Chief Executive Officer of the Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) Karen Bolinger

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) beat its contemporaries in London and Barcelona to secure hosting rights to 15th World Congress on Public Health (WCPH) that will take place in 2017.

The congress, which is held every three to four years by the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA), will attract over 2000 public health researchers, academics, scientists, educators and policy makers to Melbourne over five days.

Minister for Tourism and Major Events, Louise Asher, said that the Congress will inject approximately $11.2 million into the state’s economy.

Asher said, “This comes just a few months after we were notified that Melbourne will be the host city for another esteemed health-related event, the International Hepato-Biliary Pancreatic Association World Congress in 2020.”

Chief Executive Officer of the Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB), Karen Bolinger, said all bids for the Public Health Congress were reviewed by an anonymous assessment committee with the findings presented to the WFPHA.

“The WFPHA unanimously accepted the committee’s recommendation to host the 2017 Congress in Melbourne, which is evidence of the strength of our bid.

“Our collaborative approach to this bid, working alongside our local bidding partner – the Public Health Association of Australia Inc (PHAA) – and the state government, was key to our success and I would specifically like to thank Minister Davis for meeting personally with WFPHA.”

Bolinger said that according to the International Congress and Convention Association, Melbourne hosted over a third of Australia’s medical/scientific conferences in 2013.