Melbourne to host the World Wind Energy Conference and Exhibition in 2005

Melbourne, Australia, has won the right to host the World Wind Energy Conference and Exhibition in 2005, in a booming week for Melbourne’s business events industry.

Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau (MCVB), who helped win the event, also secured the right to host the Congress of the International Traffic Medicine Association in 2006, and the International Secretariat Summit in 2007 – all while Melbourne was staging the 2003 Crime Stoppers International Training Conference, held for the first time outside the USA.

The World Wind Energy Conference and Exhibition is expected to attract up to 1,000 delegates to Melbourne to attend the conference, producing an economic impact of up to $5.4 million for the State of Victoria. Delegates will share knowledge in developing clean and affordable wind energy supplies, as one cornerstone of a future energy system completely based on renewable energies. The concurrent exhibition is expected to attract strong public interest.

The event was awarded to Melbourne by the Board of the World Wind Energy Association, (WWEA), represented by members from over 50 countries on all continents.

Mr Heinz Dahl, Vice President, World Wind Energy Association, said that the international committee who chose Melbourne considered it, “an extremely liveable city, with excellent facilities. They also believed the Australian hosts would ensure a professional and successful event.”

Renewable Energy Generators Australia (REGA), a member of Australia’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy ROUNDTABLE, will host the event in Melbourne in collaboration with industry.

Mr Dahl said MCVB helped REGA secure the event by showcasing the City’s assets.

“MCVB’s support was exceptional. The effort they put in to promote Melbourne was superb, and that was reflected in the opinions of the deciding committee,”

“It will be the first time Australia has held an international wind energy conference. We are just emerging in the international wind energy industry, so it is important Australia receives prominence on an international scale,” he said. 

The 2005 event will be the fourth in a series of World Wind Energy Conferences with previous conferences hosted by Berlin and Cape Town, and the 2004 event to be held in Beijing.