EVENTS

International business events industry to have strong presence at AIME 2008
The international business events industry is turning out in force for AIME2008, with representation now confirmed from almost every corner of the globe.
From Asia and the Pacific to Europe, Middle East, Africa and North America, there will be strong international representation at the event in Melbourne, 19-20 February.
In total 850 exhibitors from 50 countries are expected to showcase their products and services.
Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau senior director of accounts Adele Tasaka says it has been attending AIME for 11 years, and will continue to do so.
"The ability to interact with key customers at AIME has brought excellent results for our destination. A testament to the respect our destination has for this show is realised with the increased growth of participants from Hawaii. Attending AIME has driven great results so we intend to be there every year."
Karen Shackman of Shackman Associates New York, which has been providing destination management and special event services for more than fifteen years, says it too has been a long time attendee of AIME.
"While it is long trip from New York, it is an extremely beneficial one for us. Not only have we developed a number of solid business relationships, but our personal relationships continue to strengthen."
Cheryl Lum, Director of Communications at Le Méridien Kuala Lumpur says "AIME exposes us to targeted markets, which would be difficult if we had to solicit these individually.
"This highly regarded show attracts quality buyers and has always been financially rewarding for us every year."
Stuart Hart the senior manager at Banff Lake Louise, voted Canada's premier incentive travel destination, says it too sees great value in attending.
"We've found visitation from Australia to our area has been performing extremely well and Australia has become a primary market for us."
Many international exhibitors have taken larger stands at AIME this year including the Dubai Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing which has doubled its space to 180 square metres. China National Tourist Office, the Korea Tourism Organization, the Canadian Tourism Commission, Hawaii, the Philippines, Brunei and Macau have all increased their space.
Rosemarie Sama, Event Director, AIME 2008 says the strong international support for AIME highlights the global recognition of the strategic value of meetings as an element of corporate activity.
"We continue to see strong support for our events across our portfolio. Companies are migrating from traditional print advertising to live meetings and events, fuelling demand and giving rise to optimism when the Government and/or private sectors decide to invest in new meetings infrastructure."
She says in addition to that huge new markets are emerging adding to this demand."What we are seeing first hand is that the incentive industry outbound from China is booming, outbound meetings business from South America is now real and domestic business in Eastern Europe, Greece and Turkey are very strong."