At the annual announcement of the "Meetings and Events Industry Awards", APPEA took out the State/Territory award for ‘Meeting of the Year - over 500 delegates’ for the record-breaking 2005 APPEA Conference & Exhibition held in Perth from April 10-13 last year.

It was the first time APPEA had put in a submission for the awards, which are presented by the national meetings industry body, Meetings and Events Australia (MEA), as recognition of excellence and are judged by a panel of peers under strict criteria.

APPEA now goes on to compete for the National Award – which will be awarded on April 29 at the 2006 MEA National Conference.

Last night's award comes less than six weeks out from APPEA's 2006 annual conference to be held this year on the Gold Coast 7-10 May.

The exhibition component for APPEA 2006 is already sold out. APPEA says delegate registrations indicate it is on track to easily exceed all attendance records for the association's previous Gold Coast conference.

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