Every year the Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME) is held in Melbourne. At the show this year Executive PA Media met Matt Pearce who is CEO and co-founder of Talk2 Media & Events, the organisers of AIME.
“A few years ago, we identified that we wanted to attract and include young people as part of our audience,” says Matt. In 2024, AIME experimented with a couple of initiatives, one of which was called ‘The Rockets’, an acceleration programme where companies identified juniors to shadow their company representatives as they conducted their meetings. This enabled them to accelerate their understanding of what planners are looking for, what they ask and how they phrase it for instance.
Another initiative is ‘The Next Steppers’. The Next Step programme involves students from various tertiary institutions in Sydney and Melbourne, whereby they join AIME the week before it starts – similar to an internship – and they get to experience the whole event. “A great outcome last year was that one of the students was offered a job at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC),” says Matt and added: “They get exposure and we encourage them to network.” Of course, it isn’t always for everyone, and it is a good trial run for students to decide if it’s something they would like to continue doing in future. The initiatives started small but are growing, giving us hope for the future.
Furthermore, AIME’s Knowledge Programme is about professional development, growth, and inspiration. This year saw inspirational keynote speakers Dr Kristy Goodwin, a renowned neuro-performance scientist and Gus Balbontin, former CTO of Lonely Planet. It included insightful breakout sessions, equipping delegates with fresh perspectives for success in a rapidly evolving events landscape. “Someone recently mentioned to me that they had sent some of their staff to attend the Knowledge Programme, and they returned inspired and looking at things differently. This is when you think you did your job well – bringing people together. Although we can’t manage their conversations, we can certainly create the opportunity to have a conversation,” says Matt.
EAs as event organisers
As we all know, EAs wear many different hats, and one of them is as event organisers. “The challenge for the event industry is that we’ve got a whole group of people who don’t see themselves as ‘eventists’. That’s why we partner with Executive PA Media; to reach people who don’t think of themselves as being in the event industry, but who nevertheless are responsible for significant numbers of business events.” concluded Matt, acknowledging the crucial role of EAs in the industry.
If you did not attend AIME this year, consider attending the show in 2026.
