Post AIME rundown

Now that we’re getting over our post-AIME funk, it’s worth looking back over, what are, two of the biggest days on the C&I calendar.

Elizabeth Rich from the Business Events Council of Australia described AIME as, "the meeting industry on speed", yet "the meetings industry on steroids" is probably closer to the mark.

Being an event for event planners means the AIME crowd is pretty tough to impress. Consequently everything – the parties, the food, the fireworks – needs to be utterly spectacular in order to achieve that ever-elusive "wow factor" (by the way, can we please put a hex on that worn-out expression?).

The MCG, Studio 3 and Melbourne Docklands were definitely standout venues, with the food and wine at the MECC outstanding as always.

One of the trends that emerged during the excellent seminar program was the recent arrival of "procurement departments". Designed to make PCOs more accountable, everyone seems to agree that procurement is here to stay. And yet when asked some people said their procurement experiences hadn’t been particularly pleasant, with agents often acting as glorified bean counters and slowing the whole planning process down. Procurement specialist Pat Durocher from HelmsBriscoe spoke persuasively in favour of the process, rightly pointing out that the C&I industry is a costly enterprise (as AIME illustrates) and that bringing overheads down is a natural step.

Along with Durocher, another excellent speaker was Malaysian entrepreneur Anthony Wong, who was also named Industry Person of the Year. Wong spoke candidly about his Houdini-like bid for the colossal FIGO World Congress last year and proved that is possible to persuade 8000 gynaecologists to come to a largely Muslim City without the assistance of a convention bureau.

In another logistical feat, Aloysius Arlando from the Singapore Tourism Board described how the Singaporean authorities managed to discourage protesters at the IMF annual meeting from taking to the streets. Somehow the Singaporeans convinced them take part in a controlled, indoor protest instead.

With a budget of around $23 million, most of which was spent on security, the IMF meeting showed the Australian planners of APEC what they need to do to ensure those events run hitch-free.

We’re interested to know how beneficial the show was for you. We want to find out which aspects worked and those that didn’t. Were there more window shoppers than actual buyers?
Are the suppliers pulling their weight? Was the buyer compliance system useful? Let us know what you think.