For the first time this year, the Asia-Pacific Incentives & Meetings Expo (AIME) includes an education track dedicated to business travel, organizer Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) reported yesterday.
The event, taking place today and tomorrow in Melbourne, Australia, traditionally has catered only to meeting and incentive professionals. By expanding its focus to include business travel professionals, RTE hopes to increase return on investment for both exhibitors and buyers.
“In 2012, 42 percent of hosted buyers told us they organized business travel and 15 percent were corporate buyers — this clearly revealed potential for an increased focus on business travel at AIME,” says AIME Director Sally de Swart. “Adding business travel has allowed AIME to attract a wider range of buyers and visitors, including those responsible for the procurement and management of business travel programs, and increase the return on investment for our exhibitors.”
AIME 2013 includes four education sessions focused on business travel, produced in partnership with the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE).
“Previously, regular business travel and that of meetings and events were managed by quite separate areas within an organization. We are now seeing travel programs of corporate and government evolve to span both,” says Andrew Kelly, regional director of ACTE Australasia. “It is therefore important that the individuals responsible for the procurement and management of these programs and their suppliers or partners keep abreast of essential topics, current best practices and progressive innovation. The AIME knowledge sessions on business travel provide an opportunity to do this, offering engaging sessions with intelligent and topical insights from industry experts for attendees to directly apply to optimize their travel and meetings/events programs. I have no doubt this professional development opportunity will be received well by the industry.”