SIXTEEN active business event bids have resulted since the launch of the NT (Northern Territory) Business Events Ambassador Program last September.
A joint initiative between Tourism NT, Darwin Convention Centres and Alice Springs Convention Centre, the programme was established to increase new business event opportunities for the destination by maximising the extensive networks and marketplace intelligence of selected business and industry professionals.
Scott Lovett, director business events of Tourism NT, told TTGmice e-Weekly that the NT’s ambassador programme “is very different from others in the country which are often focused on medicine”.
“Ours is aligned with the NT’s forte, which is in areas such as economics and social and community development,” Lovett said.
The 16 founding members of the programme hail from the NT’s key industry sectors such as renewable energy, health, tourism, oil and gas, primary industry, finance and business.
Besides helping to promote the NT’s business events capability, Lovett said the ambassador programme is also crucial in the destination’s pursuit of investments.
“Whenever a destination wants to promote investments in specific areas, it is done through dialogue and exchange of ideas at events and conferences. Thus, we encourage our ambassadors to look at their area of work to attract events to the NT,” he added.
When asked for an example of an ambassador who had opened doors for the NT, Lovett said: “Chen Min (chief representative, China Council for Promotions of International Trade) is big on investment and trade, and is our key to China’s trade ministries and government.”
The NT Business Events Ambassador Program runs alongside Tourism NT’s industry familiarisation programmes, which take trade event buyers to industrial facilities that matter to their business.
“We have a very high conversion rate (for event enquiries) when we take people on such familiarisation trips. The destination is important (in the planner’s selection process) but content and learning opportunities (for delegates) are far more crucial,” he said.
