Some 21,000 delegates from Australia and overseas are expected to gather at Cairns Convention Centre between now and June 2025, as the centre grows its calendar of business events.
Upcoming meetings at the venue include the Australasian Genomic Technologies Association Annual Conference in October 2024; Australian Archaeological Association Annual Conference in December 2024; Congress of the Asia Pacific Orthopaedic Association in April 2025; and Australian & New Zealand College of Anaesthetists Annual Scientific Meeting in May 2025.
The strong line-up follows on from a successful first half of 2024, when the venue welcomed several leading scientific meetings. Among them was the Viruses of Microbes (VoM) 2024 Conference, which drew over 500 global experts across five days.
Commenting on Cairns’s appeal, Jeremy J Barr, associate professor from Monash University and co-chair of VoM, said: “Hosting the meeting in Cairns was an easy choice. Cairns’ unique wildlife, scenery, and setting offer a one-of-a-kind experience. It’s rare to have a conference with a tropical coral reef one side of the venue and a rainforest, the other.”
He added that “the facilities at the Cairns Convention Centre are among the country’s best”.
Janet Hamilton, general manager, Cairns Convention Centre, said the venue “serves as an ecosystem for knowledge sharing, education, and community engagement”. She welcomes these conferences as a way to “not only stimulate the Cairns economy but also provide a platform for collaboration and learning”.
