Brisbane to have free wifi

A good initiative announced today by Brisbane Marketing. Although its not the entire CBD, having the Mall and South Bank with free wifi certainly helps bring the city up to speed with the rest of the world. Now ... if only all the Brisbane hotels followed the lead and offered free wifi!

Free wifi for Australia’s new world city

A new integrated wi-fi system will provide free internet in South Bank and the Queen Street Mall in time for the G20.  

From April, visitors to the Queen Street Mall, Victoria Bridge and South Bank will be able to jump online to check email or surf the web using Brisbane City Council’s wi-fi.

In 2013 nearly one million users took advantage of council’s free wi-fi hotspots to stay connected around the city. Connecting the Queen Street Mall and South Bank is the next step in creating a digital Brisbane.

About 17,000 people a day travel over Victoria Bridge to get between South Bank and the Queen Street Mall, and the free wi-fi will allow them to stay connected on the go.

Brisbane Marketing and the council are putting Brisbane on the “digital map” ahead of G20 in November to demonstrate to G20 visitors that we are indeed Australia’s new world city.
Any one of the 4000 officials and 3000 media representatives visiting Brisbane will be able to access our state-of-the-art public wi-fi.

Wi-fi access is already available in 22 outdoor locations across the city including Brisbane Botanic Gardens, King George Square and New Farm Park. Additionally, each of council’s 33 libraries and the entire CityCat fleet also offer free wi-fi.

Local cafes, restaurants and hotels are also encouraged to be part of a broader “Digital Brisbane” by providing free wi-fi to patrons.

Conference wins a positive for the Brisbane hotel market

Its been a very, very quiet year for the Brisbane hotel market, especially compared to what we're used to. So it was nice to see some positive news for the year ahead with this update from Brisbane Marketing (below).
My guess is that the Austmine conference in 2015 will be a big one.


Conferences booming in Brisbane

Brisbane has won the right to host 16 conferences worth more than $30 million in a stunning September quarter for the local business events industry.

The September quarter bid wins led by the Brisbane Marketing Convention Bureau include a number of prestigious medical, education, resources and IT conferences:

• Joint Australasian Society of Aerospace Medicine, Aeromedical Society of Australasia, and Flight Nurses Australia Conference 2014
• Australian Association for Research in Education – New Zealand Association for Research in Education 2014 Conference
• WCO IT Conference & Exhibition 2014 (World Customs Organisation)
• Australia and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting 2015
• Austmine 2015 International Conference and Exhibition.

Other bid wins led by the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC) - done in partnership with Brisbane Marketing – have also contributed to the outstanding September quarter result.

These events will inject more than $30 million into the city’s economy, while bringing 11,500 delegates to Brisbane.

It puts Brisbane on track for a bumper year for conferences in the lead-up to the G20 Leaders Summit in November 2014.