ICC Sydney’s surging visitor numbers reenergise the events industry and the city at large

31 May 2022

International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) reenergises Sydney while contributing to the city’s appeal on the global stage by enhancing its services and delivering 172 events attracting 336,000 visitors in the first five months of a bumper 2022 calendar.

New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said ICC Sydney was playing an important role in reactivating Sydney’s CBD and maintaining its national and global competitiveness.

“Conference delegates and visitors to events at ICC Sydney help breathe life back into our global city, as well as promote opportunities to boost innovation, investment and trade,” Mr Perrottet said.

“By securing local, interstate and international events and their respective attendees, the venue plays an important role in the state economy, drawing hundreds of thousands of people each year to our beautiful city, supporting our retail, hospitality and tourism sectors.”

ICC Sydney CEO, Geoff Donaghy said Sydney was open for business events, international events were back and the venue was on track to deliver pre-COVID level visitor and knowledge economy benefits for the city.

“With borders open and a restriction-free operating environment, the ICC Sydney team is excited to welcome the world back to our diverse, dynamic city and unrivalled location.”

“Our March to May event attendance figures are on par with our pre-COVID visitor numbers. We are on track to return to delivering AU$900 million annually in delegate spending within our local community.”

“The continued surge in ICC Sydney’s events calendar contributes significant benefits to the city not only through direct and indirect visitor expenditure, but in building Sydney’s cultural, academic and intellectual capital. Using pre-pandemic modelling, the first five months of events in 2022 alone have the potential to deliver AU$170.2M in visitor spend in the local economy while also reinvigorating the knowledge economy benefits that rely on business events,” Mr Donaghy said.

Event organisers and visitors will bring their events to an ever improved venue and an experienced, passionate team, backed by a rejuvenated, energised city surrounding the premier convention, exhibition and entertainment precinct.

Newly enhanced client toolkit

ICC Sydney’s team has enhanced products and services to bolster both the event planning and in person attendee experience.

‘Connect Outdoors’ provides networking opportunities reimagined in ICC Sydney’s open air, styled locations overlooking picturesque Darling Harbour and Sydney’s iconic skyline.
ICC Sydney has broadened its ground breaking Legacy Program with new partnerships and experiences, including additional First Nations cultural service suppliers, giving event organisers more avenues to reach their corporate social responsibility objectives through their events.
Developing an environmentally sustainable event is easier than ever with the inclusion of ICC Sydney’s Sustainable Event and Plastic Free Event Checklists in the venue’s Legacy Program Guide.
New signage has been installed across the venue to support onsite clients and attendees with minimising waste to landfill.
A refreshed website featuring tailored user experience navigation and updated organiser tools further supports event planning

The venue’s recently created Event Logistics Department streamlines the porterage of event materials to and from the Convention Centre loading dock and tenanted spaces.
ICC Sydney’s Butler Service has also been expanded, with several more fully-fledged butlers added to meet the demand for the existing 5-star service it already offers.
2022 Menu Collection remains boosted with local produce and features plant based proteins, superfoods and native foods.
‘Connect Hub’ spans speaker preparation for both onsite and online speakers as well as flexible media studios for broadcast events, a video edit suite, digital signage management and digital event platform design and delivery. Managed by ICC Sydney’s audio visual experts, the venue’s customisable digital event platform, ICC Sydney Connect, provides an end to end solution for managing hybrid events.

An experienced, match fit team
Central to ICC Sydney’s ability to reenergise Sydney, is its world class, experienced team. Over the past two years the team has undertaken initiatives to strengthen its culture, which will in turn provide benefits to event organisers and attendees:

Upskilling and innovation has inspired and retained exceptional talent throughout the pandemic.
The launch of its second Reconciliation Action Plan reinforces a commitment to reconciliation with Australia’s First Nations people.
Building on the venue’s ‘employer of choice’ position, ICC Sydney’s diversity and inclusion policy actively aims to employ LGBTI and gender diverse people, culturally and linguistically diverse people, parents and carers, youth and mature aged workers, Australia’s First Nations people and support those with disability in the workplace.
The venue continues to positively contribute to its community partners, and recently launched a new partnership with leading not-for-profit conservation organisation, Science for Wildlife. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) partnership between ICC Sydney and Science for Wildlife will help protect koalas, now listed as an endangered species following the impact of global warming and urban expansion, as well as enrich the venue management team’s social and wellbeing experiences.

A vibrant city abuzz around ICC Sydney

New and refurbished hotels include Crowne Plaza, Hotel Kith, Kimpton Margot Sydney, Ace Hotel Sydney, and Aiden Hotel (plus the W Sydney due to open in November 2022) increasing the number of hotel rooms to 42,000 within easy walking distance of ICC Sydney.
The annual festival of light, music and ideas, Vivid Sydney recommenced across the city this week.
Live entertainment events are back on at venues throughout the city, including at ICC Sydney’s Aware Super Theatre with local and international acts such as Guy Sebastian, London Grammar, Sigor Ros, The Teskey Brothers, Jimmy Barnes, Liam Gallagher, The Script, Jonathan Van Ness, Professor Brian Cox, and David Gray among others being staged in 2022 alone.
Fireworks displays have returned to the Darling Harbour precinct every Saturday evening.
Situated at the nexus between business, community and academia, business events attendees at ICC Sydney can also connect in with Sydney’s local business community which is largely back to working from their offices.

ICC Sydney and the surrounding city are back to being dynamic and bustling environments enhanced by the diverse events presented at the venue.

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