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As a former Sydneysider, Melbourne Convention and Visitors Bureau CEO, Sandra Chipchase, is not one to brag at the expense of her former city, but she does happily point out that Melbourne now has 26.2 per cent of the Australian meetings market, compared with Sydney’s 19.8 per cent.
Still to celebrate her second birthday at the helm of the bureau, Sandra told your correspondent in April 2006 in her first media interview in the new job that her KPIs included a 200 per cent increase in event wins and a 300 per cent increase in international delegates. She declined to cite a deadline, but under her stewardship the MCVB has already exceeded 2006 delegate numbers into the city by 16 per cent and delegate days for the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre by 25 per cent.
Success, Sandra says, is due to Melbourne’s diverse range of venues and its expertise in holding major events.
The city’s 2007 business events CV makes impressive reading:
• Held events for 29,475 pax, delivering 150,422 room nights, 204,651 delegate days, economic impact of $207 million
• Won in 2007:
• 2008 Amway China, 8000 pax, $35 million
• 2008 ENVIRO, 1500, $4.5m
• 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions, 10,000, $81m
• 2010 IDA Summit (Intl Design Alliance), 1000, $4m
• 2011 Asia/Oceania Regional Congress of Gerontology & Geriatrics, 1200, $6m
• 2011 General Assembly of Intl. Union of Geodesy & Geophysics (IUGG), 4000, $48.7m
• 2013 International Congress of Paediatrics, 5000, $30.4m
• Opened offices in Singapore and Hong Kong
• Leapt in UIA ratings from world’s 34th to 26th and Australia’s number one city for international meetings
“Melbourne is a purpose-built convention and event destination with all of its major venues and accommodation centrally located and easily accessible,” she says.
She also heads the only full service bureau in Australia: “We continue to look after organisations once they have won bids…(that) includes delegate boosting activities.”
Melbourne’s international wins are also assisted by its role as a founding member of Best Cities Global Alliance with allies including Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, San Juan, Singapore and Vancouver.
Delivering best practice and service standards to the meetings industry is not just a catchcry, as from this year Sandra says they will be audited by Lloyds of London.
Right now she’s focused on delivering a successful AIME 08, with more than 2000 trade buyers and 500 hosted buyers expected for this 16th annual event, which has also gone green through a partnership with Climate Friendly™, an Australian organisation that has calculated AIME’s carbon footprint, neutralising emissions by sourcing energy from a South Australian wind farm, and buying carbon credits. Sustainability is critical for a city where business events are directly responsible for more than 14,000 jobs in Victoria and generate $1.2 billion.
Visitors to AIME will see significant progress over the past year on Melbourne’s new $370 million six-star green-rated convention centre, set to be Australia’s largest when it opens in 2009. Apart from a 5000 seat plenary hall, it will have a ballroom, 32 meeting rooms and a ground foyer for 8400 guests. It has already won 18 international events attracting more than 43,800 delegates and injecting $293 million into the Victorian economy.
MECC chief executive Leigh Harry says infrastructure is vital.
“Melbourne now has the capacity to bid for significant international business events…a big draw card for Melbourne in securing large science and medical conventions is its own capabilities in this area,” he says.
“Melbourne is Australia’s number one location for biotechnology and has the largest concentration of medical research institutes in Australia. It’s also home to Australia’s only synchrotron which will transform Australia’s scientific and industrial research capability.”
A recent example of Melbourne’s success in staging medical and scientific events was the World Psychiatric Association International Congress held in November/December 2007, hosted by Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) with The Meeting Planners as PCOs.
Meeting Planners’ Karine Bulger said the conference was challenging due to its extensive program. It featured more than 455 hours of key lectures, forums, symposiums, workshops, oral presentations and meet-the-expert sessions, plus 261 posters on research projects.
Another Melbourne scientific event win was ISAPS, the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery congress, held at Melbourne Convention Centre just before AIME with 1500 plastic surgeons attending from around the world. Current president of ISAPS is Melbourne plastic surgeon, Bryan Mendelson, and event management was by Melbourne’s first PCO, ICMS.
