Having launched its revitalised business events brand ‘Imagination Capital of Australia’ last year, Destination Gold Coast (DGC) has rebooted its Ambassadors program and tapped Precinct stars Dr Hal Rice and Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM as two of the first city ambassadors to sell the Gold Coast as a business events city on the world stage.
And in a series of promotional partnerships between the Precinct and DGC, exciting medical device and additive manufacturing projects by Griffith University’s Advanced Design and Prototyping Technologies Institute (ADaPT) were showcased at the business events industry’s peak conference. GCHKP also hosted a visit from the global President and CEO of the Professional Convention Management Association Sheriff Karamat, including a tour of ADaPT.
Business events are big business for the Gold Coast, injecting $570m into the city’s economy pre-Covid. The benefits of staging events goes beyond tourism and hospitality and extends to profiling the Gold Coast’s capabilities and offerings for talent and investment attraction.
The Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct benefits from the investment focus that conferences bring to the city and, according to Destination Gold Coast’s Head of Business Events Selina Sinclair, is a key catalyst for attracting business events thanks to our talent and world-leading capabilities.
“With 50 percent of meetings globally in the medical field, like-minded professionals are provided a platform to come together to exchange knowledge, discuss and debate new ideas and forthcoming technologies,” Ms Sinclair says.
“At the heart of the Gold Coast’s advancement is a thriving innovation economy driven by our hospitals, three distinguished universities, innovative startups and the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct.
“Beyond the direct economic contribution these business events inject into the Gold Coast economy, they also lead to new partnerships and attract talent to our hospitals, universities and research institutes.”
The Precinct is also playing a key role in the relaunch of the BE Connected Gold Coast Ambassador Program to attract business events to the city, with Queensland Australian of the Year 2021, Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM, and Gold Coast Australian of the Year 2022, Dr Hal Rice, among the first chosen for the revamped program, supported by Mayor Tom Tate as patron.
“Dr Hal Rice, the Gold Coast’s Australian of the Year 2022, renowned stroke specialist and one of the founding ambassadors from the original program, is a great example of partnering with Destination Gold Coast to not only bring events to our city but through his work put the Gold Coast on the world medical stage,” Ms Sinclair says.
“Dr Rice has continued to bring international medical conferences to the Gold Coast, generating millions of dollars in economic benefit for the city and is now, through both public and private sector investment, in the final stages of building a world-class training centre for image-guided surgeries right here at the Gold Coast’s $1bn Health and Knowledge Precinct.”
Business events marketing has also taken Precinct expertise to the industry’s peak annual conference, Asia Pacific Incentives and Meeting Events (AIMe) as part of a showcase of all that the Gold Coast has to offer conference organisers.
At the Melbourne event, a selection of custom 3D-printed items (including replica brain aneurysm training models, lightweight small satellite prototypes and even a 3D-printed metal skull of an extinct Australian animal) were displayed to highlight the broad design and prototyping capability at ADaPT.
Following the conference, global conference industry leader Sheriff Karamat, President and CEO of the Professional Convention Management Association, visited the Gold Coast for a first-hand look at the Precinct’s additive manufacturing capabilities and other opportunities.
Destination Gold Coast has secured 146 events worth almost $200m in the events pipeline between now and 2030, with momentum building as the city’s reputation for business events grows.
I hope you all have had a great start to 2023.
This visit could not have been undertaken without the support of Trade and Investment Queensland’s Geoffrey Schuhkraft. His relationships and commitment to our city is exceptional.
