Melbourne, one of the earliest members of the BestCities Global Alliance, will once again welcome the BestCities Global Forum come January 2024.
As the alliance’s flagship event, the BestCities Global Forum is attended by industry thought leaders, international associations, and BestCities destination members.
While the BestCities Global Forum is typically held in December, BestCities has elected to host the next event from January 18-21 to coincide with the Australian Open tennis tournament. Delegates will have an opportunity to extend their stay in Melbourne to attend the matches, with BestCities and Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) planning to maximise the city’s exciting major events calendar to enhance the conference offerings.
Attendees can expect to explore how in-person meetings are critical to cultivating meaningful connections and purpose for meeting planners, associations and delegates, and to join in workshops, presentations and hands-on experiences.
The forum will soon be followed by Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME), Melbourne’s other major gathering of business events industry stakeholders, from February 19-21. Despite the close proximity of both events on the calendar, Melbourne Convention Bureau’s CEO Julia Swanson, told TTGmice that both events attract a different pool of specialists.
Director of marketing and partnerships for BestCities Global Alliance, Nigel Brown, added that the forum focuses on creating exclusive opportunities for member destinations to interact with planners of international and rotating meetings – unlike the buyer-seller interactions provided at AIME.
BestCities Global Alliance was established in 2000, and today has 12 member cities around the world.
