Regional Victoria rolls out the red carpet in the new financial year for meeting planners flipping through their playbooks for fresh inspiration. Plan a corporate summit or a leadership retreat with these first cab-off-the-rank ideas to build your team and business year with success.
Geelong
Business Events Geelong - Business at its best
Geelong and The Bellarine offers a wide array of exceptional conference facilities, experiences, and team-building opportunities for groups of all sizes. Located just an hour’s drive or a 50-minute ferry ride from Melbourne, Victoria’s largest regional city provides world-class food, service and accommodation.
Combining regional charm seamlessly with sophisticated metro-style event amenities, large and small conferences can look forward to the highly anticipated opening of Nyaal Banyul, the Geelong Convention and Events Centre. Commensurate with a brand new convention and events centre expected in 2026 is also a levelling up of the culinary landscape, with a 280-seat Club Chin Chin at GMHBA Stadium and Adrian Richardson’s Maestro collaboration at the Holiday Inn.
Waterfront Pantry, sister venue to Waurn Ponds Estate, is a newly minted caterer, provincial café and event space located at Deakin University’s Waterfront Campus. Host your conference at Deakin’s Costa Hall, a 1,400 capacity conference centre, or a cocktail function for 270 with Waterfront Pantry as official caterer.
Embrace indigenous culture at Murran, Geelong’s new innovative space with accessible conference facilities that supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals. With its convenience and diverse offerings, stay tuned and keep an eye on Geelong and The Bellarine for your next business event.
GMHBA Stadium Higher Mark - Club Chin Chin opens
GMHBA Stadium – Higher Mark’s offering for conferences and meetings in Geelong has gone up another notch and this time, it’s their Stadium Dining Experience. Score goals and tick your conference checklist with the Stadium Dining and On Ground experiences, let the team showcase their genuine Geelong hospitality and take your group on a culinary adventure through the hidden areas of GMHBA Stadium and go behind the scenes to the Inner Sanctum of the Geelong Cats. This experience caters for groups from 20 to 280. Join a line-up of organisations that have conferenced at GMHBA Stadium – Higher Mark with client testimonials “unequivocal success”, “spectacular showcase”, “impeccable food quality”. FTMA Australia’s conference experience here resulted in a testament “GMHBA Stadium is not just a venue, but a story worth telling.”
Chin Chin, Melbourne’s renowned dining stalwart brings its bold, vibrant and high-energy flavours and fervour to the venue . Host you conference welcome dinner, cocktail event or Christmas party at Club Chin Chin, which accommodates 280 guests for a banquet-style event or 350 for stand-up cocktails. This venue is a striking setting with the iconic pink bunnies to welcome your group before even entering the restaurant.
Service Provider
Purple Soup – Team-Building with Purpose
Purple Soup is a veteran in the business of team-building. Launched as a business in 2011 to facilitate fun for fuel and stimulating events for the corporate market, Purple Soup has today over 39 different events and experiences under its belt with more than 20 partnered relationships with conference venues. At BEV’s Regional Victoria Showcase held in June last month, Purple Soup surprised business events buyer guests upon arrival with Make your own Mimosa.
Not as widely known is that Purple Soup is a social enterprise, channelling revenue and raising funds to facilitate its core purpose – to run life-changing adventure therapy camps for children and young people living with a serious illness. Organisations such as Mercedes Benz, Adidas and AIA over the years continue to have high praise for Purple Soup as one of the best team building events ever attended and their exceptional work was truly transformative, bringing teams closer together and instilling a deep sense of purpose and connection to the community.
Mornington Peninsula
Green Olive at Red Hill - Farm-to-Table
Green Olive at Red Hill represents one of the most unique offerings for business events. Its mantra to engage, nourish and inspire people with a whole farm experience epitomizes the region’s Peninsula to Plate and food provenance ethos. It sits on a 27-acre sustainable and edible landscape, serving a beautiful backdrop for business events with its picturesque and serene setting, equally as food for the eyes as well as the soul. On the grounds is an established olive grove and vineyard. Work events held at Green Olive have garnered high recommendations from participants, particularly with its masterclass experiences, paired with delicious food, wine, knowledge and hearty laughs.
During its 21 years of business, Green Olive won Gold at the 2021 Australian Tourism Awards, yet stays true to its family business roots in providing personalized and welcoming experience for small company gatherings to large incentive functions.
Besides growing olives, hops and bush food – in addition to raising sheep, Green Olive has recently up its experiences ante with a private-group fresh pasta making masterclass, farm tour and grazing lunch, and relaxed grazing and wine. Its alfresco and indoor spaces caters for up to 100 sit-down or up to 200 roaming.
The Murray
Visit Albury Wodonga – Sister Cities on the Murray
Albury and Wodonga are significant regional cities bonded by the Murray in the Northeast pocket of Victoria. As two cities in two states, conferences and events feel ‘anything but’ when held in Albury Wodonga – it is one very special destination. Hosting more than 100 conferences annually, Albury and Wodonga are strategically and naturally located to attract the tri-state conference markets in Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Albury Airport provides interstate accessibility, the twin cities with an array of versatile venues, and its beauty and culture providing a myriad of team-building opportunities.
