By staging another successful Asia-Pacific Incentives & Meetings Expo (AIME) recently, Melbourne once again proved its mettle as a destination that can host meetings, trade shows, and group events. But, according to Sandra Chipchase, CEO of the Melbourne Convention & Visitors Bureau (MCVB), one-quarter of all delegates from far-flung United States bring friends, spouses, and families so that they can experience the city and regional Victoria together either before or after when business gets done.
Among some of the popular activities and attractions are shopping, fine dining, and even world-class, Vegas-style gaming and entertainment. Planners can organize either day trips or several-day excursions for attendees and their plus-ones (or twos or more) outside the city. One notable option that the MCVB highlighted was a tour of the wine region of Yarra Valley and the Dandenongs.
“Word is spreading that Melbourne is the shopping capital of Australia. We’ve got signature restaurants from Robert De Niro and Gordon Ramsay and hundreds of vineyards outside the city in every direction,” says Chipchase.
Pat Durocher, founder and CEO of Scottsdale, AZ-based Global Cynergies LLC, a planner with multinational clients in the executive education, pharmaceutical, retail, and manufacturing industries, has booked programs in Melbourne in the past and has one later this year. “It is a great city with sufficient venues and activities and is easily navigable,” she notes.
Located in the Southbank area—directly across from the two-year-old Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre—is Crown, a huge three-hotel, casino, meetings, and entertainment complex with 1,600 guest rooms. The properties and activity options are all within walking distance of one another, making Crown ideal for pre-tour or post-tour programs without having to uproot convention attendees. Just over a year ago, the integrated facility opened the Crown Conference Center, able to host groups up to 840 attendees across two main plenary rooms, 16 breakout rooms, and a small (8,000-square-foot) exhibit hall.
Not long afterward, the Crown Metropol debuted, offering 658 ultra-contemporary and upscale accommodations reminiscent of those in a “New York boutique.” The property also contains “maze,” a new eatery by Gordon Ramsay, as well as a spa with 10 treatment rooms and the “28” sky lounge, which boasts panoramic views of Melbourne. The Metropol, one of the city’s biggest properties, also has meeting space for up to 170 attendees.
Also within the sprawling Crown is the 465-room Crown Promenade Hotel. Like the Metropol, it has contemporary guest quarters, along with a spa and a leisure spot called The Deck, equipped with a 25-meter heated indoor infinity swimming pool, outdoor decks, and a fitness center. A stone’s throw away is the Crown Entertainment Complex, which, with Australia’s largest 24-hour casino, a 10-screen cinema, a 24-hour bowling alley, two nightclubs, and 40 fine-dining restaurants, bars and cafes, and food-court eateries, will keep pre- or post-conventioneers plenty busy.
One of the newer group-friendly venues that the MCVB showcased during AIME is Polly Woodside, a circa-1885 coal and cargo ship that originated in Belfast and is now anchored at Melbourne Docks, next to the MCEC. The tall ship, which sailed nearly one million miles around the world in its working life, gives groups up to 150 eclectic evening cocktail functions or even breakfast events on its cozy decks. Polly Woodside’s catering partner, Peter Rowland Catering, handles food and beverage.
Another spotlight venue is Mural Hall, a hidden gem within the locally historic Myer department store in central Melbourne. It is a rectangular space with a soaring ceiling that evokes classic European ballrooms, with its large murals, balconies, three elaborately stunning chandeliers, parquet floor, and wall panels in a Streamline Moderne style, a late version of Art Deco. Painstakingly restored and just opened, Mural Hall used to host fashion shows but now welcomes 550 guests for breakfasts, seated lunches, afternoon tea, or all-day functions.
The Wine Region of Yarra Valley
About a one-hour coach ride from Melbourne lies an assortment of world-class wineries with opportunities for gourmet food-and-wine tastings, sit-down meals, plus nature-based adventures and experiences in the lush Yarra Valley.
A good top-of-the-morning start is Trees Adventure, a combination zip line and challenge course located within Glen Harrow Park. Get the group’s adrenaline pumping and boost their self-confidence by having them crawl through midair barrels affixed to wires, traverse monkey bridges, balance across tightropes, and glide, like Tarzan, through rare oak, sequoia, and Japanese oak trees that are the living legacy of late-1800s English settler and horticulturalist Thomas Cole.
