Melbourne Convention Bureau’s (MCB) new publication, The Future of Business Meetings Industry Report, has discovered that meetings will evolve in the next 25 years to become more interaction-focused, more tech-heavy and more personalised to satisfy individual attendee, see a greater element of voluntourism, and attract a broader range of attendees.

The study, commissioned by the MCB to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of AIME, was conducted by McCrindle Research. It is the collation of qualitative data gained through 14 in-depth interviews with industry experts as well as quantitative data collected through a survey of the Bureau’s industry contacts. The survey, conducted from December 15, 2016 to January 23 this year, yielded 206 commenced responses and 147 completed responses.

Karen Bolinger, MCB CEO, who shared a gist of the findings with the media on Monday morning, said: “(The findings are) very good for our meetings industry. Despite the plethora of online meetings taking place around the world, it has not disrupted the core desire of people to meet and interact face-to-face. Eighty-six per cent of (respondents) value face-to-face meetings, and see these as a very important part of their professional development.”

Bolinger added that while meetings today are attended by top-tier professors and corporate executives, associations and companies will increasingly see the benefits of “up-skilling” a broad range of employees. “So delegates (in the future) will range from junior to mid-level and executive level,” she said.

Some interesting figures to emerge from the study include:

• 89% of respondents believe that delegates will expect to acquire more knowledge from events
• 88% believe that delegates will want a more personalised event experience
• 76% believe that delegates will want events to be more socially responsible
• 53% believe that delegates will want to co-create programme content
• 64% believe that the length of networking time at events will become longer over the next 15 years
• 57% believe that the length of conferences as a whole will shorten over the next 15 years
• 43% believe that destination experience in promoting a conference/business event will be extremely important in the future
• 69% believe that multi-space programme formats that combine exhibition and conference will be extremely and very important in the future
• 77% believe that live information feed leading to instant presentation adaptation will impact business events in the future
• 73% think that delegates’ lack of time to travel and attend meetings will be the industry’s biggest challenge in the next 15 years while 70 per cent believe that destination cost is the key obstacle

For the full report, enquire with the Melbourne Convention Bureau.

Some Asian incentive buyers at AIME are reporting a change in client product preferences shaped by cautious business sentiments.

A corporate travel manager with the Asian office of a global electronics firm, told TTGmice e-Weekly that business travel budget has been cut, with top level instructions given to replace trips with video conferencing wherever possible. In terms of event spend, teambuilding programmes are halted this year while an incentive trip due to take place last year was postponed indefinitely.

Sakura season in Tokyo’s Ueno Park, Japan

The manager, who had requested anonymity, added that downgrading travel class for savings wasn’t even an option, as the company had ceased use of business class for senior executives travelling on longhaul flights three years ago.

“Our Asia-Pacific units are actually performing well, but when US markets are shaky, head office gets nervous and overall budget cuts are implemented. Our Asian office will continue to fight for event budget this year to get some activities going for our colleagues,” she added.

Agreeing that international businesses are watching their spend out of anxiety is Teresa Huang, vice manager for outbound travel with SETtour Taiwan. She said: “In theory, companies should invest more in incentives to motivate better performance during tough times. But in reality, bosses are afraid to spend when they cannot foresee money coming in.”

Huang added that “the only companies maintaining their incentive activities and spend these days are those dealing in direct marketing and insurance”.

“I’m sending a 2,500-pax insurance company incentive to Vancouver this year, and possibly Melbourne in 2018. But we are seeing budget cuts in other industries. Our MNC automobile clients in Taiwan, for instance, have stopped large incentive programmes for a thousand plus people, preferring instead to have one small-scale longhaul trip for the highest achievers, and a midscale one of around 500 pax to nearby destinations for the next lower category of top performers,” she said, adding that Macau is favoured for its lower hotel rates and plenty of activities.

“If the client does head to Europe or the US, three- or four-star hotels will be used instead,” shared Huang.

For Monas Tjahjono, managing director of Monas Tours & Travel, based in Surabaya, Indonesia, reward trips to Japan, South Korea and Australia are favoured and still achievable even with their “tighter budgets”.

“What we do is to tie the incentive trip with an interesting season or festival in the destination, such as sakura season in Japan or the Tulip Festival in the Netherlands, so that the programme is enhanced without having the client to spend more money on theming,” said Tjahjono.

