City's convention win
THE nation's best known sandwich makers, Subway franchisees, poured more than $2 million into the city's economy last week.
More than 800 franchisees and suppliers from across Australia and New Zealand spent five days at the international company’s Australasian convention, culminating in an awards dinner on Sunday night at the Cairns Convention Centre.
The convention centre’s general manager, Ross Steele, said the convention attracted not only Subway franchisees, but also their families and about 100 trade exhibitors.
"They would have contributed about $2.1 million to the economy," Mr Steele said.
He described the Subway convention as "a good one for Cairns", but added it was just one of a number of big events that would boost the region’s economy in coming months.
"We’ve got virtually a full book until October," Mr Steele said.
Next week, 400 scientists will meet for the combined Asian and Oceania Human Proteone Organisation Convention and the Pacific Rim
International Conference on Protein.
Other high profile conferences listed for coming months include events for Equine Veterinarians Australia, the Property Council of Australia and Western Pacific Geophysics.
In August, a massive 2000 delegates will gather for the 12th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology.
More than 11,000 delegates to a wide variety of state, national and international events will meet in Cairns this year, providing a significant buffer to the recent Qantas decision to cut direct flights between Cairns
and Japan by about 60 per cent.
One of the Subway convention organisers said Cairns was chosen because of the convention centre’s size, proximity to hotels and the range of accommodation the city offered.
"We used to have our convention at the same place as we stayed but because we have grown so much (Australia and New Zealand’s biggest quick service meal chain), we had to look for somewhere else," Wayne Barber said.
"The Cairns Convention Centre is just fantastic and its proximity – walking distance to the hotels – makes it so much easier to organise an event of this size.’’
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Sandwich artists unite: About 700 Subway employees and associates gathered in the Cairns Convention Centre for an awards night on Sunday.
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