AGENDA
Below is a detailed agenda for this year’s conference. There may be updates from time, to time so check in occasionally for the latest details.
To download an overview of the program agenda, please click here. Please note that this document is subject to change.
CONFERENCE TIMINGS OVERVIEW
To assist with your travel timings, please be aware of the following activities. If you are arriving via the Melbourne Tullamarine Airport Domestic Terminal, please allow 50 to 60 minutes travel time from the airport to the conference venue.
Optimizing your BIG4 Advantage Workshop
Monday 28 October - 9:00am to 4:00pm
RMS Workshop
Tuesday 29 October - 10:00am to 1:00pm
Registration Desk Opens
Tuesday 29 October - From 2:30pm
International Marketing Workshop
Tuesday 29 October - 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Opening - BIG4 Welcome Event
Tuesday 29 October - 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Day One
Wednesday 30 October - 7:30am to 3:30pm
Offsite Group Activity & Dinner
Wednesday 30 October - 4:00pm to 8:30pm
Day Two
Thursday 31 October - 7:30am to 5:15pm
Gala Dinner
Thursday 31 October - 6:30pm to 11:30pm
MONDAY 28 OCTOBER
Pre-conference BIG4 Workshop
Optimising your BIG4 Advantage
Pre-conference BIG4 Workshop
Optimising your BIG4 Advantage
If you are heading to Melbourne for our national conference, you are welcome to attend a FREE one-day BIG4 refresh and workshop.
The session is designed to help you and your park maximise the benefits of being part of the BIG4 cooperative network. The day is intended for park owners, managers and staff who want an up-to-date understanding of how to leverage the BIG4 brand, national marketing, and social along with BIG4 systems and tools. We will also help you workshop and map seasonal opportunities and develop an activity plan to help you implement ideas back at your park.
Only 15 places available so be quick – register on Conference registration site.
9:00am to 4:00pm
Eureka Room 3
DAY 1 - TUESDAY 29 OCTOBER
RMS Workshop
RMS Head Office (Transport provided to and from MCEC)
International Marketing Workshop - Ali Slorach
Room: Hospitality Suite 6
This session is designed to introduce you to the opportunities that exist to grow visitation to your park(s) from international guests. The BIG4 International Program, facilitated and hosted by BIG4’s international sales consultant Ali Slorach, is designed to market your property for sale to inbound visitors to Australia and the program works closely with major industry players to drive business to participating parks.
BIG4 is just emerging as a recognised international brand and has all the qualities to justify recognition and its place in this market. Come along to the session to learn how this program works and how it might benefit your park(s).
BIG4 Welcome and Exhibition Opening
4:00pm to 6:00pm
Goldfields Theatre and Exhibition Hall (Bays 21B/22B)
Neat Casual
We will again be launching this years’ Conference App and digital passport with a chance for you to win one of our Conference Passport prizes at the end of day two.
The opening is also an opportunity to spend time with our quality industry suppliers and to start exploring products and services that could benefit your park.
Following the BIG4 Welcome and Exhibition Opening, this is a free night and an opportunity to continue to socialise with friends and explore Melbourne’s vibrant restaurant scene. See the Food and Drinks section on the Destination page on this website for some ideas.
DAY 2 - WEDNESDAY 30 OCTOBER
Breakfast in Exhibition Hall from 7:30am
Plenary Room: Goldfields Theatre
Doors open 8:25am
BIG4 CEO, Marketing and NSO Update
Goldfields Theatre
8:30am - 10:00am
The BIG4 executive team will review the past year, our achievements and progress and provide the vision for the year ahead.
Opening Keynote: Celebrating the Past - Proofing the Future
Goldfields Theatre
11:00am - 12:10pm
Keynote Speaker: Ann Sherry AO - Executive Chairman of Carnival Cruises
Cruise has been through enormous change since the first passenger steam ships plied the Atlantic between the United Kingdom and America in the 1830’s. 1844 then saw the emergence of the pleasure cruise and the rapid development of a rich and romantic history of cruise across the globe. There is plenty to celebrate in Carnival’s cruise history and in this keynote Ann Sherry AO will not only acknowledge their past but will share how Carnival has also successfully proofed their future by re-positioning cruise to its target market. She will share and explore how they have adapted and reinvented the delivery of guest experiences on board and refocused their marketing and online content to appeal to their key audience.
Not to be missed, this session is bound to reveal learnings and perspectives from Carnivals’ vision and strategies that will be applicable to any business considering how they might need to reposition and reinvent to respond to change and disruption.
AFTERNOON
Breakout Session 1: Online Channels - Getting the Mix Right
Goldfields Theatre
1:15pm and 2:20pm (Duration: 1 hour)
Hear the latest research on OTAs in our sector and the comparative costs of managing your online channels. Plus, an interactive panel of BIG4 Park operators will discuss how they manage this online space and optimise the balance between cost and return.
Breakout Session 2:
Understanding and Supporting Social and Cultural Diversity
1:15pm and 2:20pm (Duration: 1 hour)
We have a shared responsibility to provide an environment that everyone can equally enjoy and access. By being socially and culturally inclusive we are providing a key element that can enrich your guests’ experience.
