In an era increasingly defined by algorithms, automation and artificial intelligence, Australia’s flagship meetings and incentives showcase is making a quietly defiant statement: the future of business events will still be led by people.
The Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME) will return to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) from 9 to 11 February 2026, bringing thousands of global industry leaders back to the nation’s commercial capital. And while the industry’s digital toolkit grows more powerful by the month, AIME 2026 is staking its reputation on something far more enduring — human expertise.
Under the stewardship of Event Director Silke Calder, AIME continues to evolve from a traditional trade show into a strategic touchstone for the business events sector across Asia Pacific. At its intellectual core sits Knowledge Monday, the curated thought-leadership program that opens the week and sets the agenda for the year ahead.
Curated once again by BEAMexperience Founder El Kwang, the 2026 Knowledge Monday theme, “Expertise Matters”, speaks directly to a profession navigating both opportunity and upheaval. The program has been shaped by an eight-member Knowledge Monday Advisory Committee, drawn from across the region’s most accomplished business events leaders, and the group’s message is strikingly consistent: technology may accelerate the work, but it is people who determine the outcome.
For MCI Australia Account Director Maggie Diasinos, 2026 will be the year purpose finally overtakes polish.
“Audiences are looking for more than just content, they want events that feel meaningful and create genuine, lasting connections,” she says. “With so much technology at our fingertips, it is easy to forget that events are, at their core, about people. The ability to curate experiences that are purpose-driven, inclusive and spark different ways of thinking will really set us apart.”
It is a sentiment echoed across the advisory group: creativity backed by intention will define commercial success. No longer is spectacle alone enough. Clients are now measuring return on meaning as closely as return on investment.
Strategic sophistication is also rising rapidly up the client wish-list. Ronald Lim, Business Events Strategist at Think Event by Think Tank Productions, expects demand for trusted guidance to climb sharply.
“True expertise goes beyond creativity. It is about foresight, the ability to anticipate challenges before they surface, and design solutions that are both strategic and sustainable,” Lim explains.
Meanwhile, regional dynamics are sharpening the commercial lens. Max Boontawee Jantasuwan, founder of Events Travel Asia Group, says cultural intelligence is no longer a “nice-to-have” but a core commercial skill as clients scrutinise outcomes more closely.
“It matters now more than ever because clients need partners who can help them navigate complexity, manage risk and still deliver creativity and impact,” Jantasuwan says.
The role of agentic AI systems capable of independent decision-making and workflow automation will undoubtedly accelerate in 2026. But the advisory committee is clear: technology will alter the speed of planning, not its soul.
Anna Patterson, Founder and Chief Amazement Officer of Sight Agency, distils the distinction succinctly.
“Only human imagination can truly create emotive moments in experiences,” she says.
Across the sector, there is a growing consensus that AI performs best when it augments, not replaces, professional judgment. Diasinos is blunt about where real value lies.
“These tools are only as good as the prompts we feed them or the data we provide,” she says. “AI should free us up to collaborate, build relationships and use that extra time to spark creative ideas that help us innovate and elevate our events.”
Jantasuwan agrees that the final call must always remain human.
“AI can enhance decision-making through insights and predictive analytics, but the final judgment of what resonates with an audience or aligns with a brand will always depend on human understanding.”
This human-first philosophy also underpins AIME’s broader purpose. Since its inception, the show has functioned not merely as a trading floor but as a barometer for where the industry is headed. It is where partnerships are born, commercial strategies are recalibrated, and professional identities quietly sharpened for the year ahead.
Knowledge Monday continues to anchor that mission. It provides delegates with a forum to confront the uncomfortable questions shaping global events: how to balance speed with sustainability, data with discretion, automation with authenticity. It is here that the decade ahead of business events will, in many ways, be quietly rehearsed.
The 2026 program brings together AIME Hosted Buyers and Exhibitors, with Visitor Buyers able to upgrade tickets to attend a move designed to broaden access to strategic thinking across the industry ecosystem. Details are available via www.aime.com.au.
For Melbourne, the return of AIME reinforces the city’s standing as the intellectual capital of Australia’s business events industry. For the sector itself, it offers something rarer than technology trends: a reminder of what has always underpinned successful gatherings — judgement, empathy, lived experience and the simple, enduring chemistry of human connection.
As 2026 approaches, AIME is not merely tracking the future of events. It is making a case for it that places expertise, not algorithms, firmly back at the centre of the room.
by Stephen Morton – (c) 2025
Read Time: 5 minutes.
About the Writer
Stephen Morton has spent nearly five decades shaping how the travel industry works, talks, and sells itself. From the family-run agency of 1976 to today’s digital frontier, Morton has been at the front of the queue, often long before anyone else knew there was a queue.
By the mid-nineties, he was dragging Agents Support Systems online while the industry still worshipped the fax machine. In 2001, he launched e-Travel Blackboard (eTB), a daily newsletter that became Australia’s most read industry bulletin and expanded across New Zealand, Asia, the Americas, and into MICE.
In 2009, Global Travel Media came, which went on to scoop multiple international awards such as Best Travel Industry Website and Outstanding Digital Media Service. Later came Destination Thailand News, Global Cruise News, and now, in 2025, GTM Holidays and the forthcoming GTM Mall.
Whether lecturing students or launching titles, Morton has always been ahead of the curve, a travel industry stalwart who has turned instinct into impact.
