03 February 2018
Once again there is an extremely high calibre of both Australian and International speakers attending Australia’s key marine conference to be held 21 to 23 May at the Intercontinental Hotel in Sanctuary Cove immediately prior to the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show.
There is currently considerable interest in Australia with so many Australian manufacturers exporting award winning products and services, with the significant investment in Defence spending, and with the opportunities emerging in the Superyacht sector. The global marine industry is has taken a keen interest in understanding the Australian market, its capability and hear about the latest innovations.
There are a number of quality guest speakers at the conference including Peter Mahoney, Vasco Buonpensiere, Kiran Haslam, Andrea Francolini, Peter Busfield and Karen Fitzgerald.
The newly appointed General Manager of Benetti Asia, Peter Mahony, has more than 30 years’ experience in marketing and sales throughout Europe and in Asia. His topic “The Value of Alliances in a Global Market” is particularly relevant with many international companies having recently developed alliances with key Australian companies in the commercial defence sector and AIMEX is very conscious of alliances currently being formed in the Superyacht and manufacturing sectors.
Vasco Buonpensiere, Marketing & Sales Director for Cantiere Della Marche, Italy, a world leader in the build of explorer yachts, will discuss CDM’s focus and what has led to their success. He will express his view of the global marine market and what Australia needs to do to attract more vessels down under and ensure Australian products and services are considered when building new vessels. AIMEX has invited a number of influential figures in the marine world.
Kiran Haslam, currently on the Board at Princess Yachts UK as Marketing Director, is steering their brand to the forefront of the global luxury industry, with an exceptionally innovative approach. Mr. Haslam will discuss what it takes to develop a strong global brand and drive a successful business in today’s global environment. He will touch on the importance to Princess Yachts of the Asia Pacific region and how Australian exporters should interact with Princess Yachts. He will also talk about Australia’s attraction as a global cruising destination.
International award winning photographer Andrea Francolini will talk about the importance of imagery for marketing businesses today. Starting his career in the graphic design industry in Europe, in past two decades Andrea has specialised in yachting photography. Andrea has close to 200 cover shots published in Australia alone and has worked with many yachts in Australia or visiting Australia, and has had his images published across Europe and in North America.
The importance of the America’s Cup to the Pacific region will be covered by Peter Busfield, CEO of NZ Marine, a regular at ASMEX. Peter will also update delegates on the current state of the marine industry in New Zealand as a significant trading partner for Australia in the marine sector.
“Changing the game down under, Australia has it all” will be the theme for the presentation and interview with key representatives from Tourism Australia. ASMEX has secured Karen Fitzgerald who is General manager of the Australia Signature Experiences programme and Courtney Barry who is the Global Manager for Campaigns and Consumer Marketing. Courtney represented Tourism Australia at the Monaco show last year. They will discuss their view of the best way forward for our industry to attract more business to Australian shores.
AIMEX CEO Doug Jarvis said, “Once again we are ensuring that the conference has a broad range of topics relevant to the industry with an extremely high calibre of global stakeholders coming down under.
The theme ‘Changing the Game Down under, Australia has it all’ is certainly resonating with the international players we are talking to”.
The conference covers three industry sectors being Superyacht, Export and Commercial Marine.
Richard Chapman, President of AIMEX stated “The 2017 ASMEX conference was a highly attended event with the Awards night gala dinner completely sold out. We expect with this year being the 20th anniversary of AIMEX, the 2018 ASMEX event is going to be bigger than ever. The line-up of speakers and government representatives attending is sure to impress and we have ensured this year that there are more panel and breakout sessions so we can really tease out the key issues facing our industry.”