News Briefs

TAKING shape as part of the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre development, Hilton Melbourne South Wharf will be able to provide guests with direct access to the centre. It has introduced a “South Wharf meetings and events” service to make booking the MCEC for small and medium-sized meetings and events a one-step process.

ACCOR has launched MGallery, a collection of upscale hotels with one or more of four principal elements, Vision, Design, History and Location. The initial eight properties include Grand Hotel Melbourne and St Moritz Queenstown. By the end of 2010 it is hoped to have more than 40 hotels in the collection.

IN between tours (they have just launched a show that is taking them to clubs around Australia), singers Christine Anu and Deni Hines have edged into the corporate entertainment field, adapting their performance to suit a range of formats. They are being represented by The Harbour Agency. www.theharbouragency.com

OFFICIALS at Bahrain International Exhibition & Convention Centre say they are receiving up to 16 inquiries a day for exhibition space. As a result, the centre plans to relocate and expand by 2011, reports Gulf Daily News. Its new home will be 10 times the size of its current complex, says Bahrain Exhibition & Convention Authority acting-CEO Debbie Stanford-Kristiansen. The new centre will have 120,000sq.m. of exhibition space.

AS part of its goal to become an employer of choice, and to encourage valuable members of the workforce to return, the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre is offering female employees six weeks’ paid maternity leave. Currently, employers in WA do not have to offer paid maternity leave.

PHUKET’S Sheraton Grande Laguna has been awarded the title of Top Conference Hotel for Asia for the second year running. The resort has six meeting rooms catering for up to 400 guests, while its air-conditioned marquee can seat 1000 delegates.

EXPOMEDIA Events is launching the International Spa Show in London, from March 20 to 22.

CAIRNS Convention Centre has hosted a three-day regional sitting of Parliament. More than 100 politicians and staff spent a week in the Queensland city.

REED Travel Exhibitions, Meetings & Incentives group exhibition director Paul Kennedy has been named in the top 10 of the meetings industry’s “25 most powerful” individuals, a list compiled by US publication Meeting News. He has been recognised for RTE’s flagship meetings event EIBTM in Barcelona, and for his leadership and successes in setting up two events in the Middle East and China.

YET another international C&I trade show is being launched by Reed Travel Exhibitions – the Americas Incentive Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition, to be held in Baltimore, Maryland, from June 29 to July 1, 2010.

THANKS to a new canal boat lock, visitors to Cape Town International Convention Centre will be able to travel there by boat from the Waterfront. The first lock in South Africa, it will be in the Marina Basin and measure about 11m. wide and 37m. long.

TANZANIA plans to build two world-class convention centres by 2015. The Julius Nyerere Convention Centre will be built in Dar es Salaam and the Kilimanjaro International Convention Centre in Arusha. Foreign Affairs & International Relations Minister Bernard Membe says the Chinese have agreed to build the multi-million-dollar centre in Dar es Salaam.

GERMANY’s first floating event and conference centre has been launched by Mercure Hotel Hamburg City. Covering 450sq.m. and costing three million euros, the KAI 10 venue was built over nine months beside the Mercure. On the Mittelkanal, the venue is on two steel/concrete pontoons that weigh 390 and 260 tonnes. The façade of aluminium-coated panels was placed on pre-made wall elements. There are three levels – under, on and above water – accommodating up to 350 delegates. The conference area, with its two halls, can cater for 160 people.

SINCE opening 10 years ago, the Mercure Sydney has accommodated more than 2,377,680 guests, who have consumed more than 1,140,2000 breakfasts and 594,420 litres of beer. Beds have been made more than three million times, and more than 350,000 cars have been parked.

A JOINT-VENTURE agreement with a property developer in India has been signed by Rendezvous Hotels & Resorts International. To be called Rendezvous India Hospitality Private Limited, the JVC will manage hotels and resorts in India, where the government estimates an extra 150,000 rooms are needed to meet demand in areas such as Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.

SERVICED office provider The Regus Group has opened its first South Australian business centre, in Adelaide’s CBD. Regus Australia general manager Ian Wheeler says the city’s CBD office vacancy rates are among the tightest in the country and have already hit their lowest point in 18 years.

AN evening of spectacle was hosted in Sydney by Macau Government Tourist Office, dinner guests being treated to acts including flare barmen, an aerial performer, dragon dancers and a laser light performance. The event launched a week-long promotion of Macau in Martin Place.

IN conjunction with Cairns Regional Council’s Business Water Efficiency Program, Cairns Colonial Club Resort has introduced water-saving technology as part of its $5 million refurbishment program, aiming to save about 49.128 million litres of water a year.

MHF Marketing in Melbourne has been appointed Australasian C&I representative for a new DMC, The Destination Management Company, an independent venture by Jenny May. The focus will still be on Hong Kong, China and Macau.

VIENNA has won the right to host the world’s largest HIV/AIDS conference in July 2010. About 30,000 delegates are expected at the 18th World AIDS Conference.

INDIA will have a Langham Place in Pune in 2010. The 180-room hotel will feature the latest technology and have floor-to-ceiling glass in its atrium with a DJ booth overlooking the lobby. The hotel will also feature India’s first Chuan Spa.

EUROPE’s largest conference, the 25,000-strong European Society of Cardiology, will return to Stockholm in 2010 for the fifth time. Also returning to the Swedish capital is the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in September 2010 with an estimated 15,000 delegates.