Daily News & Opinion

ICC Sydney has secured a new Director of Business Services, appointing Martin Clapham, who joins the venue from Cliftons Group where he was Global Chief Financial Officer. Clapham is also a Director on the board of the International Association of Conference Centres. Elsewhere, Michael Sharp (above) has been appointed General Manager of Aiden Darling Harbour, due to open in the middle of the year in Sydney. Sharp joins the property after 14 years at Rydges Hotels and Resorts.

Things are looking brighter in Western Australia with the biggest business events venue reporting its first profitable month in over a year. Nigel Keen, General Manager of Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre (PCEC) said the city had worked hard to bring events back to the state. He told micenet that the return of national conferences and exhibitions events had led to the positive results for March and it is expected that May and June will also deliver profits. Read more

Kingsley, the newest hotel from Crystalbrook Collection will open in Newcastle, NSW, on June 15. The latest addition to the hotel group’s collection continues the brand’s sustainable ethos, which includes zero-waste bathrooms, no single-use plastics throughout the hotel and 80 percent of produce for the rooftop restaurant and bar coming from within three hours of the property. Kingsley’s General Manager, Carl Taranto, said weaving the city’s culture and history into the hotel’s personality was vital. Read more

Damien Cerantoonio who owns the Great Ocean Road Resort says at Anglesea says his and other hospitality businesses along the west coast closer to Melbourne have just had a “bumper summer season”.  “Although we have done well over summer we are coming to a critical part of our year, which is winter off-peak…many businesses survived on the back of international tourists mid-week and that’s why business events are going to be such an important part of our recovery,” he says.

The Victorian state government launched a four-year tourism roadmap at the Victorian Tourism Conference in front of a reported crowd of almost 900 delegates. The Visitor Economy Recovery and Reform Plan was unveiled by Victorian Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Martin Pakula, in the wake of the 2019/2020 bushfires and the pandemic which have devastated the industry. The strategy aims to grow the industry to 300,000 jobs and deliver $35 billion in annual visitor expenditure by mid-2024. Read more

The NSW Rotary Emergency Services Community Awards is traditionally a three-part live event series, honouring emergency services personnel. With COVID restrictions coming into force just a week before the first event for 2020, swift decisions were made to redesign the launch, and after a few re-schedules and the uncertainty of COVID lingering, organisers forged ahead with redesigns for the subsequent two events. Read more Photo: Oneill Photographics

The Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia (EEAA) is holding two more face-to-face events next week to launch a season of networking events around the country. These are in addition to two other events organised by the EEAA’s Young Stars Committee in the same week. The latest two to be announced will be in Sydney on April 28 and Melbourne on April 29, with other live events promised in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide later this year. Tickets available here.

The numbers say it all. The tourism industry, and the events sector, is determined to restart and make-up for lost ground. The Victorian Tourism Conference, kicking off today at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, is shaping up to be the biggest conference ever for the tourism and business events industries. Read more