AIME 2008 - Overview
FEBRUARY 18, 2008. AIME 2008 will open tomorrow with 850 exhibitors looking forward to increased business opportunities. The Asia Pacific region remains a growth area for meetings and incentives business despite concerns regarding the flow on affect of a possible global economic slowdown.
AIME 2008, 16th Asia-Pacific Incentive & Meetings Expo is at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre on 19-20 February.
AIME is Asia Pacific's premier event for the conventions and incentives industry drawing around 6,000 people to Melbourne for the annual event, the first industry event of the calendar year and a litmus test of business in the region.
"The feedback from exhibitors, buyers and industry leaders combined with data from recent surveys suggest that both tourism and business tourism in the Asia Pacific will continue to grow," said Rosemarie Sama, Event Director.
"Many exhibitors have chosen to increase the size of their stands this year and a number of regions will have more co-exhibitors than previously. AIME will also have a greater diversity of companies, products and services this year as 243 new exhibiting companies join the event.
"We are expecting a record number of hosted buyers this year also, following changes to the program that eliminated our semi hosted buyer category. This year all but local buyers are fully hosted. Our hosted buyer team and intermediaries in many countries have assisted us in communicating the business benefits of attending AIME. This has resulted in a record number of buyers being qualified this year.
"A number of new features have been added to AIME this year. We have 10 new Master Classes, a first-timers badge, a new Globe Restaurant & Champagne Bar, new networking hours for the last hour of each day, an official event free night on Tuesday and a new AIME Club Night - Mix@Fusion.
"Pre-registrations are also up by 25% on last year so we expect to see an increase in our visitor numbers as well."
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