December 16, 2022 | By Bronwen Largier | Dr Norman Swan speaking at Get Local | Credit: Oneill Photographics
As micenet wraps up for 2022, we’re looking back at some of our most-read stories from this year, which speak to the enormous amount of change the industry has endured in 2022 – from the enthusiastic return of in-person events to supply chain issues, new and delayed openings and through it all, eyes on the future for infrastructure developments.
In a sign of the times, since Graeme Kemlo wrote his Shangri-La Melbourne story, the opening of the property has been pushed out of 2023, and since the piece on the opening of the two flagship Marriott hotels in Sydney and Melbourne, the opening of W Sydney has been pushed further out into October 2023.
Here are five of our most popular stories published this year:
Almost 700 people attend a triumphant Get Local as Dr Norman Swan says pandemic may take a decade to stabilise
By Bronwen Largier | Published February 2022
Five hundred buyers and 180 exhibitors gathered at ICC Sydney in mid February as the business events industry got behind the sector’s first Australian trade show in two years.
The event was opened on Tuesday afternoon by the Managing Director of Tourism Australia, Phillipa Harrison, who was greeted with cheers and applause when she the international border reopening, which took place the following Monday.
Shangri-La Melbourne’s skybridge to ornament northern skyline
By Graeme Kemlo | Published April 2022
As it rises above the tree line on Melbourne’s north-east city flank, the new five-star Shangri-La Melbourne is changing the skyline, more with its design than sheer height.
In a city that has the most skyscrapers in Australia – 67 towers above 150m, versus Sydney’s 43 over 150m – the architects have opted for a three-level sky bridge that ties the project’s two 200m plus towers together. Think of the Petronas Towers’ skybridge in Kuala Lumpur that starred in the film Entrapment, alongside Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Meet Richard Crawford, Marriott’s driver of development
By Joyce DiMascio | Published June 2022
Marriott International has had a lot of news lately. New hotels opened and more hotels in the pipeline. Loads of them.
And the job of running that expansion program for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific belongs to Richard Crawford, vice president of hotel development for the region.
It may seem daunting to pursue the development of one international hotel at a time for many in the development business. But to have a pipeline of them on the go is positively thrilling for Crawford, whose career has been shaped in hotels as well as a wide range of destination ventures especially in Tasmania.
2023 opening dates for Ritz-Carlton Melbourne and W Sydney as Multiplex completes construction
By Bronwen Largier | Published July 2022
Two flagship properties for Marriott International in Australia’s two largest cities are on their way to 2023 opening dates after multiple issues delayed their originally scheduled debuts.
The most recent obstacle both hotels faced was the collapse of Probuild in February which was the key contractor in the construction of the developments housing both hotels.
ICC Sydney’s Geoff Donaghy says clients want to go ahead with in-person events
By Joyce DiMascio | Published January 2022
ICC Sydney CEO Geoff Donaghy says all but one of the events impacted by the Omicron COVID-19 wave have rebooked or postponed.
He told micenet that clients are wanting their events to go ahead in person and they have elected to push back dates in order to proceed once the wave subsides.
