The questionnaire was completed by 310 individuals, of which approximately 126 made additional comments about the industry in general or on specific exhibitions. Results have been tabled here, and comments can be read on the mice.net website. The questionnaire asked respondents what events they attended as either visitors or exhibitors – Sydney on Sale (SOS), AIME, RSVP 06 and MEETINGS in New Zealand; whether they booked any business from attending these events; whether there was sufficient quantity and quality of exhibitors; and whether their attendance was worth their time out of the office. The big winner of all the events was, perhaps surprisingly, MEETINGS which, according to survey respondents, had a sufficient quantity and quality of exhibits, rated a “definite yes” for time well spent out of the office, and was deemed a true business environment, with the majority saying they had or would be booking business as a result of their participation. Of MEETINGS 2006 one respondent said: “MEETINGS was once again fantastic. It’s great to meet with exhibitors face-to-face rather than just search the net for a product or service and then have to deal with people by phone. I will definitely be booking with some of the exhibitors.”
Another said: “MEETINGS in Christchurch this year as an exhibitor was definitely worth attending. The quality of the buyers was fantastic, [and] most had a genuine interest in looking at Christchurch as a conference destination.”

The other big winner in terms of responses was RSVP 06 in Sydney. Almost 58 per cent of those who said they attended RSVP 06 as either a visitor or exhibitor gave a “definite yes” as the experience being worth their time out of the office. This was followed by AIME (36.3 per cent) and SOS (20.6 per cent). About 73.7 per cent of MEETINGS attendees gave a “definite yes” as the experience being worth their time out of the office.

“RSVP was fantastic and what I would expect from a tradeshow,” said one respondent said: “RSVP is great. It’s a nice change to the same-old, same-old of the other shows.”
But there were a few negative comments as well. One respondent said: “Many of the talks [at RSVP] were full and made it difficult to be involved. The most popular talks should have been repeated or recorded and a DVD able to be purchased. [Of] the talks that I did attend, sound quality was a major issue.”

AIME also received positive and negative comments, and was positioned just behind RSVP in terms of business booked as a direct result of attending the event (20.6 per cent of respondents gave a “definite yes” to business booked in comparison to RSVP at 20.7 per cent).

Strong reaction

The AIME exhibition in Melbourne received plenty of favourable comments from survey respondents, and appears to be maintaining its status as an event where business is conducted by buyers and sellers. Just over 20 per cent of all respondents who attended AIME said they had or would definitely be booking business as a result of attending AIME. In terms of being worth their time out of the office, AIME came home in third place at 36.3 per cent (RSVP was 57.9 per cent and MEETINGS was 73.7 per cent).
“AIME was extremely good this year,” said one respondent.
“As an events manager who develops events for around Australia and New Zealand (and from a career perspective, interested in Asia), I find that AIME is the best one for me,” said another. But there were also a few less than positive comments. “AIME has lost its target,” said one survey participant, while another said: “[AIME] does not have enough quality, too many hotels, not enough innovative and creative ideas and products.”

The largest number of written comments by survey respondents, however, had to do with SOS, with the majority believing the event did not deliver in terms of exhibitor numbers or visitors. Asked whether there was sufficient quantity and quality of exhibitors only 8.4 per cent responded with a “definite yes”, compared to AIME (35.1 per cent), RSVP (45.9 per cent) and MEETINGS (61.1 per cent). Similar results were recorded for the question on whether it was worth time out of the office. Only 20.6 per cent of respondents gave a definite yes response compared to AIME (36.3 per cent), RSVP (57.9 per cent) and MEETINGS (73.7 per cent). There were, however, some positive comments. “[It was] my first time at SOS and [I was] pleasantly surprised,” said one respondent.
“I thought SOS was a great experience with the quality of exhibitors and visitors extremely high. A very professional show and the organisation was superb,” said another. Survey respondents made a lot of comparisons between SOS and RSVP.
“SOS seems to be losing favour to RSVP. SOS needs to redefine its position in the market or only be held every second year,” said another.
“SOS seemed smaller this year and I don’t think it attracted as much visitation as in previous years. The feeling I got was that some exhibitors were finding it hard to justify the expense,” said another.

National event

“There should be only one national expo for the events industry in Australia and it should include exhibitors from all over Australia. This should be held in Sydney.” So said one respondent to the mice.net survey just weeks before the Sydney Convention & Visitors Bureau announced that from next year SOS will make way for a new national event, The Australian Events Expo, to be held on May 16 and 17, 2007. The new expo will be open to all exhibitors from around the country.
“Our new show will build on the industry recognition that Sydney on Sale has achieved over the past 17 years, but will go much further to attract a wider audience,” says the SCVB’s Jon Hutchison.

