Impressive results cap off 50th Anniversary year
BESydney has marked its 50th Anniversary year of milestone celebrations with impressive results reported at its 2018/19 Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum last night.
From 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019, BESydney secured 92 international meetings worth more than A$233 million in new business for New South Wales (NSW), a number of which were won and held during this period. The year also saw 88 previously secured global meetings held, growing the local economy by A$228million.
Board Chair, The Hon. Bruce Baird AM said the results were a great endorsement of the strategic approach and laser focus taken to boldly chase growth in strategically important industries. “BESydney was able to anticipate, and therefore stay ahead in the face of rapidly rising competition from ever-more professional host destinations globally. This was indeed a significant achievement for Lyn and her team.”
Mr Baird commented that while the results for this past year were impressive, the future was looking exceptionally positive.
“BESydney’s pipeline of secured business reaching out to 2026 shows the company’s commitment to decade-upon-decade growth,” said Mr Baird. “Our drive to produce results for Sydney and the State of NSW has been evident for 50 years. We’re attracting a great spread of ‘new economy’ industry meetings and our diversified market approach in Asia has allowed us to spread our risk. This kind of stewardship from the front helps ensure the meetings BESydney secures deliver for its industry partners and to the citizens of NSW well into the future.”
Noting BESydney’s innovative approach as a key element of its success through the decades, CEO Lyn Lewis-Smith noted the company’s Asia strategy continued to pay dividends, contributing 20 per cent year-on-year growth for the past decade and spreading direct expenditure across all parts of the city and into regional NSW. She added, “We continue to see rapid growth from the corporate incentive market – allowing us to spread our business risk and capitalise on our proximity advantage to drive this high value short-lead business.”
Ms Lewis-Smith also touched on BESydney’s continued efforts supporting local industry and academia from bid-to-delivery to optimise and capture value above and beyond direct expenditure into the economy. “We are forensic in pursuing events in industry sectors that bring world leaders here to discuss and debate global issues in science and health, or play to Sydney’s global industry strengths - such as the tremendously successful SIBOS Sydney. The broader legacy impacts - global connectivity and innovation, education, research and academic practice, investment and trade – all play out on a whole field of study or industry sector.”
“Above and beyond all of this is the team of professionals I lead. It is so wonderful to have the anecdotal feedback from our clients, bid leader partners and local stakeholders backed up by hard data. This year our Quality Assurance Research again reinforced the value of the professional services we provide, with all engagement and net promoter scores besting B2B best practice.”
Luna Park’s James Granter was re-elected to the Board for a further two-year term as a Member Director. Mr Baird acknowledged Mr Granter’s contribution, “James’ passion and enthusiasm for our organisation and the success of our industry is commendable. James is highly engaged, and truly embodies our values as a Member Director representing his peers on our Board”.
Expressing his pleasure at the re-appointment, Mr Granter said, “I would like to thank everyone for the continued support to serve all Members as their representative on the BESydney Board. During my tenure, I have been impressed with the job BESydney does marketing Sydney on the global stage. The success of Team Sydney is the cumulative effect of the people who bring it to life: from the BESydney team, to the Members network and the impressive Global Ambassadors Program. I look forward to continuing the journey together and completing the projects we’ve set out to achieve.”
Tribute was paid during the meeting to Ms Sandra Chipchase, as it would be her last AGM after eight years on the Board, following her decision to step down from her role as CEO of Destination NSW. On behalf of the BESydney Board and staff Mr Baird and Ms Lewis-Smith thanked Ms Chipchase for her contribution.
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