Episode 2 of Shaping Infrastructure podcast: Inside the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

Welcome to the second episode of Plenary’s podcast – Inside the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

In this episode, we’re diving into the question: as we venture deeper into the 21^st century, how can contemporary convention centres step up to meet the new-age demands of design, technology and sustainability?

Considered a cultural and economic powerhouse for Victoria, MCEC is a global benchmark for value capture in the infrastructure world, showcasing how private capital can not only mitigate risks, but introduce game-changing innovations.

Join key figures who were instrumental in MCEC’s journey as we uncover the story behind its rise to prominence, and, on a broader level, the exciting potential for expansion, sustainability and reinvention in urban infrastructure.

Host: Sonia Nair, Plenary Communications and Content Manager

Guests:

• Former Premier of Victoria and Victorian Convention and Event Trust Chair John Brumby AO
• Victorian Convention and Event Trust CEO Natalie O’Brien AM
• Plenary Group Co-Founder and Director John O’Rourke
• Plenary Conventions Chair Glenn Hay
• NH Architecture Director Hamish Lyon
• Woods Bagot Principal Andy Gentry
• Plenary Group Senior Asset Manager Brendan Xuereb
• ICMS Pty Ltd CEO Sarah Markey-Hamm
• Talk 2 Media & Events CEO Matt Pearce

Full transcript:

Welcome to Shaping Infrastructure, the podcast from Plenary where we explore the transformative power of smart, well-planned public infrastructure.  

I’m your host Sonia Nair. In this episode, we’re diving into the question: as we venture deeper into the 21^st century, how can contemporary convention centres step up to meet the new-age demands of design, technology and sustainability?

It’s a little-known fact that convention and exhibition visitors are the highest-spending cohort of tourists. Business tourists spend three times more money and stay, on average, 1.5 times longer than leisure tourists.

When you consider convention centres’ strong multiplier effects on the economy and the fact that convention tourism is all-year round, it’s no wonder countries around the world are investing in purpose-built convention facilities. 

But can these engines of business and tourism transcend the traditional limitations of such spaces and become vibrant cultural hubs? What role can convention centre precincts play in transforming not just a city, but an entire region’s economic landscape? And how can a venue transform into anything it needs to be?

Victoria’s only major dedicated convention facility, the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, which I’ll hereby refer to by its acronym MCEC, is a prime launchpad from which we can explore these questions and extrapolate forward to paint a picture of where convention centres are headed.

Join me and key figures who were instrumental in MCEC’s journey as we uncover the story behind its rise to prominence, and, on a broader level, the exciting potential for expansion, sustainability and innovation in urban infrastructure.

Plenary and MCEC

MCEC is, in many ways, inextricable from Plenary’s story. Plenary was founded in 2004 with the vision of evolving from a financier into a long-term developer, equity investor and manager, and MCEC was the catalyst for this transformation.

John O’Rourke: “It goes beyond Plenary getting involved in the project. The project is actually the very reason that Plenary itself came into existence.”

That’s Plenary Co-Founder and Former Chair John O’Rourke.

Before the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre came to exist in its current form, there was an underutilised, heavily industrial precinct lying in the plum position of the banks of the Yarra.

Treasurer of the time and current Chair of the Victorian Convention and Event Trust, John Brumby AO, was instrumental in its transformation.

John Brumby: “The big thing really goes back to the early 2000s. The Kennett Government had built the Exhibition Centre, but there was no Convention Centre. I was the Treasurer, and my job was to round up cabinet support, government support, parliamentary support and business support for a new Convention Centre. 

“We’re the events capital, the cultural capital, the sporting capital, but you need to translate that into economic impact for Victoria and so you’ve got to have a state-of-the-art convention facility, and we were so proud we went out to market with the PPP.”

Plenary won the bid to deliver MCEC as head of the Plenary Conventions Consortium, and the rest, as John O’Rourke says, is history.

John O’Rourke: “We put all of our time, all of our very limited financial resources at the time, on the line for that bid.

“It was a tremendous opportunity for private capital to be deployed to both take on the required risk transfer from the State but also to enhance the bid proposal – whether that was through design innovation or additional private investment that would generate commercial returns that were market-based returns.

“Nowadays, it’s quite amusing because people think that the Plenary Hall within the Convention Centre is named after us as a company. I let that go through to the keeper. But reality, it was in reverse – we named ourselves after the project.”

A big proponent of public-private partnerships i.e. PPPs from way back when he was Treasurer and then Premier of Victoria, John Brumby says they’re ideally suited to large-scale projects.

John Brumby: “I’ve always supported PPPs because it’s the best mechanism to allocate risk. PPPs generally – not always – but generally produce the best combination of efficiency, effectiveness and eye-catching design with environmental benefits. And I think, in a cost sense and a cost management sense, PPPs lay out the future costs of a project and properly allocate funds for things like maintenance, which is so important to keeping a facility in good shape.”

“Plenary really stood out. Firstly, because of their design. And being able to do all of that, but at the same time get a six-star environmental rating? That was a really fundamental part. But also bringing together an economic development plan for the whole area, you know the retail, the hotels, all of that. And so, what it meant really for us as a government, for the investment that we were making, the economic multiplier, the economic impact was so much greater than if somebody had just come along or government by itself had just built a convention centre or supported a retail development or a hotel development. It was the whole South Wharf plan that really multiplied the economic benefit and that’s what made it so attractive for the state.”

Glenn Hay has worked on every aspect of MCEC – from bidding and delivery to ongoing operations and chairing Plenary Conventions, the entity that is responsible for the strategic oversight of MCEC, a role he has occupied for the last decade. He says private sector ingenuity came to the fore through MCEC.

Glenn Hay: “The project presented a unique opportunity for a broader private sector investment than what other PPPs had historically. It wasn’t a hospital. It wasn’t a prison. It wasn’t a school. This was a very unique business that actually drove – through its events – international, national, local visitors, which then could be leveraged off in a broader precinct activation perspective.

“Private sector may not have taken that risk if it was a different kind of use for the precinct. So I think the fact that it was a Convention and Exhibition Centre allowed us to be quite innovative in terms of how we activated the broader precinct.

“Having that long-term active owner mindset meant that it was never about the short game. It was about the long game.”

Successful convention centres are said to be characterised by five critical attributes – beauty, urban integration, functionality, efficiency, and a spirit of sustainability – a useful template for deconstructing the public impact of MCEC.

Beauty

Key to realising the aesthetic beauty of MCEC was the collaboration between global powerhouse Woods Bagot and local design studio NH Architecture, which led to a design that become an architectural symbol of Melbourne’s vibrant culture and dynamic urban landscape.

NH Architecture’s Director of Architecture and Design Hamish Lyon was enlisted by the Plenary Conventions Consortium after working previously with Plenary co-founders John and the late Jim Cox.

Hamish Lyon: “Yeah it was a great excitement, a great privilege to be asked, combined with a great deal of work. I put in a good 14 years on the project.”

Andy Gentry, now a Principal at Woods Bagot, was the Practice Director at NH Architecture when this joint venture collaboration initially began, working together with Hamish.

Andy Gentry: “You could feel from day one that this project was going to change the city, and that same energy carried right through to stage two, expansion. For me it’s been a 14-year journey.”

Hamish points out how the convention centre’s iconic gold and silver roofs anticipated the era of drone photography.

Hamish Lyon: “We really committed as a design idea that the roofs of our buildings would not be covered in pipeworks and mechanical plant.

“That’s now become a normal idea. But 20 years ago, that was pre-empting the fact that the view from above would become as normative as the facade of a building.”

Urban integration

From its integration with the Exhibition Centre – colloquially known as Jeff’s Shed – on the former Melbourne Museum site to the strategic planning that future-proofed the Convention Centre with an additional 20,000 square meters during its stage 2 expansion, every aspect of the MCEC’s development was meticulously considered.

Study tour

To help inform the consortium’s unique approach to creating a vibrant urban precinct, a group of engineers, financiers, builders and architects – including Hamish and Andy – went on an ambitious global study tour through Europe, Asia and North America armed with the question: how can cutting-edge design be blended with urban functionality to meet the needs of both government and the public?

Being on the front door of a central business district is not something Hamish observed in this global study tour of convention centres.

Hamish Lyon: “It was fair to say that the traditional exhibition and convention centre of the late 90s, early 2000s were what you would call fairly generic. They were big black boxes on the edge of town. Easy convenience for transport. You know they were near an airport or they were near a major transport hub. So they satisfied what you would call the logistic, operational side of putting on a convention. And that is important because they are quite complex things.

“But in terms of the delegate patron experience, whether we were in Berlin, Barcelona, Seoul, Miami, we felt that none of them were really taking advantage of their great civic locations and really engaging with the city in which they are in.

“Given that we had the opportunity to work on a site on the Yarra River, literally on the doorstep of the centre of the city, I think the whole design team saw this as a great challenge to rethink the typology of the exhibition and convention centre.”

Andy says the team moved away from the standard “black box” convention centre model to craft an engaging space that not only facilitates events, but immerses visitors in the rich cultural tapestry of Melbourne.

Andy Gentry: “The triangle roof form links Melbourne’s past, present and future. The timber walls reference the Yarra’s working history, the ship hulls, the docks, the river itself. The glass façade; it doesn’t just shut out the city, it invites you in. You can see life inside and it creates connection. Even the food offering reflects Melbourne: local, creative and a little bit daring. It’s not just a venue; it’s a true expression of the city.

In the end, it’s not just a building. It’s a precinct that links South Wharf and Southbank back into Melbourne’s urban fabric.”

Functionality

Fundamental to MCEC’s functionality was the consortium’s realisation that the facility needed to be a multidimensional mixed-use development with the convention centre becoming effectively the “core” of a precinct, according to Hamish.

Hamish Lyon: “It needed to operate as food and beverage. It needed to operate for delegates. It needed to operate for conventions. Really, it needed to operate 365 days a year, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. So the idea of versatility, dexterity, making the building do more than just host a convention, was fundamental to the design idea.

“The future of conference centres lies in flexibility, and nowhere are modular designs and customisation of spaces more apparent than in MCEC’s centrepiece space – Plenary Hall, the inspiration behind Plenary the company’s name.”

Hamish Lyon: “The main Plenary Hall is in the middle of the building and it’s surrounded by glass. So when you’re there for an event, you feel the movement of the day, you feel the morning, you feel the afternoon, you see the city, you see the river. So it really tries to get over that sort of soporific Convention Centre experience and make it a lively place, you know, interact with the public space of Melbourne.”

Hamish says the global study tour didn’t visit any 5,000-seat halls that also had divisible halls – a feat that wasn’t attempted until MCEC.

Hamish Lyon: “How you could make an auditorium flex, bend, change, operate so that you can go from a 5,000–5,500 seat major event down to a more intimate 1,000–1,200 seat event? How do you do that and not feel like you’re living in a chopped-up part of an auditorium? How do you make it so that it could operate efficiently? How do you make that change happen without huge cost and time? So, really, the idea of gala seats that flip upside down and go into the floor were ideal.”

This multifunctionality is reflected in the mixed-use of MCEC’s spaces, according to Plenary’s Senior Asset Manager Brendan Xuereb, who has been leading the operational management of MCEC since 2019.

Brendan Xuereb: “During the COVID-19 lockdowns, we went into a rigorous design phase for a COVID field hospital within the MCEC hall. We then reopened as a COVID vaccination hub, transformed into a drive-in cinema, became a movie studio, gained a Ferris wheel – the list goes on.

I love seeing the ways in which the facility supports the hosting of events. And the events can be so varied from day-to-day, from a small gathering in a single meeting room to something like the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal, which takes over all three buildings and takes days to set up. It’s really super impressive.”

Glenn says this flexibility and adaptability was key to MCEC remaining an important arm of the state government’s response to the pandemic, even though it wasn’t hosting any events.

Glenn Hay: “During COVID, we still had an obligation to ensure the facility was maintained to the standard that the state had prescribed. So, we still had to ensure it was cleaned, it was secure, it was maintained. We had to keep the facility very much breathing and active in an ongoing sense to enable it to respond when the government needed it.”

MCEC is very much beloved by the people who organise and attend conferences there. Professional congress organiser Sarah Markey-Hamm’s family business has held events at the MCEC for decades, dating back to when it used to be the World Congress Centre in 1990. Sarah says the flexibility of MCEC’s spaces has been invaluable.

