The Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME) opened on Monday, 10th February. Over three days AIME will host greater than 640 buyers from all over the world, welcome greater than 4500 attendees and 675 exhibitors from varied enterprise occasions sectors from round Asia Pacific and the world.
20,000 + conferences going down throughout AIME 2025
Held on the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), there might be greater than 200 new exhibitors attending AIME 2025, together with two new worldwide pavilions, Singapore and Thailand, becoming a member of 30 international locations and territories represented on the occasion.
There might be 170 hosted worldwide buyers from New Zealand, Europe, UK, South-East Asia, North Asia, India, South America, USA, and Canada and greater than 470 home buyers – with 3 in 4 hosted buyers attending AIME for the primary time.
This builds on the distinctive progress of 2024 – the place greater than $330 million of enterprise was forecast to be traded between exhibitors and buyers within the 12 months. The occasion is owned by Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) and managed by Talk2 Media & Events, and this would be the fourth present delivered by AIME Event Director Silke Calder and her staff.
With greater than 20,000 conferences going down throughout AIME – together with greater than 15,000 conferences pre-scheduled between extremely vetted buyers and matched exhibitors – the expanded showfloor would be the place the place the enterprise occasions world meets in Asia Pacific to do enterprise.
Largest contingent from New Zealand to ever attend AIME
Speaking on the press convention at AIME 2025 Matt Pearce, CEO Talk2 Media & Events introduced that AIME 2025 would be the largest present the staff has produced, constructing upon AIME 2024 that was the most important AIME in a decade. There might be 100 extra exhibitors than final yr in addition to the most important contingent from New Zealand to ever attend AIME.
Pearce additionally introduced the Knowledge Program has skilled five-fold progress over the previous years – from a program with simply a few hundred members pre-COVID to greater than 1500 folks at the moment.
The Positive Impact of Business Events Report
Julia Swanson, CEO, Melbourne Convention Bureau launched Melbourne Convention Bureau’s ‘The Positive Impact of Business Events Report’, which highlights the immense worth that enterprise occasions ship to Victoria. The report options case research from enterprise occasions in Melbourne over the previous decade, demonstrating the various methods wherein these occasions have contributed to the Victorian financial system in addition to having far reaching impacts by way of technological developments, group involvement and lasting legacies of change.
AIME’s Knowledge Program is the launchpad for the worldwide occasions business to come collectively for studying and improvement. More than 1500 persons are registered to attend Knowledge Program classes held at the moment (Monday 10 February) at Plenary at MCEC.
Growing Infrastructure
Elaborating on growing connectivity, Pip Harrison, Managing Director Tourism Australia added: “December 2024 was the busiest aviation month on record for Melbourne, with 1.1 million people. Coming to a Melbourne Airport, Melbourne airports also announced plans to expand its international terminal, increasing capacity and allowing routes to service the destination. We were also pleased to welcome China Eastern, who began services for the first time from Nanjing to Melbourne and China Southern, who commenced a direct service between Beijing and Melbourne. Delta Airlines will also be flying direct to Melbourne later this year.”
Talking in regards to the progress within the infrastructure by way of variety of rooms she stated: “For new hotel openings, there’s now more than 26000 rooms in the city centre in Melbourne. And that’s bigger than any other city in Australia. And in the next two years, we’ll welcome another 2000 room, so another 9% capacity, so fantastic offerings right across the city. And this includes the 01 Hotel Melbourne in the dockland area just opposite MCEC, a luxury sustainable hotel.”
Extended opening hours
The AIME commerce expo takes place on Tue 11 and Wed 12 Feb. In 2025 AIME may have prolonged opening hours to permit hosted buyers and guests extra time to meet with exhibitors. AIME opens at 8.30am on each days and runs till 6pm on 11 Feb and closes at 5pm on 12 Feb.
