MIAA looks to its 'biggest and best' conference yet

by Mark Cherrington on 4 Dec 2010 Following two successful conferences on Australia’s Gold Coast in 2007 and 2009, the Marine Industries Association of Australia (MIAA) is looking to significantly expand next year’s Marinas 2011 international conference and trade show, to be held in Melbourne in June.

With the theme 'New Horizons', the conference will be held from June 20-22 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, right on the River Yarra, and close to some of the city’s latest marina developments.

MIAA’s conference chair Mike Harvey, said the association was hoping to attract over 400 delegates, with up to 50 exhibitors in the adjacent trade show.

'We had two very successful conferences on the Gold Coast in 2007 and 2009, and we felt the time was right to bring the conference to another state,' said Harvey.

'With our previous conferences, most delegates were from Queensland and NSW, but we are keen to see delegates from Victoria, as well as Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australa.

'We also expect to increase our numbers of international delegates; at our last conference we had delegates from 17 different countries,' he said.

The program will include two days of conference sessions on the Monday and Tuesday plus the Marina of the Year Awards at the Tuesday night dinner.

On the final day, there will be choice of two field trips: one focussing on recent Marina developments in Melbourne itself and the other looking at new developments around Port Phillip Bay.

'In addition to speakers from within Australia, we are looking at including a number of international speakers,' Harvey said.

'Under the theme of ‘New Horizons’, our conference program aims to help delegates develop more sustainable businesses for the long term.

'There will be a strong focus on customer service initiatives to attract and keep customers, looking at new ways of getting your message out to the boating fraternity, and the use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

'We are looking at making this conference our biggest and best yet,' he said.

Further information: Ros Harvey, exhibition manager, email mventures@bigpond.com, website http://www.marinas11.com