Sarah Markey-Hamm: “The MCEC is suitable for varying types of events, shapes and sizes. The trick is knowing which spaces will work best with a particular client and understanding what the venue’s capabilities are.

“A lot of the foyer spaces and the open-air spaces can be really helpful for some of those incidental, serendipitous conversations.”

MCEC Chief Executive Natalie O’Brien AM, who ascended to the top leadership position in early 2023 as the centre navigated the headwinds of COVID, reflects on how the MCEC’s versatility culminates in one of her favourite events of the year.

Natalie O’Brien: “One of the special days that I really, really love is graduation day. And you can feel the pride in the building as you see many families coming together just outside Plenary meeting to see their family member receive their graduation. It’s incredible.”

Somewhat unexpectedly, Natalie says the advent of the global pandemic only reinforced the importance of face-to-face events instead of leading to more hybrid-style setups.

Natalie O’Brien: “Post-COVID, there was a thought that many events would be hybrid and as we sit here in 2025, very few of the events are really looking to have hybrid, and I think for us, it’s an incredible endorsement that people need to get together to do business.”

Asia Pacific’s largest and longest running business events exhibition and conference, AIME, has been taking place at the MCEC for 29 years. Seasoned event organiser Matt Pearce has been at the helm of AIME for 19 of those 29 years, but says no two years are the same.

Matt Pearce: “AIME has been with the MCEC for so long that there’s a danger, if you like, of just rolling out the same old thing each year. And I think probably what I like most is that the team are up for a challenge.

“This year, we ran an event with MCEC on the steps of the concourse, overlooking the Polly Woodside and the Big Wheel. Now the Polly Woodside, I think, has been there ever since we ran, but we’ve never done anything outside. The Big Wheel is much newer, but after 30 years with the same venue, we’ve suddenly found a new space, and it’s that sort of thing that eventgoers see the venue from a different aspect.”

Efficiency

Instead of taking the path of least resistance and assembling all the facilities on a single ground level, the consortium made the decision to construct a vertical convention centre, a bold but ultimately fruitful move, according to Andy, that not only optimised space but also paved the way for future commercial endeavours.

Andy Gentry: “We shrunk the footprint and took the bold step of introducing basement levels below the natural water table. This was really technically challenging, but it freed up half the site, allowing us to design the 400-bed hotel and incorporate about 60,000 square meters of retail.

“In my mind, it’s a great example of where design enables commercial success and doesn’t compete with it.”

John O’Rourke says this wasn’t necessarily what the State was envisioning, but the consortium embarked on this path for a number of reasons.

John O’Rourke: “All of the truck loading and back-of-house and kitchens, they were all located at a basement level and out of sight. And that basement came at a considerable premium, as in we were excavating and going below ground, which wasn’t necessarily in the State’s thinking.

“But that allowed us to do three things. It allowed a much more operationally efficient management of the Convention Centre in bumping in and out and servicing large and multiple events.

“The second thing that decision around the basement did – it meant that the ground plane was freed up from those unsightly road and loading infrastructure so that the architecture of the convention centre, it could be expressed as a 360-degree building.

“And lastly, and crucially, it meant that by going vertical, we freed up much of the site for additional complementary commercial development with a mix of hotel, retail, office, car parking, a small residential component. It really turned South Wharf into a 365-day-a-year precinct.”

Glenn attests to the commercial success this space optimisation has allowed.

Glenn Hay: “The retail and food and beverage component was bringing in around about three to four million people a year and the convention centre was bringing in the around two million. So, all of a sudden, this precinct and this postcode that we created for South Wharf was providing an amenity to over six million people per annum and that’s pretty special to see all that come together.”

Glenn says delivering a site with a huge basement beside the Yarra River presented challenges, but what further complicated things was delivering the convention centre in an operating environment.

Glenn Hay: “And that wasn’t just an operating environment for the exhibition centre, which had to continue to operate, but we also had a number of small businesses along the South Wharf that were events venues, wedding venues, etc, that still had to operate while this construction site was happening directly at their back door. So, managing those stakeholder relationships throughout that construction and ensuring that the businesses, as well as the exhibition centre operations, only had minimal disruption was a key challenge.

