Melbourne to host the 2008 International Conference on Human Brain Mapping

Melbourne, Australia, has won the right to host the 2008 International Conference on Human Brain Mapping, expected to have an economic impact of $12 million for Melbourne and Victoria.

Mr Gary Grimmer, CEO, Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau (MCVB) announced the win in the same week that Melbourne hosted the high profile, International Congress of Genetics that included six Nobel Laureates and 2,700 international scientists.

The International Conference on Human Brain Mapping will be held at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre. It is expected to draw around 2,000 national and international scientists to Melbourne to exchange ground-breaking research exploring human brain mapping techniques such as PET (Positron Emission Tomography) and fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging), tools used for assessing the functioning of the human brain.

Organised by the US-based, Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), the conference was first held in 1995 in Paris. The annual event has since been held in Europe, the USA and Japan. The 2008 conference will mark the first time it has been held in Australia.

Mr Grimmer, who travelled to New York for the bid presentation, said the win was another credit to MCVB’s Think Victoria, Think Melbourne campaign.

“Think Victoria, Think Melbourne was launched in 2002 to showcase Victoria’s expertise, knowledge and facilities in disciplines such as  medicine and science, and to secure more international business event like this one, for Victoria,” Mr Grimmer said.

“The State of Victoria is a dominant force in Australian research, with investment in R&D three times higher than any other State. This is reflected in the people and events that are drawn here.

“Winning this event further solidifies Melbourne’s reputation as a hub for research, science and technology – and as a top business events city,” he said.

Dr Gary Egan, Senior Research Fellow and leader of the neuro-imaging group at the Howard Florey Institute located at the University of Melbourne, convened the local effort to bring the event to Melbourne. A local host collective has been formed, including the Howard Florey Institute, the Brain Sciences Institute, and the Mental Health Research Institute.

“Understanding how the human brain functions is the last great frontier of science,” Dr. Egan said. “This conference will propel Melbourne to the forefront of these endeavors.”

Dr Egan said MCVB was instrumental in bringing the conference to Melbourne, as were Melbourne-based conference managers, The Meeting Planners.

Mr Grimmer said that one of the many strong points in Melbourne’s bid presentation was a cost comparison between running the event in Europe or the United States, and Melbourne.

“We were able to show that the cost savings they made in Melbourne outweighed any additional cost of air fares.”

Mr Grimmer said that this, and feedback from delegates applauding Melbourne’s bid presentation as “the most professional they had ever received” helped secure the event for 2008.