Trees Adventure has four courses, ranging from easy to the self-proclaimed “are you insane?” Members of your group will skip the kids’ course and dare themselves on either the intermediate or one of the two advanced courses, ominously monikered “red” and “black.” The latter starts with a 33-foot-high climb up an indented wooden pole to the first obstacle and ends with a 330-foot-long zip line as a reward for living up to the task.
After a couple of hours of climbing and gliding, hungry meeting-goers can walk over to and sit down in the Belgrave Locomotive Workshop for an unusual but classy three-course lunch in the midst of a working, puffing steam locomotive. Part of the Puffing Billy Railway—dubbed one of the best-preserved steam railways in the world—the venue is a kitschy working maintenance garage with a long, elegantly set table for at least 20.
The owner treated a group of pre-AIME tourers—association and corporate meeting planners from around the world—to a savory meal of free-range chicken breast stuffed with sundried tomatoes, feta, and spinach; baked blue-eye fish; tiramisu; and lemon curd shortcake accompanied by sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, shiraz cabernet, and rosé from Helen’s Hill Winery.
The Puffing Billy, which came to life in 1900, travels 15 miles through forests, fern gullies, and rolling farmlands of the Dandenong Ranges to Emerald Lake Park and Gembrook, providing a relaxing, rolling experience. The train also features onboard wine-and-dine experiences for groups of 88 in four fully enclosed, saloon-style carriages. A full charter of Puffing Billy handles up to 250 group members.
Amid 19 acres of landscaped gardens and vineyards, and views of nearby mountains, instructional wine tastings and pairings with Australian bush foods at the Wild Cattle Creek Estate’s Rustic Charm restaurant allow guests to unwind for a perfect afternoon. The relatively young vineyard (2002)—tours of which are available—offers pinot gris, shiraz, chardonnay, pinot noir, merlot, and cabernet sauvignon. The venue, also known for raising a French breed of cattle known for its beef, hosts up to 160, and boutique accommodations are provided by the Wallace Historic Homestead, which features turn-of-the-century-style appointments.
If golf is on your attendees’ minds, the Sebel Heritage Yarra Valley has the only Jack Nicklaus Signature course in Australia—the 18-hole, par-72 St. John Course—in addition to a second 18-hole, link-style course, as well as the Heritage Golf & Country Club and a full pro shop, not to mention a conference center for 400 attendees. The eight-year-old property, whose business is 75 percent groups, has 102 guest rooms, as well as a spa, tennis, volleyball, and heated indoor swimming pool.
The 69-room Balgownie Estate Vineyard Resort and Spa is another overnight accommodation option, offering comforting, oversized, and lushly furnished rooms. The lodge-style layout and ample grounds on the property presents a true countryside feel; the on-site restaurant, Rae’s, overlooks vast fields of chardonnay and pinot noir plantings. The restaurant, in fact, has become one of the area’s most popular establishments, drawing non-guests on weekends. In its private dining room, Executive Chef Stephane Le Grand devised a dinner of amuse bouche (watermelon salad), king salmon, pan-fried tiger prawns, and lamb, each course paired with a Balgownie Estate white or red wine.
At Rochford, which bills itself as “a wine, food, and entertainment destination,” the Pinot Gallery, accessible via a spiral staircase, is an elongated space, filled with paintings, desirable for group cocktail, lunch, or conference functions. Outside, groups can become peanut galleries during flippant grape-throwing contests organized by Rochford’s staff. Opposing attendees will heckle each other as teams attempt to throw grapes from a distance into cups atop wine barrels and engage in relays.
Afterward, when attendees reunite and regroup, a banquet lunch in either Rochford’s restaurant or outdoor, tented cafe and patio spells worked-up appetites.
Lastly, no visit to Australia is complete without viewing kangaroos, koalas, and dingoes. The Healsville Sanctuary cares for over 1,500 injured or orphaned wild animals each year and also breeds critically endangered species. It provides guided tours for groups, and in its Magic Moments programs, the sanctuary showcases six to eight animals for up-close-and-personal experiences during functions.
The Healsville Sanctuary can cater anything from paperbag lunches to complete wood-fired barbecues of Yarra Valley signature foods, with full, elegant table settings.