Attracting participants from 148 countries, the Rotary International Convention is one of the largest and most significant annual meetings held globally. Last month (1-4 June), Sydney welcomed 19,653 attendees to Sydney Olympic Park for the annual meeting, 2,653 above the 17,000 projected by Rotary International in the lead up to the event. This figure includes 18,603 delegates, 400 exhibitors, 150 international staff and 500 volunteers. Overall, the convention generated an estimated economic impact of A$62 million.
In the lead up to the convention, Rotary held one of its greatest campaign awareness events and broke a double world record for the largest bridge climb on Sydney Harbour Bridge with 340 participants, waving 278 flags. The turnout eclipsed Oprah Winfrey’s world-record climb in 2011. Money raised from the Rotary climb will be matched by the Bill Gates Foundation and will be used to protect 240,000 children from Polio. On top of this, BridgeClimb Sydney donated 50 per cent of the proceeds from their ticket sales.
The record-breaking climb has been deemed Rotary’s most successful media event ever, receiving widespread international coverage from the NBC in America, BBC in the UK and a morning show in Canada, as well as news agencies in China, Belgium and Ireland. Overall, the convention received some 250 media mentions, and a video clip showing Channel 7’s Sunrise host Edwina Bartholomew interviewing 2014 Convention Chair Mark Maloney immediately prior to his climb, attracted just over 1.1 million views.
Host Organising Committee Chair Barry Thompson said, “The Sydney Convention has opened up for a lot of delegates, particularly local Australians, an understanding of the Rotary world internationally. If you appreciate that, then you understand more of what you are doing in your own club to try and make the world a better place, which is what we are trying to do. This just has to be good for the people who are desperately in need of the help we can provide.”
No comments:
Post a Comment