Sydney confirms position as Australia’s No. 1 business events host

Sydney’s reinforced its position as the world’s preferred Australian host city, and top Australian city in the APAC region for international and local business events.

Sydney secured 25th place in the worldwide ICCA city rankings and ranked 6th (ICCA) and 3rd (CVENT) in the Asia Pacific region.

Tourism Australia also celebrated the ICCA 2023 rankings with Australia ranking in 13th (up from 24th the previous year) and 3rd in the APAC region.

Specialist business events bidding company BESydney released the results from IMEX in Frankfurt, Germany, ahead of the announcement of its growing forward global business event pipeline.

“This week our forward pipeline ticked over to 103 business events choosing Sydney that will generate more than $507 million in direct expenditure for the local economy between now and 2030,” BESydney CEO Lyn Lewis-Smith said.

“As well as attracting some 128,000 delegates to boost the local visitor economy, the conference programming at these events will give more Australians access to the world’s best practice and thinking on AI, biodiversity, education, engineering, defence and aerospace, critical minerals and all aspects of human and animal health as well as significant social issues of concern to us all including gender-based violence and aging,” she added.

The strong forward pipeline comes off a great 2023 business events year for Sydney, which this week was re-confirmed as Australia’s pre-eminent business event host city with the release of the annual (2023) Meeting Destination Rankings by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) and influential booking technology platform CVENT.

Highlight events from the pipeline this year include: Global Health Security, 800 delegates, $2.8m; International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine World Congress, 2500 delegates, $10.8m; and the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India, 1500 delegates, $3.8m.

In 2025 events include: ACM The Web Conference, 1000 delegates, $3.8m; International Astronautical Congress, 4500 delegates, $21m; and International Congress of the UICH Les Clefs d’Or, 500 delegates, $2m.

“We have also seen some fantastic market turnaround from the Corporate Meetings and Incentive side of our business, where global corporations are choosing Sydney to rebuild corporate culture and drive innovation, educate, incentivise and inspire their top talent,” she said.

A key asset in the BESydney bidding armoury is International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) its ASM Global venue management team.

“Building on the success of our 10-year milestone, at ICC Sydney we take pride in delivering our trusted event services for our clients while driving important social and economic legacies through extraordinary events,” ICC Sydney CEO and Group Director – Convention Centres, ASM Global (APAC), Geoff Donaghy said. “Alongside our partner BESydney, we look forward to welcoming delegates to the spectrum of events that are sure to spark solutions to the universal issues of today and tomorrow.”

Lewis-Smith said BESydney’s success would not be possible without the support of all levels of government, including via the Australian Government’s Business Events Bid Fund.

Tourism Australia Managing Director, Phillipa Harrison said supporting Australian destinations via the Business Events Bid Fund Program presented a huge opportunity for Australian tourism.

“Since its inception our Business Events Bid Fund has been helping to support a thriving visitor economy by building a strong pipeline of future international business events across Australia.”

“Our rise up ICCA’s global rankings is a testimony to the collaboration and strength of industry, and of course our destination offering,” Harrison added.

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