Part of the development on the Yarra bank beside the MECC, the new convention centre is part of a $1 billion urban renewal project which includes the five-star Hilton Melbourne South Wharf with 364 rooms and direct connection to the plenary floors, an office and residential tower, a riverfront promenade of shops, cafes, bookstores, wine merchants and a homemaker retail complex.
Two other new hotels are scheduled to open nearby by 2010. Travelodge will also unveil a new Docklands hotel with 294 rooms on the corner of Bourke Street and Wurundjeri Way, between Docklands and the western edge of the CBD.
And Australia’s largest hotel with 658 rooms will be added to the existing Crown entertainment complex at an estimated cost of $300 million, bringing the total number of rooms in the complex to 1600.
CEO of Crown Melbourne, David Courtney, said Crown’s existing hotels achieved extraordinary occupancy rates with Crown Towers reporting an 88 per cent occupancy rate and Crown Promenade Hotel 93 per cent.
He said the as yet unnamed new hotel would target the international leisure market but also focus heavily on the global convention and conference industries.
Describing the proposed new hotel as “a demonstration of the confidence Crown has in the future of Melbourne as one of the world’s leading tourist destinations,” David Courtney said, “The proposed development of the new hotel will continue Crown’s commitment to excellence in design and style and will be an invaluable addition to Melbourne’s tourism infrastructure.”
Crown Towers recently completed refurbishment of its Palladium (2500 theatre), River Room (500 theatre) and Garden Rooms (three rooms each 50 theatre), updating audio-visual technology in sound, lighting and special effects. Crown also offers several executive boardrooms for meetings of up to 14 guests seated around a handcrafted board table.
Meanwhile the five year-old Crown Promenade Hotel continues its meetings focus. It can host conferences for up to 750 guests and cocktail parties for 2500. The hotel, which won its second consecutive Victorian Tourism Award for deluxe accommodation, has 10 meeting rooms plus a conference organisers’ centre with secretarial services, internet workstations, photocopying, printing and scanning facilities, a private meeting room and courier. Accommodation includes 465 guestrooms, including 18 studios and three suites.
Docklands, the scene of more than $10 billion in development over the past decade is only one-third complete and by 2020 will house 20,000 residents and 40,000 workers. It is leading the urban renewal of inner Melbourne that, according to KPMG, could see Melbourne overtake Sydney as Australia’s largest city by 2028 on current growth rates. Understandably, the new waterfront for Melbourne is popular with event organisers for its unique aspect, range of restaurants, growing event spaces and accommodation options.
The newest event destination in the precinct is Central Pier, managed by Atlantic Group headed by MD, Hatem Saleh, who formerly ran his venues for seven years from nearby South Wharf. Hatem jumped at the opportunity to bid for operating rights at Dockland’s Central Pier, originally Melbourne’s shipping gateway.
Fresh from a multi-million dollar renovation the old ship’s cargo storage sheds 14 and nine are now major event venues including: Peninsula, a vast open space with black, white and grey décor, and a 66 metre long crystal chandelier that spans the room to light the venue for 1400 sit-down or 2800 for cocktails; Atlantic, with an industrial feel, hosts 310 for a sit-down event or 500 cocktail-style; Sumac’s bold Moroccan palette of fuchsia pink, earthy brown and soft cream soothes its 140 diners or up to 380 for cocktails; while Hatem has turned a heritage-listed cargo shed into Alumbra, one of Melbourne’s most popular waterside cocktail bars and a nightclub catering for 700.
Hatem also offers Sketch, a private dining room he says is, “designed for people looking for a highly personalised and authentic experience that takes them down the path less travelled…(which) may involve sourcing one’s favourite wine from the Bordeaux region in France, bringing in a type of flower only found in tropical climates, or tracking down a specific hand-made cheese from a local producer.”
Not to be outdone by London, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, Melbourne is erecting its own 120 metre high observation wheel in the Docklands. Due to be completed later this year Southern Star Observation Wheel will have 21 air conditioned cabins for 20 people circling atop Harbour Town Melbourne, a 200 outlet mall and specialty shopping centre. The structure, the equivalent of 38 storeys tall, will be lit at night by 3.7 km of changeable LED lighting and offers event organisers private use of the cabins for the 30-minute ride.
