Great minds – Brisbane nabs major conferences, virtual and physical
Brisbane has won the right to host the 2025 Asia Pacific Congress on Computational Mechanics that will bring an expected 700 delegates to the city.
The BCEC is still winning international bids despite COVID
Despite the pandemic, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre also recently won two large international bid conferences expected to attract 8000 and 2000 delegates respectively.
The pandemic cloud still hangs over the conferences but the BCEC has been successfully manoeuvering to hosting international delegates virtually.
Its next scheduled conference with international delegates is in September.
The BCEC and Brisbane had secured 17 international meetings in the past 12 months across health, science, technology, agriculture, mining and social welfare, which were expected to deliver 20,000 delegates to Brisbane with an estimated $52.5 million in direct expenditure for the Queensland economy.
BCEC general manager Bob O’Keeffe said the recent bid-winning activity was encouraging and an expression of guarded confidence about Australia from the international market.
‘‘On the home front, we are also witnessing an upswing in general enquiries and bookings,’’ he said.
“We are cautiously optimistic that the industry is in the early stages of a post-COVID recovery and BCEC is one of the best-placed venues in the country to take advantage of the improving business environment.”
The success in winning the computational mechanics conference was based on collaboration with QUT, Tourism and Events Queensland and the Brisbane Economic Development Agency.
The BCEC said the congress chair, QUT’s Professor YuanTong Gu, led a persuasive bid together with the BCEC team to win the event for Brisbane against strong competition from Hong Kong and South Korea.
Professor Gu said Brisbane’s worldwide reputation as a leader in science and technology was a key factor in the city’s selection to host the Congress.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said it’s great to see so many organisations choosing Brisbane to host their conferences and business events.
“Along with demonstrating Brisbane as a world-class events host with globally-renowned event facilities, these conferences will attract thousands of high-value business travellers to fill our venues and hotels, dine at our restaurants and enjoy the many attractions on offer in Brisbane,” Schrinner said