MEETINGS
ALAN TROTTER
CEO OF CONVENTIONS & INCENTIVES NEW ZEALAND

We are very pleased that the MEETINGS exhibition in New Zealand registered so highly on your survey. It’s a great accolade, not only for Conventions & Incentives New Zealand (CINZ) and its organising company Forum Meeting Planners, but also on the professionalism of the New Zealand exhibitors all of whom are members of CINZ. CINZ has always kept a very tight hold on the MEETINGS exhibition in terms of its shape and look, and have a seamless working relationship with Sally Bary and her team at Forum Meeting Planners in terms of managing the exhibition, and strategically planning to improve it each year. We’re always very conscious of feedback received after each event from both exhibitors and buyers and have a policy of implementing suggestions that emanate from both these sources. The challenge for any event or exhibition is to make sure that one never rests on one’s laurels, and we always constantly strive to get consumer feedback and implement this in our forward strategic planning. The fantastic support that we have always received from our principal sponsor Air New Zealand is another big part of why the MEETINGS exhibition is so highly regarded. We’re currently talking to both Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand to explore ways to increase the numbers of long haul hosted buyers who can attend the exhibition. I expect that within the next five years we will have a whole new generation of medium to long haul hosted buyers who will be participating in the exhibition.

SYDNEY ON SALE
JON HUTCHISON
MANAGING DIRECTOR OF SYDNEY CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU

Our decision to evolve Sydney on Sale into a national show, to be known as the Australian Events Expo, was based on extensive research among our members as well as exhibitors and buyers. Like mice.net’s industry survey, our research shows that exhibitors and buyers want events that are clearly defined. We believe the Australian Events Expo meets that brief. The expo will build on Sydney on Sale’s successes, while meeting demand for a show that focuses on the national corporate events sector and delivers in terms of the quantity and quality of exhibitors and buyers. In creating this expo, we recognised industry concern about exhibitions being held in a cluster and deliberately selected May dates that do not conflict with other events. Over 17 years, Sydney on Sale has established a strong track record in attracting quality buyers and delivering business to exhibitors. This year the show took on a new face, with organiser ETF responsible for the show’s coordination. We had pleasing feedback on the show’s look and feel, and many exhibitors reported solid bookings for corporate events. In an increasingly competitive exhibition market there is an ever-increasing demand for more quality exhibitors and buyers. The Australian Events Expo will respond to this demand by offering new features designed to boost exhibitor and buyer numbers and generate new business. It will also be supported by a hosted buyer program, which will bring top interstate corporate conference buyers to Sydney.

AIME
ROSEMARIE SAMA
EVENT DIRECTOR OF AIME

The results from the mice.net survey show that 2006 has been an unusual year for industry exhibitions. With AIME forced to change its dates and many shows held closely together it was inevitable that this would impact on both exhibitors and visitors. AIME is the only industry exhibition that is CAB audited so our exhibitors and visitors can be confident that our figures are correct and not inflated. The results of the mice.net survey are very different from the responses to independent research conducted by Micromex Research following AIME 2006. Our advice is that an emailed industry survey is not the best method of achieving a random sample and is more likely to encourage negative responses. However, that said, we accept that the business events exhibition industry in Australia is changing, with new competition entering the marketplace and the well established events being challenged for market dominance. We accept that to retain our place as the premier event in the Asia Pacific region we need to listen to our exhibitors and visitors and make changes as required. We will soon be announcing some new initiatives to make visiting AIME even easier for interstate visitors. While AIME’s hosted buyer program is extremely successful we will also be looking at ways to improve this program, and at ways to help visitors navigate the event easily and gain greater value from their visit. Of the exhibitors who responded to our independent research 93 per cent stated that it was beneficial to exhibit at AIME 2006 and 87 per cent said they intend to exhibit at AIME 2007. 97 per cent of visitors surveyed were ‘satisfied’ to ‘very satisfied’ with AIME having met their objectives. Our research also showed that business results for exhibitors were strong, with the total estimated value of business placed, or to be placed as a result of AIME 2006 valued at close to US$450 million.

RSVP 06
RICHARD WRIGHT
DIRECTOR OF SINGLE MARKET EVENTS

From our perspective as organisers of RSVP we are delighted to see that a good percentage of visitors felt it was worth time out of the office to attend. This also was reflected in our own post show research. As with any of our events we have spent a lot of time prior to the event asking our exhibitors and potential visitors what they wanted to achieve from exhibiting/attending RSVP, so it is great to see that the work everyone put in has achieved positive results. In planning for our 2007 RSVP events both in Melbourne and Sydney we will again be listening to our exhibitors and visitors comments on an ongoing basis, to further develop and evolve the event. Our aim is to constantly provide a fresh and innovative event for the events industry. We will definitely take the time to cross the Tasman to attend MEETINGS 2007 in Auckland.

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