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But the United States remains the top choice for international meetings (376 events) followed by Germany (320), Spain (275), the UK (270) and France (240). Australia remains in eighth place.

ICCA statistics only look at international events which rotate between at least three countries and which take place as part of a regular series. ICCA figures therefore do not include the entire domestic meetings business of a destination, international corporate or inter-governmental meetings, or association meetings which take place in the same location. The organisation’s 2005 Statistics Report on the international association meetings market has identified 5262 events fitting its strict criteria.

In terms of leading cities hosting international association meetings Vienna tops the list with 129 events followed by Singapore (125), Barcelona (116), Berlin (100) and Hong Kong (95). Sydney leads the way in Australia, placed 17th with 52 events. Melbourne is in 22nd place (48 events), Cairns 63rd (16 events) and Brisbane 80th (13 events). Perth and Auckland in New Zealand share 87th place, playing host to 12 events in 2005.

Seoul is a newcomer to the top 10, sharing its eighth place position with Budapest.

Delegate numbers

In terms of the estimated total number of participants per city Sydney leads the way in Australia in 17th place (27,642 delegates) while Melbourne is in 33rd position (15,485 delegates). No other Australian cities are in the top 50.
Paris holds the number one spot with 78,612 delegates followed by Vienna with 76,246 delegates.
September remains the most popular month for organising international meetings followed by June, May and October.
The trend of the last 15 years that international meetings are becoming shorter continues in 2005 with the average length of meetings now 4.08 days. In 2004 it was 4.2 days and in 2003 it was 4.27 days.

The study has also found that convention and exhibition centres were still the most used type of congress venue in 2005 (40.5 per cent) despite the fact that meetings facilities in hotels keep growing (38.6 per cent). The use of universities for congresses has increased by 1.4 per cent in 2005.

Subject matter

In 2005 22.4 per cent of all the meetings had medical science subjects. Results were as follows:
• Medical sciences (1178 meetings) 22.4 per cent
• Science (698 meetings) 13.2 per cent
• Technology (674 meetings) 12.8 per cent
• Industry (432 meetings) 8.2 per cent
• Social sciences (262 meetings) 5 per cent
• Education (231 meetings) 4.4 per cent
• Economics (223 meetings) 4.2 per cent
• Commerce (193 meetings) 3.7 per cent
• Management (177 meetings) 3.4 per cent
• Transport & Communication (166 meetings) 3.1 per cent

Australian perspective

CEO of the Melbourne Convention & Visitors Bureau, Sandra Chipchase says the good news is that Australia is still ranked eighth in the world with a five per cent increase in the number of events held.
“But despite having an increase in meetings our market share has dropped slightly from 3.2 per cent to 3 per cent,” she says.
“Sydney and Melbourne have surged ahead over the other Australian capitals. Sydney’s position has improved 10 places and Melbourne’s kept pace with Sydney, increasing our position by eight spots to number 22 and with a 45 per cent increase in the number of meetings held.

“From my perspective I’m particularly pleased because we’ve surpassed the following cities: Taipai, Rio de Janeiro, Geneva, Istanbul, Edinburgh, Oslo, Athens, Rome and Helsinki.

“Adelaide’s dropped out of the top 100 and Brisbane has had a massive decline: they’ve fallen 49 positions and hosted only 13 events in 2005 compared to 32 in 2004. Brisbane’s decline has seen Cairns leap ahead to be Australia’s third-ranked city.”

One of Australia’s largest professional conference organisers and certainly its oldest, ICMS Australasia of Sydney, has celebrated 40 years of meeting and event management.

Some 150 guests including former staff and clients gathered at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre for a presentation on the company – past, present and future. Since the creation of its founding company in 1966, ICMS Australasia has been responsible for the successful management and production of more than 1200 congresses and business events and making arrangements for hundreds of thousands of delegates the world over.

“In this time Australia has developed its meetings and events expertise to become a global leader in the conference industry,” said Bryan Holliday, ICMS Australasia. “As delegates travel more to meetings, so their expectations from their events grow. We’re in a vibrant, creative industry sector and we hear time and again from our clients that the conferences mounted in Australia set a benchmark other countries strive to emulate.

“We cannot be complacent about this as competition is fierce and I’m proud to lead a dedicated team of meetings industry professionals.”

Mr Holliday said while the technology which PCOs use to plan and manage meetings might have changed, the values of courtesy and consideration remain as firm as ever.
“When I was the inaugural national president of the Meetings Industry Association of Australia (now MEA) I counted 54 different industry professionals amongst our membership, which just shows how many specialists are needed to successfully deliver first-class events.”

Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre chief executive, Ton van Amerongen, congratulated Mr Holliday and ICMS Australasia for their contribution to the events industry, recalling that the company had organised the centre’s first conference when it opened its doors in 1988.