Business Events Sydney (BESydney) has welcomed the announcement by the NSW State government to commit to the expansion of convention space facility at Darling Harbour.

Jon Hutchison, Chief Executive Officer of BESydney said, “Besides direct tourism receipts, business events play a key role to the State’s economic success by bringing influential thought leaders to Sydney to discuss and share ideas. This stimulates knowledge expansion and is the perfect platform to showcase the State’s strengths and attractiveness in the respective fields.”

BESydney is a joint venture between the NSW Government and the tourism industry and is responsible for promoting Sydney as a business events destination, identifying new event opportunities and competing to bring these events to Sydney.

In 2010, BESydney secured 74 business events, which will deliver total of 217,960 delegate days to generate $204 million of economic value in the future.

The new development of a conference and entertainment auditorium will accommodate up to 12,000 conference delegates with fixed seating capacity of 6,000. This makes it the largest convention space facility in the country and provides immense opportunity for Australia to compete with international cities like Singapore and Seoul which have seen recent boost in convention infrastructure.

“Destination selection for these business events happens years in advance. Hence it is important that Sydney is well prepared to bid for major events and be able to compete effectively at both domestic and international fronts.”

Based on the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) 2009 rankings, Sydney currently enjoys the lion’s share (36%) of meetings held in Australia.

“This announcement is a major win for the industry and reinforces the commitment from government to ensure that Sydney maintains the lead in securing business events for Australia,” said  Hutchison.

With a firm plan now in place, BESydney as lead agency for winning business events for the state, will spearhead the business development of the new complex moving forward, working jointly with government and the private sector.

“We have 99 events confirmed for Sydney right up until 2017, representing $497 million for the city. With more capacity and leading edge facilities in the pipeline, we are confident of winning even more business,” said  Hutchison.