New event spaces at the Cairns Convention Centre and an array of innovative offsite venue options kept the host destination fresh for the third Cannes in Cairns held in June 2024.
The creativity festival organised by The Misfits Media has grown from 430 delegates in its first year to 1657 with several participating businesses taking over offsite venues throughout the city for launches and private networking functions.
The Misfits Co-founder Dan Uglow said he was delighted to be bringing the conference back to Cairns in 2025 with its new name, Cairns Crocodiles.
“We’re finding the breadth of venue options to be a huge bonus as a key part of the Cairns Crocodiles is to provide delegates with new experiences and insights and the varied nature of venues in the city makes that really easy to do,” he said.
“As an award-winning event agency, The Misfits runs major conferences in Sydney and Melbourne, but neither city can eclipse Cairns in our view.”
Business Events Cairns & Great Barrier Reef General Manager Tara Bennett said exciting new options for off-site events had opened just 10 minutes from Cairns city, while waterfront restaurants, rooftop bars and a laneway distillery offered multiple options for satellite events.
“Professional Conference Organisers are very impressed with the versatility of spaces within the refurbished and expanded Cairns Convention Centre and loved the city’s historical venues which have been repurposed for events,” she said.
“The case study for Cannes in Cairns 2024 showed how successful this was for organisers with a 10m gold replica crocodile, food truck façade and tattoo parlour among the activations at the versatile Cairns Convention Centre.
“Our newest space, The Mill, was transformed by Two Tribes from a working timber mill into a fairground for the Pinterest Welcome Party with dodgem cars, slides, an aerialist and stilt walkers adding to the atmosphere.
“Coaches arrived at the top-secret venue and drove through the timber mill between machinery and a helicopter with the guests who were told to put on their festival party best and wear closed-in shoes.
“Events were held throughout the city over the three days utilising various offsite venues to showcase the versatility of Cairns for business events.
“Samsung Ads Haus used the waterfront Wharf One Café for its uber-exclusive opening party, TripAdvisor took over Rocco, the rooftop bar at Crystalbrook Riley, for networking drinks, and the Boomtown Party was held at the Wolf Lane Distillery down a city alleyway.
“GumGum Happy Hour was held on days one and two at Hemingway’s Brewery on the heritage-listed wharves, now home to the Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal.
“The new platform Kokai was launched at The Trade Desk Cocktail Party at Whiskey & Wine by Crystalbrook Flynn and Uber Advertising held an exclusive beachfront dinner at Nu Nu Restaurant in Palm Cove, while Snapchat hosted their Supper Club at Rocco.
“On day three the Salt House was taken over for the News Corp closing party with guests given leis and flower garlands as they walked in to watch the sun set behind the rainforest mountain backdrop of Cairns.”
Cannes in Cairns 2024 Case Study
TTNQ Contact: Liz Inglis | [email protected]| 0419 643 494
For more information visit businesseventscairns.org.au