Melbourne’s claim as a world sports capital is now legend and the sports precinct minutes from the city, including the MCG, Melbourne and Olympic Parks has become popular as an event setting when the massive crowds aren’t filling every seat for cricket, football, tennis and major events.
Melbourne & Olympic Parks includes eight major venues, superboxes, corporate suites, and private tailored events at Rod Laver (15,000 seats), Vodafone (10,000) Olympic Park (18,500 total capacity), Melbourne Park (2200 square metres), Lexus Centre and other arenas. With both public transport and easy car access, and on-site parking, the area is growing in popularity for corporate events such as AGMs, business breakfasts, trade shows, seminars for 500 or conferences needing large plenary space.
Because it has so many uncluttered spaces, the precinct offers flexibility for both plenary and break-outs, rooms with natural light and easily themed venues. In-house catering, technical expertise, security and car parking staff plus the latest A/V equipment, video and audio-conferencing facilities makes these venues popular ones for events.
Melbourne & Olympic Parks offers excellent all-inclusive packages covering venue and equipment hire and catering, or packages can be tailored according to business event requirements.
By the end of 2009 the area will boast a new $268 million purpose-built world-class stadium for 31,000 soccer fans.
Not widely renowned for its cuisine in the past, which rarely extended beyond the meat pie and sauce at football or cricket games, the Melbourne Cricket Ground late last year won Venue Caterer of the Year with its Epicure Catering team.
The Epicure group recently demonstrated what could be done at such a vast venue earning praise from Woolworths when it hosted the Woolworths Ltd conference dinner for 4500: a two-course sit down menu managed across 21 MCG event spaces, including the hallowed turf.
With the planned opening next month (March) of the MCG’s National Sports Museum in celebration of the contribution that sport has made to the development of Australia’s unique culture, delegates have another activity that can be incorporated into business events at “the G”.
Showcasing achievements of Australian sportsmen and women over two levels will be more than 2300 items - from the Malvern Star bicycle that Hubert Opperman rode in his record-breaking 24-hour cycling marathon in Sydney in 1940 to the BT19 racing car Jack Brabham designed, built and drove to victory in 1966, plus the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games cauldron.
Melbourne’s clubs have enjoyed growing support for their business event facilities and capabilities, led by the RACV’s move into new five-star facilities in Bourke Street. Now the motoring club’s former home in downtown Queen Street is the site of a new business events facility, CQ Functions, which includes the Citiclub Hotel, function centre, bars, nightclub facilities plus conference and training rooms.
 CQ Functions can co-ordinate facilities, including the hotel’s 71 rooms to maximise the effectiveness of functions, dinners, conferences, training, team-building, exhibitions, or cocktail parties for between 60 and 1200. The 920 square metre ground floor events room can accommodate dinner for 600 or cocktails for 1200. It can also be divided in two, but the CQ complex offers 15 other meeting spaces for nine to 120 delegates.
Perched penthouse-style atop CQ’s Queen Street premises is one of a growing number of eclectic Melbourne venues, which offer event space during the day, but a quite different experience for conference-goers after hours: come sunset Melbourne lights up with The Blue Diamond presenting some of the nation’s finest cabaret and musical performers with a changing monthly entertainment program that showcases the finest jazz, Latin, blues, funk and soul.
Little Collins Street and its associated city alleys and lanes are also home to a range of interesting venues from the retro cabaret venue, Kitten Club at number 267, to the Gin Palace which is self explanatory at number 190. Night owls could try Matt McConnell’s Bar Lourinha for tapas and a sherry at number 37, while just off this street is the stylish late-night Meyers Place Bar, appropriately named for its location.
Expanding from its role as a provider of DJs, sound, lighting and production for events private and public, Word Events has opened the Word Warehouse in the city’s popular Hardware Lane precinct, which was a horse bazaar in the 1840s but now offers a bustling mix of alfresco dining until late. One of a number of warehouses on this cobbled traffic-free zone, The Word can seat 72 for dinner or do stand up cocktails for 200…and is guaranteed to find something to keep them entertained.
Stamford Plaza Melbourne is currently in refurbishment mode, re-styling its nine pillarless conference rooms with both modern and traditional decor. Accommodating up to 180 (theatre), 120 (banquet) and with a range of boardroom options, Stamford is popular for its six Executive Business Suites available by the hour and ideal for small meetings. Well located at the Paris end of Little Collins Street it is all-suite accommodation with 239 studio and one-bedroom suites and 41 two-bedroom, two-bathroom suites, each with kitchen facilities.
Grand Hyatt Melbourne is well underway with its $40 million renovation which will change its façade, introduce a double-storey retail precinct and by September this year offer the MICE market “a spectacular event venue unlike any other function space in Australia”. Complementing existing meetings facilities, it will be known as The Residence, and has been designed for groups of 10 to 280 guests to feel like they are staging a private event in their own home.
A soaring conservatory blends soft interiors with natural lighting, individually-styled rooms and a dramatic functional kitchen opening onto a terrace overlooking Collins Street and a garden courtyard.
A punt kick from the CBD, opposite the MCG, Melbourne’s Hilton on the Park is completing a $40 million refurbishment of its 410 guest rooms and conference and events floor. Expected to be completed by mid year the upgrade is already underway with the refurbishment of the business rooms, executive floors and relaxation suites complete.
Since December 2007 the dedicated conference and events floor on level one, including the hotel’s famous Grand Ballroom, has been getting a makeover and is scheduled to re-open in March as an impressive new events space with state-of-the-art technology. Having lost one of its five-star ratings in January 2006, Hilton, whose grand ballroom was headlined by Shirley Bassey, Tina Turner, Tony Bennett, Liberace and James Brown in the 1970 and 1980s, is staking a claim to recapture its traditional place as one of the city’s top event hotels.
You would expect an event at an aquarium to involve colourful creatures great and small, but would you expect to be offered everything from breakfast to a degustation dinner for 100 in the fish bowl? Would you want the option to dive in and welcome guests from the inside of a 2.2 million litre tank (complete with sharks).
Situated diagonally opposite MECC on the Yarra, Melbourne Aquarium’s five-star(fish) function offerings also include the option of a one hour team-building program with the aquarium’s interpretive staff. Room capacities range from Upper Deck 80 (dinner) 200 (cocktails) to the Coral Atoll’s 200 (breakfast), 650 (cocktails) or 400 (dinner). Day conference rates start at $48 pp.
And not every event is underwater; there are spectacular views over the Melbourne skyline, including free fireworks across the river when Crown’s gas flames send balls of fire into the night sky on the hour.
For business events with a twist Melbourne Aquarium suggests corporate family days for 100 or 4000, which includes ticket entry, costume characters, lunch, discount vouchers, showbags and special tours.
For some delegates, post-conferencing at the Langham might be reason enough to attend the meeting… awarded best day spa in Australia last year, Langham’s Chuan Spa offers more than 40 specialty treatments based on traditional Chinese medicine in a two-level facility with health club, indoor salt water pool, with delegate reinvigoration completed by the zero edge Jacuzzi amid the vista of city lights reflected across the Yarra River.
The five-star Langham has 387 rooms including 55 suites and an extensive meetings offering with 11 private meeting rooms. For an executive retreat the Boardroom has rich leather, parquetry and a hand-crafted walnut board table for 14. At the other end of the scale Langham’s Clarendon Ballroom caters for cocktails for 400, or can be divided into three spaces each holding 120 (theatre), 80 (banquet) or 63 (classroom).
Langham’s dedicated events team is backed by fine service and cuisine and the latest audio-visual equipment.
Having successfully repositioned itself in the MICE market, Park Hyatt with an enviable location at the leafy top of the city next to Fitzroy Gardens is winning business with its competitive pricing and hallmark personalised event planning, flexibility and eye for detail.
It is obvious in their seven distinctive meeting areas, which scale from an exclusive executive retreat for 14 to 24 in the intimate library with open fire place to a lavish corporate dinner for 450 in the striking circular ballroom.
The Trilogy Room for up to 180 offers natural lighting and private access to a Tuscan inspired courtyard, perfect for a break-out or morning tea, while the highly rated Radii restaurant and bar are also listed in the meetings inventory. Delegates have the choice of arriving at the meeting by taking the sweeping staircase down from the hotel lobby level or via a separate entrance off St Andrew’s Place.
