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“Many times I’m the lone female in the boardroom,” says Accor Pacific’s CEO, Sarah Derry.

Six well-known industry faces have been appointed to the board of the recently announced Australian Business Events Association (ABEA), which aims to provide a united voice for Australia’s industry.

Following the announcement of the Australian Business Events Association (ABEA) earlier this month, advocacy body the Business Events Council of Australia (BECA) will be de-registered, after a vote by its members.

Australia’s business events industry will have a new association from July 3 as multiple industry bodies unite in an attempt to give Australian business events stakeholders a single voice and an entity to deliver services to the industry as a whole.

What Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday referred to as the most significant political meeting to be hosted in Australia in almost a decade has been cancelled, after US President Joe Biden postponed his trip to Australia to prevent what could become an economic crisis in the US.

There were some big numbers in the budget to support events, but it’s all going towards public events.

Air New Zealand will spend NZ$3.5 billion on fleet investment, including purchasing 13 new aircraft and refitting another 14 already in service.

Hotels in Australia and New Zealand had the highest occupancy in the region for January to March this year, according to the latest data from Amadeus’ Demand360 data solution, while China’s hotel occupancy was already above pre-pandemic levels, with 2023 figures outstripping 2019 figures by three percent for the same three-month period.

Sydney will host the World Endometriosis Society Congress in 2025, with more than 1,000 delegates expected to attend, generating $3.9 million in direct expenditure for the New South Wales economy.

Air New Zealand has scaled its Auckland-Shanghai route up to daily return flights between the two cities while Air China has resumed flying to New Auckland for the first time in three years.

With the second of New Zealand’s next-gen convention centres, Wellington’s Tākina, holding its first test events this month, including a trans-Tasman psychology symposium for around 500 delegates, New Zealand’s capital city is preparing for its biggest showcase to the business events industry, when MEETINGS is held in Wellington for the first time in June.

With the 2023-2024 territory budget handed down today, the Northern Territory Government has earmarked $35.5 million over two years to support the recovery and growth of the region’s visitor economy and for business events attraction.