Sydney has been shining in May with Business Events Sydney (BESydney) achieving top industry honours in leadership and marketing with Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) and Meetings and Events Australia (MEA) respectively, and the city rankings in the International Conference and Convention Association’s (ICCA) top 20 global business events destinations.
BESydney was the inaugural recipient of DMAI’s Humanitarian Award, which was presented at the IMEX Academy Awards. DMAI established the award to recognise a destination marketing organisation that has demonstrated significant leadership and support of its community.
Speaking at the ceremony in Frankfurt, Michael Gehrish, President of DMAI, said, “The award recognises BESydney’s perseverance and efforts that serve as a pillar in driving the evolution of the destination; impacting the destination brand to its local community and inbound visitors.
“BESydney’s Beyond Tourism Benefits research proved that the international norm to evaluate the lucrative business events sector in tourism terms alone, overlooks perhaps the most valuable legacies – the many educational, intellectual, trade and investment outcomes from business events,” he said.
“These efforts have helped showcase events as valuable knowledge economy drivers, as well as tourism drivers, which have a vital role to play in the government’s aligned economic development strategy.”
CEO of BESydney, Lyn Lewis-Smith said, “BESydney has worked extremely hard over the past few years to increase the understanding of business events and their legacies, and to continually build on the credibility and standing of our industry both here in Australia and globally. Receiving this inaugural award is one of the highlights of 2014. It is an honour and a privilege to be recognised by one of our leading global associations.”
