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Marcelo Molinari from Costa del Sol Tourist Board & Convention Bureau, said he had gained solid leads and had five requests
for proposals.
“We are just a small convention bureau but we exhibit at all the
shows in Europe, Canada and the USA and I honestly haven’t
seen such a high quality of buyers as I have at AIME,” he said.
Hosted Buyers at AIME were also pleased with the exhibitors
and the AIME pre scheduled appointment (PSA) programme.
Joyce Dogniez from Liberty Incentives and Congresses, Belgium
said AIME was a very well organised trade show.
“The Pre Scheduled Appointment system is very convenient
and so simple to use. It allows you to see people most relevant
to you. I have been able to see everyone I wanted to see and
found that the quality of exhibitors was very high,” she said.
Joost De Meyer, from First Incentive Travel Inc in the USA, was
at AIME for the first time.
“There were a lot of destinations on show here and it was great
to have such a variety to choose from. I’m glad I have had the
chance to see Asia Pacific exhibitors and see what they have
on offer. Americans are slowly coming back to the region so it’s
been great to see all the latest developments.”
Chen Lei from China Swan International Tours was another
first-timer to AIME.
“The quality of exhibitors has been exceptional; there is quite
a diverse range.”
Best Stands
Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef Region won the award for
the Best Multi Stand, Hilton Hotels of Australia took out the
award for the best Single Stand and the Cook Islands Tourism
Corporation won the Best New Exhibitor Award. The AIME
Personality of the Year was Anne-Marie Coulton from the
Sunshine Coast Convention Bureau.
AIME 2006 will be held on June 6 and 7 at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.
Visit www.aime.com.au for further information and updates.
Business events
industry becomes a
sellers’ market
Coming to grips with ‘the new normal.’
Speaking at the AIME Business Events Forum in Melbourne
in late February, Mr Kliman described the current climate
of short lead times, late bookings and continued travel
uncertainty as “the new normal”.
He believes that 2005 will see a shift from years of the
industry being dominated by the whims of buyers to that of
a sellers’ market, as more companies re-enter the meetings
and incentives market in the US and globally.
He said events including the war in Iraq, ongoing issues of
terrorism, heightened concerns about security, and SARS,
had created a level of indecision among meeting planners
and corporations. The road to recovery, however, was now on
the way, and more companies were planning events.
“Procurement is becoming the model that everyone is
looking for. Meetings departments are partnering or joining
procurement departments,” he said.
But in Asia, particularly in the exhibition industry, the past
few years has been a buyers’ market, according to Dan
Woodward of UFI Asia Pacific.
“We’ve had an explosion of venue space and with that we
have seen prices go down,” he explained.
James Thornley of BC Event Management in Canada, also
speaking at the forum, described 2004 as a good year for the
company but not a great one.
“Business already on the books for 2005 is higher than it has
ever been,” he said.
“We are also seeing the purse strings opening a little bit more.
Less money is being spent on food and more is being spent
on the production elements – the glitz and glory.”
The Mint Organisation’s Nigel Gaunt said short lead times
are dominating business and will continue to do so in 2005,
however he is extremely optimistic about the year ahead.
Tour Hosts’ Ros McLeod is also optimistic about 2005.
“The [Australian] economy is very buoyant,” she said.
“Today’s PCOs are ahead of their clients in terms of knowledge
and technology. There has been a real maturing of the market.
AIME
Vox Pop
mice.net roamed the exhibition
floor at AIME to gauge participant
feedback. Among general questions
we also asked whether the show
should be extended to three days,
and how they felt about the 2006
event being in June.
It’s been busy and the quality has been good. Yesterday
(Tuesday) was a long day. AIME being held in June is going to be
better because June is a quiet month for us. Domestic buyers
have a busy month in February so changing it to June would be
good. However, they might not get as many international buyers
in June because of the colder weather. Two days is enough.
Three days would be too much.
John Copplestone, Golf Travel Headquarters
You have to take your hat off to the organizers – it’s excellence
on a large scale. I would also give high praise to Ms Rich for
her executive producer role with the business sessions. Whilst
I have a tendency in my maturing industry years to be so so
toward these style of presentations – sometimes even bored
dare I say – this year was invigorating, even entertaining (and I
actual picked up a few pointers). The Tuesday panel was good
value with Ros earning top points. I would’ve liked to have heard
more from Ros if it hadn’t been for that Yank constantly butting
in. Ian Stuart’s 90 Minutes (and his superb presenters) was the
sort of stuff I’d pay to hear on another occasion.
Last year we had 80-odd enquiries. This year it’s still too
early to say but we’re here in a much stronger presence with
23 members compared to 18 last year. We’ve got 18 hosted
buyers coming up to our region to do a famil and last year we
had 12 so once again interest is tremendously high. We’ve had
some feedback from some of the hosted buyers who would like
to see AIME run over a three-day period. They’re exhausted
and they’d like to spend a bit more time with each appointment.
Being in June it conflicts with ATE but in some respect it’s better
for us because the first four to five months of the year it’s one
trade show after the other.
Simona Pardo, Simtek
I attended AIME two years ago and picked up a lot of information
on local (Victorian) operators relevant to what I wanted. This year,
it was great to see lots of overseas destinations represented,
but, being a part-time, small operator, I didn’t find the local
information I wanted. There were the major tourist bodies
represented, and only about one private accommodation place
in each region. So, I picked up general fliers, but was hoping
to talk to accommodation places personally, and perhaps get
some special “show deals”.
I did enjoy ICMI’s range of speakers.
There’s an awful lot of exhibitors and I’m not sure if the ratio of
exhibitors to buyers is right. I wonder whether they should think
about capping the number of exhibitors because there’s only a
certain number of buyers to go around. I’m wondering whether
we should consider not doing AIME next year. We need to get a
return for our investment and I want to see whether or not if we
did it on a biennial basis that it would make a difference. I think
it’s a fantastic event and it looks superb but I wonder whether
it would be more practical if they are going to carry on with the
exhibition of this size, if we should pay for our pre-scheduled
appointments. They could work out a PSA stream, you would
pay for the amount you get and get a discounted exhibition fee.
In that way everyone’s expectations are met. They would have
to do a survey with the exhibitors to work out a PSA price.
Tim Gasson, Absolute Corporate Events
This is now the third time I have attended, once in 2002 as
a novice to make new contacts in Asia Pacific, once more in 2004 with greater potential of doing business here, and this
time having just opened our new Melbourne office. I think it
is a superb show, and I am comparing it very favourably with
some of the European shows. I do however, have a comment on
behalf of the Hosted Buyers, which was my attendee status last
year. The appointment scheduling procedure does not work very
well for the buyers. I am speaking of my experience last year,
and that which was replicated this year for a client of ours over
for AIME from Singapore. Having registered our preferences for
all 24 appointments, last year, I received eight of my preferred
meetings and this year, my Singapore colleague received three
out of her 24. I truly appreciate the need to satisfy the exhibitors,
and also to assist those exhibitors who may struggle a little more
to fix pre-scheduled appointments; however, when international
hosted buyers are so well qualified in order to attend, I feel it is
quite important to allow us to select those exhibitors for whom
we may well have potential business.
Wayne Pilgrim, Federal Hotels and Resorts
The show has been very good. There’s quality more than
quantity. We’re quite happy about the show being in June next
year because of the workload. I don’t think it will make too much
of a difference. In terms of clashing with other shows this is our
breadwinner. I don’t think it’s necessary to have it for three days.
There’s not enough people walking through to justify changing it
to three days. And another day out of the office is too hard.
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