The Professional Conference Organisers Association (PCOA) and Business Events Industry Aotearoa (BEIA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that aims to enhance the business events industry across Australia and New Zealand.
The signing took place at BEIA’s annual tradeshow for business events professionals, MEETINGS 2024 in Rotorua. Members of the Approved PCO group also witnessed the signing.
In the making for over 12 months, the MoU has a term of four years, and sets the stage for a range of collaborative initiatives, including advocacy efforts, and educational programmes.
Barry Neame, PCOA’s president, elaborated: “The MoU will allow access to all of our online educational programmes and webinars. Aside from PCOs, I think many of the suppliers in our industry will benefit greatly from these educational activities.”
Lisa Hopkins, BEIA’s CEO, added: “We are each other’s biggest source of international conferences. Understanding each other and those nuances is going to be beneficial, and everyone’s going to win.”
As part of the MoU, she added, the education will not only be available to BEIA members, but also to the buyers attending Meetings 2024 as well.
This is because “the growth and development of the industry” revolves around how it can continuously improve, educate and upskill.
“This in turn will help retain, and develop a sustainable business events sector,” Hopkins noted.
PCOA represents event management professionals across Australia and New Zealand, while BEIA is the membership-based association for New Zealand’s business events sector.
