International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) is expecting a bumper year after successfully kicking off its exhibitions calendar with two trade and consumer events this month.

Australia’s largest parenting and early childhood expo, Event Crowd’s Pregnancy, Babies and Children’s Expo saw 8,000 attendees and 120 exhibitors attend the consumer show across its two days, while business events and tourism industry tradeshow, Get Local, welcomed more than 1,000 delegates.

ICC Sydney chief executive officer Geoff Donaghy said exhibitions were an extremely important market segment for Sydney that offered potential for boosting new businesses, in-person networking and a platform for millions of dollars in business to be exchanged on the show floor.

“The return of ICC Sydney’s exhibitions calendar is expected to reboot business opportunities during events at the venue while delivering significant benefits to Sydney and across New South Wales,” Donaghy said.

“Direct and indirect delegate expenditure is set to boost the state economy and positively impact local businesses while our long, deep supply chain reaches out into regional areas.

“In a stabilised year, exhibition attendees alone spend more than $340 million in the local economy.”

Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia (EEAA) president Nicole Walker said the restart of exhibitions at ICC Sydney was an excellent sign that the business events industry has commenced its rebound.

“It is terrific to see the ICC Sydney team delivering at its usual best,” Walker said.

“From event management, the logistics of the COVID safety measures and the high quality of the food and beverage services, the venue fulfilled its ambition to support clients and get people networking in person again. I look forward to seeing the exhibitions industry continue to rebuild in the coming months.”

ICC Sydney is currently running a range of in-person events at the venue with more than 200 events scheduled until the end of financial year.