A bigger Uniquely Singapore stand at AIME

If you were to not read or watch the news and just walked around the halls of AIME in Melbourne this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was business as usual.

The show set a new record in exhibitor numbers – 868 across 55 countries, of which 200 were first-timers. Destinations like Singapore and Thailand took bigger space. Organisers also reported a 9.6% rise in visitor numbers – 3,584 trade visitors, including 467 hosted buyers.

Walking around the show over the two days, I was struck by how full everyone’s appointment books were. People seemed huddled in meetings and sellers praised the quality of buyers. Although there were murmurs of slower business and the absence of confirmed groups, the overall mood was more optimistic than it deserved to be.

The Melbourne Convention & Visitors Bureau’s boss Sandra Chipchase was bullish as she told the media that the bureau had secured 16 international business events for the first half of the 2008-09 financial year, including the largest medical event ever for Melbourne – the World Diabetes Congress 2013 (12,500 delegates).

In total, the bureau had brought in 45 international business events to the new Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre (MCEC).

And make no mistake, the new MCEC, opening July 1, is not to be toyed with. It is not only pleasing to look at – at last, a convention centre that’s part of the urban space, not apart from it – but a lot of thought has gone into the spaces within as well.

And even though it is still a construction site, boss Leigh Harry was determined to host a media and buyer lunch at the plenary hall. So every bit of evidence was cleared for the lunch in which we were given a demonstration of the technology behind the seat changes in the hall. It’s a bit like watching Transformers-meet-Musical Chairs. Said Harry, “It was too good an opportunity to miss.”

And that’s one aspect that I have always loved about the industry – that spirit of resilience, optimism and can-do that we display even in the darkest moments.

Gulf War and we were at World Travel Market, discussing business even as bombs were dropping. September 11, 2001 and we were at the Tourism Indonesia Mart in Jakarta. The morning after, we were back at the hall, going about our business, as shocked and terrified as we were. SARS 2003, and I flew to Hong Kong on an empty Cathay Pacific aircraft to attend a packed forum. Post-the Bali bomb and I was on the island, moderating a recovery workshop. Post-tsunami, and I was in Sri Lanka, meeting with industry members to discuss recovery plans.

And this, if nothing else, proves the power of face-to-face meetings. It is during dark times that people need to meet more, not less. People need to bond, to share their problems and know they are not alone. Misery loves company, after all.

Beyond that, face-to-face fills you with the energy to discuss ideas. Think up solutions. Debate opportunities.

I can almost guarantee you that everyone who attended AIME came back to their offices, a little more optimistic and inspired.

Yes, even if you started to read the news again and got a little depressed, at least there’s a part of you that knows you’re not alone and that there are parts of it you can fix and that’s where you’ve got to focus your energy on.

And you also know energy is something you get from being around fellow human beings, not from sitting in front of a computer in a darkened room and crying over spilt milk, which is hopefully not all over your computer.