BESydney has celebrated its 50th year of winning global meetings for Australia with its busiest IMEX Europe ever in Frankfurt last week.
BESydney CEO, Lyn Lewis-Smith said, “IMEX Europe is the most important trade show for the Sydney team each year as it provides a unique opportunity to meet with the decision-makers of so many of our Association clients on their home continent over a concentrated period of time.
“We embraced this golden opportunity to meet the European market with a strong message of our historic track record delivering on the client promise, whilst always anticipating tomorrow’s trends and refreshing our approach to each bid.
“At any one time, BESydney has more than 100 bids in play for global meetings where we believe bringing them to Sydney will create benefits for the Australian base of that industry or field of study, as well as having a lasting impact on the global community for years to come.
“The Sydney team was on such a high heading to Frankfurt after hearing we have retained our spot as Australia’s #1 Global Meetings Host City by a considerable margin in the annual International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) City Rankings.”
BESydney’s head office and Europe team, led by regional director Peirui Tan and welcoming incoming Senior Manager Sebastian Gonzales, conducted a full schedule of business meetings, speaking engagements and media interviews with the leading commentators on the sector.
An important highlight was the IMEX Policy Forum cities workshop led by Professor Greg Clark CBE, discussing the role of global meetings in city shaping and the innovation economy. Three different innovation city models were presented – Sydney, Tel Aviv and London. Sharing a panel with London & Partners and Tel Aviv Global, BESydney’s CEO explained the purpose behind the company’s active participation in Sydney’s once-in-a-generation city shaping and innovation precinct developments.
“BESydney is targeting global meetings that we believe can contribute to our city’s transformation, bringing in global conversations on smart cities, artificial intelligence and the new economies,” she said. “Whatever the field, meetings typically require the engagement of the city’s many actors – government, businesses and academics combined. There is a requirement for hard infrastructure, buildings and transport and the destination in its physical sense, but the soft infrastructure of a destination – the local know how, the strength of the sector within that district, the expertise required to guide innovation and catalyse change – is crucial for delivering on the client promise.”
Ms Lewis-Smith added that Sydney’s emergence as a meetings destination leader over the past 50 years was not by chance. “We are driven by intent, our knowledge of the industry and our strong connections. We also have a beautiful, young and culturally rich city renowned for its strengths in health, science, technology and professional services. But we never stop learning, looking for new ways to create client value, and benchmarking our offering against the rest of the world (or the other 160 countries attending the show, at least).”
Further highlights were the launch of ICC Sydney’s new multi-platform marketing campaign ‘More Than a Venue’, and Arinex owner and founder, Roslyn McLeod OAM being recognised with the Paul Flackett IMEX Academy Award for persons who have made ‘outstanding contributions’ to the meetings industry.
BESydney was joined by Partners International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney), Hyatt Regency Sydney, Arinex and Member Uniq Concepts in representing the harbour city on the busy Australia stand. IMEX Europe 2019 attracted 35 political representatives and policy makers from national and regional government organisations and 294 journalists, hosted 17 press conferences, supported 70,000 individual and group appointments and welcomed 3,500 exhibitors from 172 countries.
