The Brisbane Convention Bureau has boosted conference business to the Queensland capital by more than AU$96 million, according to latest figures.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said the past year had been the Brisbane Convention Bureau’s most successful to date, with 46,000 delegates, including some of the world’s foremost experts, set to visit our new world city over 164,000 event days.
“Brisbane is home to one of the world’s best convention centres, and last financial year the Brisbane Convention Bureau worked to secure 78 conferences, including 34 international events,” Cr Quirk said.
“These events create valuable professional development, networking and investment opportunities within local growth sectors and deliver flow-on economic benefits for tourism and hospitality businesses, including hotels, restaurants and retailers.”
Brisbane Convention Bureau General Manager Juliet Alabaster said the majority of the conference bid wins had been achieved in partnership with the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC).
“BCEC is recognised as the world’s leading convention centre and our collaboration has proven a winning formula for attracting some of the world’s most notable conferences to Brisbane,” Ms Alabaster said.
“Our conference wins have added to the wider Brisbane business events industry’s success in attracting events, which has been supported by a growth in world-class infrastructure, four and five-star hotels, and diverse leisure attractions.”
BCEC General Manager Bob O’Keeffe said the result was very pleasing and opened up many opportunities for investment and development in Queensland’s key sector industries and world-leading research.
“We continue to refine and enhance our long-term partnership with Brisbane Marketing and other Team Brisbane partners to grow international convention business for Brisbane and Queensland in a highly competitive environment,” Mr O’Keeffe said.
This latest result comes on the back of BCEC experiencing its best year ever apart from the extraordinary G20 year of 2014, having generated $79.4 million in convention bid wins through its own activities, he said.
The Brisbane Convention Bureau operates in partnership with Tourism and Events Queensland, BCEC and other partners.
Conferences secured by the Bureau and partners include the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture (GFI) in Focus 2018, the World Conference of Science and Factual Producers 2018, the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Asia Pacific Forum & Exhibition 2020, and the Australasian Sonographers Association Annual International Conference for 2019, 2021 and 2023.
