By Ian Neubauer

The Perth Convention Bureau (PCB) exceeded its annual sales target for the 2007-08 fiscal year by more than $2 million.

The PCB secured bookings for 69 national and international conferences, business meetings and incentive trips over the past 12 months, representing $64 million of direct delegate expenditure for the state.  

PCB managing director, Ross MacCulloch, said a strong performance in the last quarter of the year and additional funding from the WA government aided the result.

“This is the first year of a five year commitment by the State government to provide an additional $11.9 million to our sales and marketing efforts. The end of year results show that we are delivering a solid return on that investment, however the figures are highly conservative,” he said.

“Considering convention delegate expenditure figures are based on the 2005 National Business Events Study, the actual value of the business we bring to Western Australia is significantly higher.”

Some of the major conferences scheduled to take place in Perth in coming years include the 2010 AGM of the Ulysses Motorcycle Club, which will see a whopping 4870 delegates attending; the 20th Deep Offshore International Conference and Exhibition in December, which will see 2000 delegates attending; the Lion’s National Convention in 2012 which will see 3000 delegates attending; the Combined Annual Scientific Meetings of the Endocrine Society of Australia, The Society for Reproductive Biology and The Diabetes Educators Association, which will attract 2000 delegates; and Amway Thailand, which has chosen Perth to reward 1600 of their top achievers in 2010.