Brooke Campbell has been appointed buyer engagement director for Australia’s major business events trade show.
Campbell moves over from Experience Gold Coast, where she was director of business events.
She comes to her new role with a range of business events experience, having worked in business development for Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, as manager of associations and exhibitions for Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre – the venue for AIME – and as the Australian sales manager for the New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) prior to her move to the Gold Coast.
“I can use everything I’ve done so far,” said Campbell of what she’s bringing to her new position with AIME.
“AIME at the start of the year…just sets the tone and the energy for the business events industry…[Having] been to international trade shows and events, I believe we set the bar very high and so if I can be part of that with the team for this industry, I couldn’t say no.”
AIME’s event director, Silke Calder, said she “couldn’t be happier to have Brook on the team”. Calder says the new role was needed due to the growth of the show.
Since Calder took over as event director, the show has grown from around 230 exhibitors and 320 hosted buyers in 2022 to around 765 exhibitors and 1,500 vetted buyers, more than 700 of whom were hosted, in 2026.
“We just want to make sure that with the growth of the show…that the focus on the quality [of buyers] stays the same,” said Calder.
“With [Brooke’s] experience, coming onboard and joining us, she can really look at the whole hosted buyer journey and see where we can improve.
“Growing a show [at] the speed that we’ve done, there is always room for improvement, and we always want to get better. What has happened over the last [few] years is that we’ve grown [significantly] but the team hasn’t grown,” says Calder, adding that the addition of the new role and having Campbell in it would have a broad benefit for the show’s stakeholders.
Campbell believes that the small touches throughout the buyer journey can make an impact on buyers in a competitive landscape.
“These buyers, they’re going all around the world. They’re being hosted by destinations, by hotels, by others, so how can we make that little point of difference,” says Campbell.
“There is more pressure on the industry to deliver. It’s also…being mindful the industry is changing – the generations are changing, the demographic is changing, so how [the buyer experience] was approached 10 years ago to the future 10 years is very different.
“You have to be mindful of who is coming and tailor to different people, whether that be culturally, their background, their age and what their experience is; that the industry is changing and evolving so it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach,” Campbell says.
She is already thinking about what AIME will offer to buyers of the future.
“What [does] the next five years look like and how do we maybe get ahead of the change so we stand out and set the benchmark?” she says.
Campbell starts her role at an optimal time in the AIME cycle, with applications for international hosted buyer to open in July.