In this workshop, Emma and Mark will provide you with strategies and processes that can easily be adopted and implemented to make a more inclusive BIG4. The session will provide you with a good foundation to help you support and identify social and cultural diversity, enabling parks to enhance and enrich guests’ experiences.
Offsite Activity and Keynote - Building a Customer Experience Culture
Marvel Stadium
4:00pm - 8:30pm
Keynote Speaker: Kylie Watson-Wheeler - Senior Vice President & Managing Director; The Walt Disney Company Australia & New Zealand
The paradigm has shifted, and excellent customer service, quality accommodation and great facilities are no longer enough in the holiday park sector. These are now minimum expectations largely taken for granted by an increasingly diverse holidaying public. Guests are now more focussed on gaining memorable life experiences – not just a holiday.
This new paradigm steps outside the minimum expectations and is about integrating all aspects of a stay to deliver excellent and memorable guest experiences: Authentic experiences that become part of a guests’ life story.
With Disney’s un-surpassed focus on delivering real experiences to its guests and customers, we will recognise parallels between the need to be constantly developing new and memorable guest experience in the holiday parks sector with the very similar focus by Disney in providing increasingly immersive experience through movies and Disney Worlds.
We will learn about the culture that underpins all that Disney does to deliver exceptional customer experience and how they nurture this to bring it alive in such dynamic ways. And what better example than Marvel Stadium to witness the transformation in customer experience that Disney has achieved since it won Staduim naming rights in September last year.
This session is not to be missed. There will no doubt be some absolute gems around developing and fostering a guest experience culture that will be very applicable back in your Park.
Dinner will be provided and buses will start returning to Pan Pacific hotel from 8:30pm
DAY 3 - THURSDAY 31 OCTOBER
Breakfast in Exhibition Hall from 7:30am
Plenary Room: Goldfields Theatre
Doors Open 8:25am
Blue Shirt Day
Wearing our blue BIG4 shirts as a demonstration of solidarity. You will be provided with a BIG4 shirt as you arrive and sign in at the conference.
Goldfields Theatre
From 8:30am to 12:30pm
(Closed Session - BIG4 Full Co-Op Member park owners and staff only)Join us for our Annual General Meeting and Members Forum. All directors and NSO senior management will be available to answer your questions.
Update from New Zealand: David Ovendale – TOP 10 Holiday Parks
Hear from our cousins across the Tasman about how the industry is developing and enhancing guest experience in New Zealand. With BIG4 and TOP 10 often unintentionally mirroring each-other’s priorities and strategies, CEO David Ovendale shares what TOP 10 has been up to over the last 12 months.
Plenary Panel Session: Parks of the Future
This panel session will take us on a journey of imagining the future. We will hear learnings and insights from other industries as well as our own about how they are proofing their futures to sustain relevance and customer interest in times of change and disruption.
AFTERNOON
Breakout Session 3 - Pets in Parks
Goldfields Theatre
1:35pm and 2:30pm (Duration: 50 mins)
Holidays from the pets’ viewpoint. Ever wondered what’s it’s like as a pet being hauled around the country by you owners, a constantly changing backyard, new faces, new smells and often days on end in a car. We hear from veterinarian Dr Fiona Patterson to get a glimpse of holidays from the pets’ perspective and what they actually need.
Plus we will have a panel of BIG4 park owners who will discuss Pets in Parks hot topics and explore some of the key issues, like whether to take pets at all, and the key do’s and dont’s if you do.
Breakout Session 4: Family Business Governance and Succession Planning
Eureka Room 1 and 2
1:35pm and 2:30pm (Duration: 50 mins)
With so many of our parks being family owned, the topic of governance and succession planning has a broad relevance to the BIG4 network. In this breakout session we will hear from Family Business Specialist Kirsten Taylor-Martin on family business governance and succession. Primarily focussed on the family's goals Kirsten provides insights and strategies to help families and their businesses succeed.
Kirsten will then join a panel discussion with representatives from family-owned BIG4 Parks across the country.
Closing Keynote: Running a Successful Family Business
Goldfields Theatre
3:50pm - 4:50pm
Paul Field - Managing Director of The Wiggles
Hear The Wiggles story from a founding Wiggle. Learn how the brothers and families worked together to create such a dynamic and well-known family business.
There are many things that went together to make this family business succeed and so much will resonate whether you are in a family business or not.
We’ll hear how The Wiggles recognised the need to change in response to the Australian social landscape becoming more diverse, more connected online and with a shifting world view. And learn what they did to not only remain relevant but build a fan base that will carry them well into the future.
EVENING
BIG4 Gala Awards Dinner
The culmination of our National Conference is the BIG4 Gala Awards Dinner. We recognise the massive milestone with a 40th anniversary ruby colour theme, so dress to impress with a touch of ruby.
Event Details
6:30pm to 11:30pm
Metropolis - 3 Southgate Ave, Southbank
Black Tie/Formal Wear with a touch of ruby!
Contact Us
Should you have any questions about the conference please contact our 2019 BIG4 National Conference Event Partner: