The Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME) has more than doubled its exhibitor numbers at its largest show in a decade, thanks to a partnership with Grip, an event platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
More than 600 international buyers and 3,500 visitors are attending the event in Melbourne, along with 570 exhibitors from across the business events sector. Exhibitor numbers are up 63 per cent on the previous year.
Organisers attributed the increase to three years of working closely with the AI firm to refine the matching process through ongoing feedback.
“The secret source of AIME is undoubtedly the sheer amount of work that goes into matching our exhibitors with visitors, or sellers with their buyers, said Matt Pearce, CEO of Talk2Media and Events.
“Our AI-aided system is optimising these connections, driving the right matches and this has culminated in about 16,000 scheduled meetings. At least 57 per cent of the buyers are also first-time buyers,” Pearce said.
Momentum was struck when last year’s show generated about A$200 million (US$131 million) in secured business deals.
“Last year, we had extremely happy exhibitors and buyers that (helped to) spread the word about the business that people had walked off with on the showfloor,” Silke Calder, event director for AIME told TTGmice.
“The software continues to evolve with us. We are working through the AI matching system, and tweaking it constantly so that we have perfect matches. We refined the questions we asked buyers and exhibitors and the outcome (speaks for itself),” she added.
Calder added that the stakes are higher for a mid-sized show like AIME, and high-quality participants are paramount. In addition to 32 pre-arranged meetings, the show has also introduced open sections within the event app for vetted participants to request meetings.
AIME will run over the next three days, from February 19-21, 2024. The Knowledge Program kicked off today where more than 1,000 delegates attended personal and professional keynotes, and breakout sessions.
This year, 33 countries are represented at AIME, with many destinations including South Korea, Macau, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, India, and the Maldives, returning for the first time since the pandemic.
