1/ Port Melbourne Yacht Club
This suburban beach venue provided a glimmering setting for the AIME 2025 Welcome Breakfast with beach on one side of the venue and blue crystal waters to the front.
Port Melbourne Yacht Club is a 10 minute drive from the convention centre in South Bank and offers flexible event space and those sweeping views of Port Phillip Bay. The location also shows visiting delegates the oceanfront recreation – from surfing and bathing to running and dog-walking – integral to Australian coastal culture.
2/ The 1 Hotel
Scheduled to open in June 2025, 1 Hotel is a riverside retreat with sustainability and design innovation at its core. The building which houses “The 1” is a former dockside storage facility that had been disused for over 40 years. Original materials such as window trusses and corrugated metal sheeting have been saved and repurposed as features throughout the hotel. For example, railway sleepers have been repurposed into headboards while corrugated-metal provides decor in the lift lobbies.
The 1,000sqm ballroom also retains some industrial features to make it one of Melbourne’s unique venues for events. 1 Hotel Melbourne features 277 rooms across 18 floors, and includes a four-bedroom Presidential Suite designed to feel like a private residence.
3/ Farmer’s Daughters
This culinary destination in Melbourne’s CBD brings produce sourced from regional Victoria to the city. Farmer’s Daughters offers private dining areas and rooms for exclusive events, corporate dinners, or celebrations.
The menu is inspired by the Gippsland region of Victoria with focus on seasonal fare enjoyed within interiors designed to reflect a rustic yet modern ambience.
A lunchtime event before AIME 2025 gave Melbourne F&B suppliers and event services suppliers an opportunity to present their sustainability and CSR initiatives to buyers.
4/ Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria – Aboriginal Heritage Walk
The Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria offers a profound cultural experience through its Aboriginal Heritage Walk. This 90 minute journey lets delegates understand the ancestral lands of the Kulin nation and the traditional meeting places of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Along the way, guests learn about native plants, trees and their traditional uses. The walk is created to serve as a bridge between business and nature while providing and understanding among delegates for Australia’s First Peoples.
South Bank Melbourne – Socialising Beneath the Ferris Wheel
A section of South Bank, located just outside Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre along the Yarra River, offers a fun outdoor for delegates to enjoy food and “sundowners” beneath the Melbourne Skyline Ferris Wheel with options for groups to ride the wheel.
For down-to-earth recreation, groups can enjoy a round of “Straya-themed” mini golf or relax while taking in the city’s skyline. Conveniently located food trucks and the riverside setting makes and ideal for informal networking, pre-event gatherings, or those sundowners after a day of meetings.
Il Mercato Centrale Melbourne
This three-storey foodie wonderland in a former hardware warehouse is the first branch beyond Italy of Il Mercato Centrale – or the central market. With about 23 artisanal F&B vendors, and space for performances, the venue on Collins Street was the setting for the AIME 2025 Welcome Party with the Italian beach theme of AIMalfi Festa, celebrating the Al Mafi coast.
As the AIME 2025 Welcome Party showed, Il Mercato’s authentic food stalls, lively bars, and a central stage area for entertainment provides a unique social venue for events with cuisine and atmosphere to the fore.
Main image… A disco diva takes to the stage during the AIME 2025 Welcome Event at Il Mercato Centrale Melbourne
