiebl said DestinationBE will see the industry come together to network, share ideas, discuss trends and issues and work collaboratively.

“Through the success of recent conferences, we look to further grow and enhance this event as one for all industry partners with an interest in attracting business events through bidding and business development activities,” he said.

DestinationBE will take place at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on 18-20 September 2019.