The Gold Coast’s unique character and experiences have taken centre stage in its newest destination brand platform, We Are Destination Gold Coast, which was launched nationwide on Sunday and will hit international markets in March.

The multimillion dollar campaign was “years in the making”, shared Jan Hutton, chief marketing officer of Gold Coast Tourism.

Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast

“Through two years of research and consultation, we’ve discovered that what distinguishes the Gold Coast in an ever-increasing world of choice for travellers is not our beaches or theme parks; instead, it’s the unmistakable life affirming energy that lives there. It is an energy that ignites, inspires, reconnects and makes you feel alive,” Hutton said

“Many other destinations have spectacular (landscapes), retail and restaurants. There are more than 180 NTOs worldwide fighting for travellers’ attention. What we are is our foundation and that will allow us to stand out,” she added.

When asked how the new branding relates to business events, Hutton said: “People attending business events, particularly meetings and incentives, look for iconic memories. Gone are the days when people look forward to standing beneath the Eiffel Tower. Now they want to have dinner in a local family’s dining room. The braggability when they travel has become much more localised. It is a big change in both leisure and business travel around in the world.”

Hutton was quick to reaffirm the importance of events infrastructure in the destination’s success, but added that competition based solely on hardware is not enough.

Since the new branding was created alongside business events stakeholders in the Gold Coast, Hutton believes that DMCs and other suppliers would be able to carry through the consistent message, and deliver a memorable experience unique to the Gold Coast, for event groups.

The new branding is also timely for a destination that is already familiar among the many corporate and association event attendees who have been there before.

“When you are able to show a deeper side of a destination, you can stimulate and encourage repeat visitation a lot easier. Ultimately, our job is to increase the revenue stream for the destination, stimulating the local visitor economy more by getting people to explore more parts of the Gold Coast (and more often),” she added.

In-market messages and activities attached to the new branding will have “hyper local relevance”, segmented by interest, not geographical region.

Execution includes engaging Gold Coast Tourism’s own digital and social channels to connect with people “in a way that is very relatable and relevant”. Visuals and language used will also be tailored to specific segments, according to Hutton.

“We are also identifying local influencers – bloggers covering travel, lifestyle, fashion, and business events, and Instagrammers, etc – and we will seed our content to them,” she concluded.

The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) sees the new opening of its Sydney counterpart as healthy competition, even as it expects to retain businesses won over recent years from the lack of a local big city rival.

“It’s great to have Sydney back in the game again because Sydney is the gateway to Australia,” said Peter King, CEO of the MCEC. “It wouldn’t be healthy without a bit of Sydney-Melbourne competition but at the same time, our books have been as strong as it’s ever been so I don’t envisage that we’re going to have a downturn in business as a result of Sydney International Convention Centre’s opening”.

MCEC’s operations manager Darren Southurst leads a media group on a virtual sneak peek into the venue’s new wing on Monday

King’s comments come as cranes arrive to instal the first piece of structural steel into the construction site that will be a significant expansion to MCEC’s current facilities. It precedes the completion of a multi-storey car park that will open to the public on Friday to show that expansion plans are on track.

The developments are part of a A$205 million (US$157 million) investment by the Victorian state government to expand the MCEC’s facilities with the opening scheduled for July 2018, an investment that the MCEC is confident of returning quickly.

“Independent research shows that the operations of MCEC contributed A$954 million back to the Victorian economy in the last financial year,” said Michael Walsh, MCEC’s director of strategy and innovation overseeing the expansion. “This figure is predicted to surpass A$1 billion annually when the expansion is completed. So we can comfortably say it’s a pretty quick payback,” he said.

The expansion will add 20,000 square meters to its existing structure and features a flexible, multipurpose event space that can transform from an exhibition to a gala dinner, to a plenary keynote session in quick succession. It will be Australia’s largest convention and exhibition space once completed, to increase the venue’s overall size to 70,000 square meters. It puts the MCEC in a position where it’s confident it will future-proof its venue for the years ahead.

“We expect to lose some business elements that will go back to Sydney on rotation,” says King. “But we’ve also managed to keep some really juicy pieces of business that we’ve attracted in the last four or five years since Sydney closed (for the redevelopment) and these businesses have had such a wonderful Melbourne experience that they’ve decided to stay.”

“But I think over time, our businesses will be quite different. There are enormous infrastructure reasons for the medical, research, education and defence sectors to congregate in Melbourne so I think Melbourne and Sydney will end up specialising in different areas,” he said.