Also at the top of the CBD, Monash University’s city campus has meeting space to cater for the university’s own needs, but offers conference organisers the option of booking space in their Conference Centre on Collins Street in between Spring and Exhibition Streets. Monash has three meeting spaces for up to 120 delegates plus boardroom facilities, all with catering options.
Back at its major metropolitan campuses, the university also allows outside organisations to use its lecture theatres and tutorial rooms, even providing professional staff to assist with meetings, conferences, seminars and training sessions. At the university’s main Clayton campus 15 km south-east of the CBD a broad range of venues are available for external use including a range of lecture theatres catering for up to 400, the Robert Blackwood Concert Hall (1598) and Alexander Theatre (508), smaller rooms, computer and specialist laboratories, exhibition halls and outside function areas. Monash’s business-oriented Caulfield campus, less than 10 km from the CBD, has numerous lecture theatres for up to 350 and smaller rooms for up to 69.
The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV) last year upgraded its showgrounds facilities, about 15 minutes west of the city, erecting one of the largest tent structures in the Southern Hemisphere: the Grand Pavilion, an 8000 square-metre facility which is about half the size of the MCG playing surface and can comfortably hold 7000 for a dinner dance.
The flexible space is also suitable to exhibitions, a classroom setting for 3500 or 7000 theatre style and features natural light, power, P/A, water and waste points and two large roller doors.
Apart from September when Melbourne’s Royal Agricultural Show is in residence, complete with cats, dogs, cattle and the obligatory sample bags and sideshow alleys, the 17 hectare showgrounds offers easy vehicle access and even boasts its own railway station. Following its redevelopment the showgrounds features a range of new versatile buildings and outdoor spaces alongside carefully restored heritage buildings. RASV has a professional events team providing catering, A/V and staging services.
Melbourne event organisers can now ensure their corporate teams are running to the same drumbeat. Part of a global movement, Melbourne Drum Café offers an interactive, hands-on program that goes beyond delegate entertainment to include elements of team-building and experiential learning through rhythm to assist groups to work together. Ideal for session kick-offs, closings or award banquets, Drum Café’s one-hour program promises to promote success, energise, motivate, release stress, break down barriers and create co-operation rather than competition by ensuring everyone’s in sync.
For further details on Melbourne for meetings, incentives and events visit www.mcvb.com.au.
Q. How long have you lived in Melbourne?
A. I am coming up to my 10th year in Melbourne.
Q. What changes have you seen during your time in Melbourne?
A. Melbourne has evolved beautifully over my time. I live in Middle Park near Port Melbourne which has changed a lot over the last few years. On a business events front I believe Melbourne is on the cusp of an exciting turning point with the expansion to the MECC, and the developments here at Crown with a third hotel tower due for completion in 2010.
Q. What’s one of your favourite places to chill out?
A. I love MART which is a restored tram stop café in Middle Park, (MART is Tram backwards!)
Q. What’s your top pick restaurant?
A. This isn’t as easy a question as you would think. Melbourne is a culinary mecca, however as I love Japanese, you can’t pass up the newly opened Nobu at Crown. The hustle and bustle is fun, and the cuisine is a gastronomic journey (make sure you try the black cod).
Q. When is the best time to visit Melbourne?
A. You can’t pass up The Spring Racing Carnival. Melbourne has such energy and vibrancy during early November, culminating with the week of Melbourne Cup. The whole city comes alive with horse racing, fashion, and social gatherings. It is truly an amazing experience to be involved with.
Q. What’s something that meeting planners should know about the destination but probably don’t?
A. Surprises! People glide over Melbourne as a destination, believing they have experienced all the city has to offer after a weekend here. There is a huge range of completely unique venues especially in the back lanes of the city streets. Also, there is an amazing range of restaurants which provide for a terrific dine-a-round option when co-ordinating a group.
Q. What does the destination have that others don’t?
A. Melbourne has soul. There is such history and character culminating in a truly individual city experience - the hidden bars and shops in the city laneways, markets in St Kilda on the weekend, huge city-wide sporting events. Melbourne has such diversity, this city is captivating.
Q. Why did you decide to settle here?
A. After returning from London I was looking for a new challenge and was eager to settle somewhere back in Australia other than my home town of Sydney. The opportunity to join Crown and relocate to Melbourne was very exciting and challenging.
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