Melbourne’s Conference and Business Events Infrastructure
Meeting Planners and Event and Conference Organisers know the value of good infrastructure, which can make or break a successful Business Event. Melbourne is an Event Organiser’s dream, with a range of impressive facilities.
- Melbourne is home to Australia's most flexible meeting facilities with the new Melbourne Convention Centre that opened in June 2009. The new Six Star Green Star energy rated centre boasts a 5,553 seat plenary hall, 32 meeting rooms, a grand banquet room for 1,500 guests, and is within a five minute walking distance of five major convention hotels.
- Melbourne has Australia's highest concentration of convention facilities located in the city centre.
- The Melbourne Tourism Region has more than 24,100 accommodation rooms located within one hour of the central business district with approximately 15,100 of these rooms located within the City of Melbourne.
Melbourne's Transport and Access
Whether by planes, trains, automobiles, trams or buses, travelling to and within Melbourne is a breeze with its well-integrated public transport system.
- Melbourne International Airport is open 24 hours, is curfew free and currently has approximately 484 international flights and 3,207 domestic flights per week (Melbourne Airport Aircraft Movements 2007/08).
- Melbourne was named in the world’s Top 5 for airports that handle between 15 and 25 million passengers (Airports Council International [ACI] Airport Service Quality Survey 2007).
- The compact city grid network and transport facilities in Melbourne allow easy access to all major hotels, meeting venues and local attractions. Many venues can be reached on foot.
- Melbourne's Southern Cross (railway) Station features an airport-style transport interchange able to handle more than 30,000 passengers at peak hour times.
- Melbourne offers a free City Circle Tourist Tram and Tourist Shuttle Bus for travelling around the city. These services link with other tram, train and light rail services in and around Melbourne. The City Circle Tram takes passengers past shopping malls and arcades, major attractions such as the Old Treasury Building, Parliament House and the Princess Theatre, as well as parks and gardens.
Melbourne: a Business Centre
With renowned universities and a focus on innovation, Melbourne has established an excellent reputation in many industries including medicine and education.
- Victoria is home to 139 biotech companies, 13 major medical research institutes, seven teaching hospitals and nine universities (DIIRD SGV, April 2009).
- Australia has eight institutions in the world top 100 universities, as well as six in the ‘top 50 universities for life sciences & biomedicine’ (Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings 2009).
- Melbourne is home to 50 per cent of the top 20 biotech companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
- Melbourne has developed breakthrough products such as the Relenza anti-flu vaccine, the Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine, the cochlear implant, which has provided hearing for thousands of people throughout the world, and the atomic absorption spectrometer (CSIRO & DIIRD SGV, April 2009).
- Melbourne is a founding partner of the BestCities Global Alliance – an international convention bureau network dedicated to the delivery of the world's best service experience for the meetings industry www.bestcities.net.
Melbourne's Attractions
Just name your area of interest and Melbourne is sure to entice you; from the arts to sports, from shopping to festivals, Melbourne’s attractions abound.
- Melbourne is famous for its many and varied shopping experiences including outdoor markets, international boutiques, and local designers in historic laneways.
- The city is alive with a year-round calendar of annual festivals and events such as the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and Melbourne International Arts Festival.
- Melbourne is the only city in the world with three retractable roof stadiums.
- Federation Square has become an icon in Melbourne; centrally located, ‘Fed’ Square is visually spectacular with its unusual design, and houses bars and restaurants, regular live entertainment, public events and exhibitions.
- Enjoy a walking tour of Melbourne and experience a range of public art, including the city’s dynamic Laneway Commissions. Melbourne also features an abundance of museums and galleries.
Accolades for Melbourne
In recent years, Melbourne has received national and international recognition as a top destination for sports, business travel, shopping, literature and more.
- Since 2002, The Economist Intelligence Unit has selected Melbourne as Most Liveable City three times, and has placed Melbourne in the top three ‘World’s Most Liveable Cities’ every year.
In the FutureBrand 2009 Country Brand Index, Australia was selected as ‘Best Country Brand to Extend a Business Trip’.
Melbourne was recognised as Best Sports City in the 2009 SportBusiness Sports Event Management Awards.
2008 saw Melbourne beat Sydney as the nation’s most popular city for business travel for the third year in a row (wotif.com).
Melbourne was named a UNESCO City of Literature in 2008 - only the second city in the world to receive this accolade.
Melbourne is Australia’s fashion capital. The city has been named in the top seven most fashion-forward cities by leading New York fashion magazine Nylon (The Nylon Book of Global Style).
In a world study that evaluated cities on their efforts to improve sustainability including transportation, economy, environment, health, education, arts, recreation and innovation, Melbourne was ranked among the top ten sustainable cities and was the only Australian city included (Ethisphere 2008).
For further information including time zone, climate and visas, see our Melbourne Guide.