Victoria, with its capital city, Melbourne, is Australia’s leader in innovation, medical research, creative services, research and development, biotechnology, education and agricultural exports.
Victoria – A Centre for Research, Innovation and Education
Victoria has established itself in these fields as a result of nurturing leaders through research and education, and through investing in outstanding medical and research facilities; Victoria is home to 139 biotech companies, 13 major medical research institutes, seven teaching hospitals, nine universities and the Southern Hemisphere's brightest Synchrotron.
Each of these areas of expertise and capability also make Melbourne and Victoria even more attractive for medical, science and innovation-related conferences, meetings and events. Therefore, Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau (MCVB), which works to secure these events for Victoria, has focussed on furthering Melbourne’s international reputation as a leader in these fields.
Melbourne – A Leader in Science and Medicine
Melbourne has an international reputation for leading within the fields of science, medicine, innovation and education, and has nurtured leaders who have created world-firsts in many of these areas:
- Victoria has a higher ratio of scientists and engineers to population than Germany, Canada or the United Kingdom (Invest Victoria 2009).
- Victoria is home to 139 biotech companies, 13 major medical research institutes, seven teaching hospitals and nine universities (DIIRD SGV, April 2009).
- 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).
- Nine Australians have been awarded Nobel Prizes for work in medicine or related fields (Directory of Australian Biotechnology, 2009)
Major Medical, Scientific and Innovation Conferences Secured for Melbourne
- 22nd World Diabetes Congress 2013 - 12,500 Delegates
- International Council of Nurses (ICN) 25th Quadrennial Congress 2013 - 6,000 Delegates
- International Congress of Pediatrics (ICP) 2013 - 5,000 Delegates
- Atheist Alliance International Convention 2012 - 4,000 Delegates
- The International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine's 20th Annual Meeting & Exhibition - 4,000 Delegates
- 35th Congress of the Societe Internationale d 'Urologie - 4,000 Delegates
- General Assembly of Intl Union of Geodesy & Geophysics - IUGG 2011 - 3,500 Delegates
- International Congress of World Federation of Hemophilia - 3,400 Delegates
- International Botanical Congress 2011 (IBC) - 3,000 Delegates
- World Congress of the World Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (WSPID) 2011 - 3,000 Delegates
- Congress of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing - ISPRS - 2,500 Delegates
- 14th World Congress on Human Resources - 2,500 Delegates
- Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress 2014 - 2,500 Delegates