MCB Celebrates 60 Years of Business Events for Melbourne and Victoria

February 18, 2026

At AIME 2026, Melbourne Convention Bureau celebrated its 60th anniversary. MCB has been securing and delivering business events in Melbourne and Victoria for six decades, during which Melbourne has flourished to become a globally recognised business events destination. 

The Early Years 

Founded in 1966, MCB was established with a mission to promote Melbourne as a business event destination and drive economic and social impact for the city and the state. 

MCB was the first convention bureau in Australia 

At a time before Melbourne Airport operated internationally, MCB’s early leaders promoted the city to international audiences as a premier destination. By 1974, Melbourne was awarded top destination in Australia for international conventions and conferences. 

Melbourne Meeting Mart 

In 1983, Melbourne Meeting Mart was established to promote Melbourne and Victoria as a leading destination for business events. Following the success of this event, MCB’s then-CEO Sue Calwell sought support for a Southern Hemisphere version of Northern Hemisphere’s EIBTM (now IBTM). In 1992, the AustralAsian International Meetings Expo was launched – the event that is now known as the Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME). 

Large Scale Events 

By the early 1990s, MCB was securing international business events on a major scale. International association events attracted large numbers of delegates and had significant economic impact, including 23,000 delegates for Australia’s International Engineering Exhibition and 20,000 delegates for the 1993 Rotary International meeting. 

In 1991, Melbourne is named in the top 20 cities globally for international conventions 

The continued growth of the business events sector was supported by the opening of the Melbourne Exhibition Centre in 1996. The capacity of the centre combined with its close proximity to the city and wide range of hotels made it a lucrative offer for event planners. The Exhibition Centre would be joined by the new Melbourne Convention Centre in 2009, to become the internationally acclaimed Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. 

Melbourne hosted major events including the World Diabetes Congress with 10,000 delegates, the largest medical conference ever held in Australia at the time, and the International AIDS Conference, with 13,000 delegates from 173 countries, leading to lasting impacts for HIV/AIDS. 

Growing Global Presence

MCB has continued to expand its presence in international markets across the years, opening an office in the United Kingdom in 1997, in the United States in 1999 and Hong Kong in 2007.  

Today, MCB has representation in six countries worldwide.  

In 2000, MCB became a founding member of the BestCities Global Alliance, beginning a global network of premier meeting destinations. 

Economic Impact, Lasting Legacies 

In the past twenty-five years, MCB has secured over 4,000 business events for the state, contributing to almost $7 billion in economic contribution and bringing 1.6 million delegates to Melbourne and Victoria. 

Melbourne is widely celebrated as a global leader in hosting large-scale business events. The 2025 annual Country & City Rankings by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ranked Melbourne as first in Australia for number of delegates attending international association business events, with a total number of 49,233 event participants, more than twice the number of any other Australian city. Melbourne was the top ranked destination in Oceania and fifth in the world for average number of delegates attending international business events. 

MCB has a strong track record of championing sustainability, assisting business event planners to create events that have minimal environmental impact and positive community benefits. In the prestigious Global Destination Sustainability (GDS) Index rankings 2025, Melbourne was ranked number one in Australia and in the Asia Pacific. The city also earned first position in the Metropolis and Mega Cities category, and rose to 11th place worldwide. 

A Sparkling Celebration 

At AIME, MCB took the opportunity to celebrate their 60 years of success and look forward to the future. With a theme of a diamond jubilee, MCB toasted six decades of shining bright on the world stage with long time partners the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, who were celebrating their own 30 year anniversary. 

Looking forward, MCB’s future shines bright. Over 100 events have been confirmed through to 2030, attracting over 93,000 delegates and more than 246,000 room nights for Melbourne and Victoria, with an economic contribution of $520 million.