Sydney will host more than 60,000 delegates to over 70 major business events over the next 20 months to the end of 2012, confirming the city’s place as Australia’s leading business events destination. These events are expected to generate an estimated $300 million for the city.

Business Events Sydney (BESydney) Chief Executive Officer Jon Hutchison AM said, “Over the next year the city will be hosting a diverse range of events across various industries, from medical, science, creative, financial and professional services.

“These events are well aligned with incoming New South Wales Government’s priority growth sectors. The events will be key catalysts to shape the state’s development plans and provide the business avenues for local and international professionals to engage and discuss their views.”

Mr Hutchison welcomed the new State Government’s commitment, to invest in the construction of a new Convention and Exhibition Centre, which is estimated will deliver an additional $270 million a year to the NSW economy.

He said “We are encouraged by the government understanding of what is needed to establish Sydney as a world leading city, and their willingess to lead the process required to make this happen. Our aim at BESydney is to support this by bringing high yield business and professional events to Sydney and to NSW regional areas.”

During March, international medical specialists gathered at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre for the 6th World Congress on Pediatric Critical Care (1,500 pax), followed by the 26th Asia Pacific Academy of Opthalmology Congress (4,000 pax).

Mr Hutchison said the benefits from business events extended beyond tourism receipts.

“Business events play a key role to the State’s economic success by bringing influential thought leaders to Sydney. This stimulates knowledge expansion, investment and is the perfect platform to foster the city’s reputation as a place of highly skilled, capable, world leading researchers and practitioners”, he added.

“Sydney is entering an exciting new phase over the next five years with substantial infrastructure development committed to ensure the city is well served to meet business events demand over the coming decade,” said Mr Hutchison.

Over the next 20 months, Sydney will see the staging of a host of professional events, including the International Symposium on Atherosclerosis in March 2012 for 3,000 delegates, the Commonwealth Regional Law Conference in April 2012 for 700 delegates, and the first ever in a western country, the Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress in September 2012 for 4,000 insurance and financial services professionals.

117 major business events are now confirmed to be held in Sydney until 2017. These events are expected to host 145,000 delegates and generate $542 million worth of economic value to the state.