Coda22

Why Australia was chosen

The successful bid to bring Coda22 to Melbourne was led by Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) and supported by the Victorian State Government. Multiple factors contributed to Melbourne being chosen as the host city, including the city’s reputation as a leader in the medical and technology sectors as well as outstanding sustainable business event infrastructure including:

• The ability to offer incredibly short walking distances between preferred hotels and the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), eliminating the need for delegates to use transport between venues
• If delegates wished to catch public transport, they had readily accessible solar powered trams, e-bike and e-scooter options to explore the city further
• Access to a six green star-rated convention and exhibition centre to hold their event
• Significant access to carbon friendly business event suppliers across all touchpoints of their event.

From the outset, MCB supported Coda’s sustainability goals, introducing them to local sustainability champions such as Harry the hirer. As Coda’s exhibition build partner, Harry the hirer significantly contributed to Coda22’s sustainability goals, wrapping all of Coda22’s exhibition supplies (eg. rugs, lighting, furniture) in biodegradable plastic and paper alternatives to reduce landfill.

They also set up an Eco Café for coffee fixes, providing Coda with ‘closed-loop’ furniture made from 100 per cent recycled materials, to be re-used by Coda once the conference was finished. The café itself served coffee in an edible, made in Melbourne, Good-Edi cup to reduce landfill. Each cup was made of 100 per cent edible oats and grains and was vegan friendly.

Disrupting the medical field

Becoming a climate neutral-certified event was a huge achievement in itself, yet Coda also persisted in challenging and debunking traditional formats of medical conferences with their program.

With support from MCB, Coda took a human-centred approach to designing their program format. They conducted pre-event surveys with their audience and actively sought ways to achieve exceptional delegate engagement – treating their delegates as a community rather than an audience.

“We’re seeing more and more event planners ask us for ways to optimise their meeting formats,” said MCB CEO Ms. Julia Swanson.

“MCB’s consistent ‘Team Melbourne’ approach to supporting the development of innovative event programs is resulting in new and exciting conferences and exhibitions turning away from ‘cookie cutter-type’ formats, which not only result in greater delegate satisfaction, but demonstrates why Melbourne is a global leader in hosting healthcare events such as Coda22.”

MCB regularly provide business event planners with tools to achieve successful, creative programs like Coda22, offering free assistance to bring programs to life; access to the best local talent; connection to engaging and influential speakers; and introductions to MCB Knowledge Partners in a range of sectors.

Overcoming challenges

Originally confirmed for 2020, the path to success was not straightforward. Coda faced some challenges in their planning with rescheduled dates, before eventually taking place in Melbourne in 2022. MCB played a pivotal role in supporting Coda22 through this uncertain period.

Ms. Swanson exclaimed how wonderful it was to see the event come to life after two difficult years of postponing and dealing with the unknown, in addition to MCB being in position to support Coda throughout the whole process.

‘’MCB didn’t go into hibernation through Covid-19, rather, we invested our resources into ensuring events that were meant to go ahead stayed alive, ready to launch the moment it was possible.”