“While we had the best consultants and minds and technical capability, projects of this complexity require very strong relationships across all key stakeholders.”

Key to MCEC’s efficiency is its central kitchen – the second-largest kitchen in the southern hemisphere and the engine that propels the entire hub when there are multiple concurrent events, according to Natalie.

Natalie O’Brien: “MCEC has a proud legacy of procuring Victorian produce. Victoria is a garden state with incredible produce – meat, dairy, but also a flourishing wine industry. And the kitchen that we have at MCEC makes and prepares all of that food.

“We also have an incredible legacy about dietary needs and lead the way across the sector in terms of supporting the different dietary needs of many of our delegates and visitors to the centre.”

John Brumby: “Our chocolate and dessert chefs win international prizes for what they produce.”

John Brumby recalls many sceptics at the start of MCEC’s construction phase, but says the results speak for themselves.

John Brumby: “There were many people who said you know, the site’s not right, the site’s not big enough. How are you going to compete with, you know, the Sydneys and the big global convention centres?

“But it was really, you know, a magnet for business, science and medical events from across Australia but, even more importantly, across the world. And the economic impact of the events that are held now are worth pretty close to a billion dollars a year to Melbourne and Victoria. That means jobs. It means opportunities in just about every single occupation you can think of. It’s a huge economic driver and when we opened it, it was the cleanest, greenest convention centre anywhere in the world, the only one that was six-star rated.”

Being a trailblazer bodes well for MCEC’s continued relevance in the local and international events and tourism sectors, but Glenn says it was a challenge as well.

Glenn Hay: “It was the first six-star, green-star rated designed convention centre in the world. It was the first gala seating rollout of its size in the world. Being able to accommodate multiple configurations within the Plenary Hall while allowing B double trucks to still traverse over it presented various challenges. So, the project, albeit with its various complexities, had a number of firsts which just added to the challenges.”

Sustainability

MCEC being crowned the first six-star, green-star rated convention centre is an even more significant achievement when you consider how hard it is to improve energy efficiency in a cavernous space like a convention centre and the environmental impacts of large-scale events. One of the challenges of making convention centres sustainable lies in the volumetrics of the building, according to Hamish.

Hamish Lyon: “They have a lot of space, the foyer spaces, the auditorium spaces. So when you get to the use of power, water, data, air-conditioning, you do have to think that through. So you don’t want to air-condition 25 metres up in the air. So the displacement low-velocity air system that comes through the floor means that delegates, whether they’re in the foyer or in the auditorium, feel ambient air temperature but you’re not wasting energy by air-conditioning or heating right up in the ceiling space.”

Andy says the team exceeded the original parameters of their brief when it came to the initial implementation of MCEC’s sustainability initiatives.

Andy Gentry: “We got there by going well beyond the basics. We reduced energy usage, minimised non-renewables and designed a building that works well with its environment. If you look at the foyer, as an example, that sweeping timber wall is made from just 56 sustainably harvested Australian spotted gum trees. Even the carpet was designed for a full lifecycle. When it’s worn out, it’s taken back, broken down and reused.

“It set a global benchmark for sustainable convention centres, proof that you can deliver world-class design without compromising the planet.”

Glenn recounts the attention to detail that went into creating a sustainable ecosystem.

Glenn Hay: “Everything from how trucks were washed and would leave the site, through to the black water treatment plant, through to the selection of finishes, the air conditioning, ventilation systems, there was many hurdles that had to be achieved from a sustainability perspective and they have clearly delivered on those objectives.”

It’s become commonplace for sustainability credentials to now be raised at the outset of a project, but Hamish says that wasn’t the case 20 years ago.

Hamish Lyon: “And the reason it got that there is from the very start, everything was thought of through that lens: the design of the building, the materials we used, the water treatment system, the mechanical air conditioning system, whatever component of the building we were designing.”

Much of this work is now being championed by Natalie as she leads MCEC into a sustainable future and ensures the centre is at the forefront of global convention centres in terms of accessibility and environmental stewardship.

Natalie O’Brien: “We’re energy efficient, we’re using less water, and we’re really focused on waste. And we continue to progress and work on the supply chain. We have had a program that started 18 months ago where we have returnable coffee cups. We’ve now had over a million coffee cups used in the centre and there are many exciting opportunities ahead.

