AIME 2006, the Asia Pacific’s premier event for the meetings and incentive industry, is expanding its Hosted Buyer programme.

AIME 2006 will host 480 of the world’s most important incentive and convention industry buyers to the two-day exhibition.

“AIME is a key event on many company’s marketing plans and we must continue to deliver high quality buyers to the region. This year’s target represents a 13% increase on last year’s numbers and is essential in terms of providing value to our exhibitors,” said AIME Event Director, Rosemarie Sama.

Increases in Hosted Buyer numbers are expected to come from Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and possibly the United States.

“With a significant increase in the amount of meetings and incentive venues currently being in built in Asia many Asian countries will be looking to secure more and larger events for their venues.  “Australia has also increased its convention and exhibition infrastructure and is increasing competitive in this area,” Ms Sama said.

AIME will deliver more international and national association buyers than ever before and more corporate buyers, particularly from Australia.

Independent research by Micromex Marketing following AIME 2005 found that exhibitors wanted to see more Australian buyers from New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory and Queensland. They were also keen to see more attendees from New Zealand.

“Our industry research tells us that June is also a better time to attract corporate buyers from the United States so potentially, we could see increases in buyer numbers from North America,” Rosemarie Sama said.

AIME 2006, 14^th AsiaPacific Incentives and Meetings Expo, will be held on 6 and 7 June at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.