Following a two-year hiatus, Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre (GCCEC) has reopened its Linkage Grant Program, offering funding to Queensland-based academics and professionals to attend qualified international conferences.

The purpose of the program is to support the professional development of the community, raise the profile of the city on the international stage and attract new valuable international conferences. Since launching in 2011, the program has resulted in a number of high-profile conferences coming to the Gold Coast.

GCCEC general manager and Destination Gold Coast chair, Adrienne Readings, said that business events represent one of the highest-yielding sectors in Australia’s visitor economy, injecting billions of dollars.

“The Linkage Grant program promotes collaboration with local academics and professionals to secure valuable international events and raise the profile of the Gold Coast on a global platform,” Readings said.

“The events we attract through our partners help build capacities of our city and provide opportunities for lasting legacies These conferences have provided considerable opportunity for knowledge exchange, connection and economic advancement.”

Recipients have attended conferences around the globe including the Genetic & Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) in Kyoto, Japan, the International Weed Science Conference in Prague, Czech Republic and the International Association for Impact Assessment in Florence, Italy.

Gold Coast attracted half of the conferences held in Queensland bringing over $570 million in economic impact in 2018-19.