“In 2025, we proudly surpassed our sustainability goals by achieving 100% renewable electricity across our operation, and this was three years ahead of the target. In doing so, we’ve also cut MCEC’s carbon emissions by almost 50%. So we continue to look at opportunities to not only have environmental sustainability, but also community and social sustainability as well.

“MCEC works with the Yarra River Keepers Association to take care of the health of the river that sits outside the front of the venue. MCEC also works with OzHarvest, which is this incredible social enterprise that takes waste food from the centre together with food in our gardens to reproduce meals for those people doing it tough on the streets.”

MCEC is also the first convention centre in Australia to launch a Accessibility Advisory Committee.

Natalie O’Brien: “In 2024, we launched our first Accessibility Action Plan, which was really a call to action to all parts of our business to look at what are the opportunities to walk in the shoes with lived experience and what would that mean in terms of translating part of our business physically, but also how would we connect with people with those needs?

“We’ve extended that and we have gathered together people that do have some accessibility needs, who we have asked to challenge our accessibility plan and make sure that we’re walking in the shoes of others as we continue to make changes and amend spaces to be better suited and more welcoming to a greater number of people.”

Nyaal Banyul Geelong Convention and Event Centre

Towards the end of 2023, the Plenary Group-led Plenary Conventions consortium achieved financial close on the $449 million Nyaal Banyul Geelong Convention and Event Centre precinct development.

The centre will comprise a purpose-built convention and exhibition space with a 1,000-seat venue, two large exhibition spaces, conference facilities, flexible event spaces and meeting rooms with prime views of Corio Bay. The precinct development also comprises an initial $120 million investment to deliver what will be Geelong’s largest hotel – a 200-room Crowne Plaza hotel – and a further $130 million in future education and commercial spaces within a mixed-use precinct.

The precinct is expected to be completed in 2026.

The popularity of a city goes hand-in-hand with the appeal of its convention centre, a fact that wasn’t lost on the City of Geelong. Reminiscent of MCEC, the exciting new precinct is set to boost activity on the Bellarine Peninsula. John O’Rourke reflects on this some 20 years on from MCEC. 

John O’Rourke: “I actually didn’t think that we would probably ever see another project that had many of the attributes of the original Melbourne Convention and Exhibition project as a public-private partnership.

“But again, the ability to really think and innovate on the design while giving the State its functional requirements was key to winning that bid. So it’s got a lot of the attributes of what we’ve done well in the past and so far, so good.”

And if MCEC’s multiplier effect is anything to go by, John Brumby foresees the entire Geelong region being transformed.

John Brumby: “The events industry is so powerful. So it’s everything from food and entertainment and transport and logistics right through to hotels, universities. It’s going to have a huge multiplier effect and for that region as well, you know it’s such an important tourism footprint for Victoria running down through Geelong, Great Ocean Road. It’s just going to be so successful and it’s going to bring so many benefits.”

Conclusion

The remarkable journey of MCEC offers a glimpse into how strategic use of private capital can combine the fulfillment of public needs with private sector ingenuity, leading to advances that enhance economic impact and community value.

John Brumby is at the convention centre virtually every week and is still enamoured by it.

John Brumby: “You’re getting a great event experience in a facility which, despite its age, has still been beautifully maintained, still has that gorgeous northern aspect. It’s just got a magic feel about it.”

The longevity of these public spaces and the role private capital can play become especially pertinent when one considers Canberra’s need for a new and improved convention centre to replace its current one, “the second oldest in the country and the only one that has not had its footprint expanded since construction”.

John O’Rourke: “In that first stage of the MCEC development, from a State contribution under the public-private partnership, I think it was around $300 million. We were able to bring further $450 million of private investment and value capture. If that was today, I’d say those commercial assets would be valued well in excess of $1 billion of capital.

“It was a really seismic transaction. And the ratio of private-to-public, you know, it was very hard to match and probably hasn’t been many projects like it around the world.”

Thanks for tuning into our second Shaping Infrastructure episode. In future episodes, we’ll continue to explore how the collaboration between the public and private sector works in practice, looking at yet more real projects that are delivering tangible outcomes for communities.

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