Conferences have found Albury Wodonga competitively priced relative to a capital city with everything within walking distance. An exciting development to keep a pulse on is the Albury Entertainment Centre, which is undergoing a convention wing redevelopment, which will significantly expand its conference capacity once completed.
Yarra Valley & Dandenong Ranges
Holmesglen at Eildon – Pinnacle of Paddock to Plate
Holmesglen at Eildon is an award-winning event venue nestled on a 660-acre working farm in the Murrindindi Shire. This gem of a find only 2 hours from Melbourne exemplifies a Paddock to Plate experience for conference delegates and executed by a professional team. Nestled between the Yarra Ranges and Victorian High Country, this venue affords conference delegates the pleasure of immersing themselves in natural beauty and outlook over the valley towards Goulburn River and set against the backdrop of the Rubicon State Forest. Food is the shining star at the venue, as many delegates have savoured and discovered, delivered with professional hospitality.
The Goulburn Valley provides an abundant food bowl that enables the team to support its low mileage food philosophy and showcase the best fresh produce this region has to offer including locally grown olives, freshly caught trout, house made bread, produce from its kitchen gardens and self-farmed Angus Beef.
Victoria's High Country
Flowerdale Estate – Nurture in Nature
Flowerdale Estate is located in the picturesque Valley of a Thousand Hills, hosting and creating inspired and engaged events on the grounds’ meeting and gathering spaces, idyllic landscapes creating unique outdoor ‘classrooms’ and break out spaces. The Pavilion is an architecturally designed indoor/outdoor space and a favourite for larger conferences and product launches. Flowerdale Estate has many repeat client groups, such as Small Giants Academy and Social Agility Leadership training team, returning time and again for their genuine hospitality and calming surroundings, allowing participants to hit pause, reflect, immerse and learn.
Flowerdale Estate launched the Victorian Leadership Centre in in June, a unique alliance with Strategy Shift, specialists in developing high performance leaders and teams. This collaboration draws on inspiration and lived and conquered experiences of individuals through powerful storytelling that will create lasting change in your leaders and teams. This is led by expert facilitators who design and deliver experiential learn to align with your company’s vision and outcomes.
Great Ocean Road
Great Ocean Road Resort – Business meets Beachside Bliss
Great Ocean Road Resort is a premium residential conference venue in Anglesea, surrounded by beautiful beaches and bushland. Conference in comfort is the name of the game here. Conference groups love the variety of breakout spaces on-site – from bean bags and relaxed lounge areas to outdoor campfire sessions around its stylish alfresco fire-pit and many more points of interest that redefines the typical boardroom setup.
Teamwork makes the dream work and Great Ocean Road Resort is also a destination advocate, driving collaborations with local experts to deliver a distinct sense of place on the Surf Coast for work retreats and conference groups, such as walk to the wetlands for a nature movement workshop and Paddle Board and Sound Healing on the Anglesea River. In yet another first, delegates of the AURIN Conference were the inaugural group to experience a brand new indigenous sand-art workshop at Anglesea Beach with multi-award-winning artist Lowell Hunter.
Leaders in the Wild
Leaders in the Wild made an exciting debut at the Regional Victoria Showcase last month, generating significant interest with its one-of-a-kind team-building offering on the Surf Coast. Its 100% outdoors innovative approach combines expert facilitation, nature immersion, and wilderness adventure to fast-track team culture, engagement, and performance. Affinity Accountants, a corporate group recently experienced its three-day executive team offsite, glamping on private property, and experienced a perfect mix of adventure, fun, nature, relaxation, and creative thinking.
Its secret weapon leverages a complete curated fusion of team workshops, nature immersion, and wilderness adventure to tackle complex work problems and innovation opportunities. Clients return to Leaders in the Wild because its programs offer a unique chance to reconnect away from the office environment and day-to-day grind, re-establishing vision and purpose in a business and personal sense – all in never-before encountered leadership/team experiences. The executive team at Affinity Accounts came away from their program with high praise and a “better understanding of each other and the bonus of positive concepts to work on individually and as a business”.
Daylesford & Macedon Ranges
Marnong Estate – Italian Inspired Oasis
From its beginnings as a rural operational farmland, vineyards and pastures, Marnong Estate has emerged today as a modern conference and events destination that sings the song of its rich historical tapestry. Situated in the heart of Mickleham and just 35 minutes north of Melbourne’s CBD, this Italian inspired oasis proudly affords stunning views of the Macedon Ranges.
For business and conference groups that find this hidden gem, Marnong Estate is a haven of hospitality wrapped up in culinary delights and winemaking that excels. Since its inception in 2018, the Estate tells the story of passion, innovation, transformation and excellence that residental conference groups are rewarded with – from its multiple dynamic meeting spaces, 24 luxurious accommodation, elevated dining with seasonal and sustainable produce at La Vetta Ristorante, and expertly paired wines from the Estate. The spirit of innovation continues and the Estate is looking forward to launching its new and impressive winemaking facility, set to launch in late October 2024.
