| 
mice.net - Convention Case Study
Name: 10th
International Conference on Emergency Medicine
Type: International
conference
By:
Event Planners Australia
(formerly Intermedia Convention
And
Event Management and ICMS Australasia)
Client:
Australasian College of Emergency Medicine
Venue: Cairns
Convention Centre
Pax:
More than 1,100
delegates and partners
WHAT
HAPPENED: Anticipation
hung heavy in the air as Dr Ian Knox rose to welcome more than 1,000
delegates to the 10th International Conference on Emergency
Medicine in the Cairns Convention Centre in June. An excellent line-up
of speakers and an engaging program on one of the most challenging
areas of medicine beckoned. And delegates had travelled around the
world to be there. This was, indeed, a big moment for the organising
committee.
And then it
happened. Men clutching garden shears appeared from nowhere, placed
Ian and two keynote speakers in headlocks, and promptly severed their
ties! Stunned delegates only had time for a sharp intake of breath
before the ‘snippers’ left the stage to target carefully selected
members of the audience for similar treatment. As the apparent mayhem
subsided, Ian Knox returned to the stage on cue, dressed in his
tropical gear. He had achieved the organising committee’s first
objective for the conference – grab the delegates’ attention and
inject a healthy dose of levity. It worked. The carefully orchestrated
antics set the tone for a conference.
As convener of
the conference Dr Knox, the President of the Australasian College of
Emergency Medicine, said the organising committee was looking for
something different in 2004 after the past three events in Boston,
Edinburgh and Vancouver.
“The world is
full of big cities. We wanted to offer delegates something different.
With the conference being held mid-year, Cairns was the ideal spot
because it would give delegates the opportunity to holiday before or
after the conference – and a lot of our overseas delegates did that,”
Dr Knox said.
“We were
expecting about 1,000 delegates and the Cairns Convention Centre was
the ideal size,” he added.
Dr Knox describes
the conference as “phenomenal” and was extremely pleased to hear, as
he departed from Cairns Airport, independent observers describing how
successful the event had been.
It had all
started five years earlier when the Staff Specialist at Cairns Base
Hospital, Dr Paul Cullen, had attended an emergency medicine
conference in Auckland and thought it was “only natural that Cairns
should host such an event.” Dr Cullen’s subsequent advocacy of Cairns
coincided with overtures from the Convention Centre’s marketing team,
“we won hands down.”
“This was the
first time that the conference, which is held every two years, was
staged outside of a capital city. It was superb – far and away the
best conference I have ever been to, anywhere in the world.”
And would the
world’s emergency medicine practitioners see Cairns again? “By popular
demand, we might have to come back,” Dr Cullen said.
Event Planners
Australia, Event Manager Sonia Higgs said the conference was
successful and we have received positive feedback from delegates
praising all aspects of ICEM 2004.
“Our presenters
were pleased with the high quality of audio visual services in plenary
and concurrent sessions. Once again, the tireless efforts of the
Cairns Convention Centre team on site could not be flawed and were a
key factor in the overall success of the event”.
ENDS
July 2004
For More Information:
Geoff Donaghy
Managing Director
Cairns Convention Centre
Telephone: 07-4042 4200
Facsimile: 07-4052 1152
Email:
gdonaghy@cairnsconvention.com.au
|
