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1-2 Meet the wildlife at Crocosaurus Cove. 3 Fire
twirler at Mindil Markets. 4 Gala dinner at Darwin
Convention Centre. 5 Get a bird’s eye view with
Nautilus Aviation.
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Darwin Convention Centre. Located in the
revitalised Darwin Waterfront Precinct – a
lush tropical utopia of recreational facilities,
hotel accommodation, restaurants and
bars – the centre offers an impressive suite
of conferencing facilities including a 1200
seat tiered and configurable auditorium
and 4000sqm of column-free hall space. The
forecourt doubles as a handy helipad, and the
delegates were treated to a bird’s eye view
of the city centre and surrounding coastline
with Nautilus Aviation. It’s a truly spectacular
indulgence, and one that wouldn’t fail to
impress any conference delegate.
The site inspection at the Darwin Convention
Centre coincides with the set-up for the
annual Darwin ‘Starball’ – a gala fundraising
event for the Starlight Children’s Foundation,
sponsored by local pearling giant Paspaley.
This is a big event on the local social
calendar, and even local news crews are in
attendance for a sneak peek at what’s in
store for guests. With a six-course sit-down
dinner for 850 guests on his hands, amiable
executive chef Toby Beaton still manages to
take time out to introduce us to the centre’s
impressive catering operation.
While the contemporary Adina Vibe
hotel complex is ideally placed to host
delegates in the Waterfront Precinct,
the accommodation options extend well
beyond. All up, Darwin offers close to
4000 rooms – a mix of hotel, serviced
apartment and contemporary resort-style
accommodation options. City hotel options
are within comfortable walking distance
of the Waterfront and convention centre.
Capacity within the Waterfront Precinct
itself looks set to increase with the opening
of a luxury $250m Westin hotel scheduled
for 2020.
When it comes to layering your business
event programme with unique experiences,
you’ll very quickly work out that what would
almost certainly be deemed ‘impossible’
in most other Australian markets is quite
likely to be ‘possible’ in this one. Let’s start
with a city wildlife encounter. Wildlife park
Crocosaurus Cove is located in the heart of
the CBD and is home to several very large
saltwater crocodiles, along with a collection
of other scaly critters. It’s an off-site drinks or
meeting space with a very toothy difference,
and one that international guests in
particular are likely to love.
Darwin has one of the most turbulent
www.cimmagazine.com Convention & Incentive Marketing, Issue 4, 2017 11