Nectar has been named a National Nominee for PCO of the Year at the 2026 Australian Event Awards. The entry rested on three conferences delivered in the past twelve months. All three were organisations working with us for the first time. All three have since appointed us to deliver their next event.
That last detail is the one that matters most to us, and it’s the reason this article exists. A nomination is a judgment made once, by people who weren’t in the room. A client coming back is a judgment made by people who were there for every part of it.
Here’s what each of those three events involved.
What happens when a large conference changes PCO?
AUSCERT2026 was held at The Star on the Gold Coast in May. It’s an established national fixture for AUSCERT and Australia’s cybersecurity community, and it moved to us with a full year of expectations already attached to it.
Transitions like this carry a particular risk. Delegates don’t know or care that the organiser has changed. They know what the conference has always been, and if the experience slips, that’s the story of the year.
Across the conference and its associated International Cybersecurity Competition, we managed 1,135 registrations from participants representing 54 countries. That included 57 speaker passes and 123 exhibitor passes. The Welcome Reception hosted 665 people, 612 attended the Gala Dinner, and accommodation management covered 1,226 room nights across eight properties. Two interconnected programs ran concurrently, with multiple registration categories, access entitlements and group bookings underneath them.
The scale wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was the volume of moving parts arriving late: access entitlements, member cancellations, speaker travel changes, sponsor lead-scanning configuration, exhibitor requirements. All needing live resolution while the event ran.
We built central escalation points, coordinated directly with AUSCERT, the venue and suppliers, and put an onsite team in place whose job was to absorb problems rather than pass them along. When venue responses slowed during peak periods, the team escalated and kept continuity across registration, session rooms and functions.
Megan Cox, AUSCERT’s Events, Marketing and Communications Coordinator, described the conference as a smash hit and said the team adeptly managed every curve ball. Her phrase for the onsite team was “a sea of calm”.
We also managed the build of an API link between EventsAIR and the third-party Entegy app, so changes flowed between platforms almost instantly rather than being handled twice. Given the subject matter, we added protocols for badge reprints, identity verification and session-level scanning.
How do you run seven concurrent streams for a volunteer-led society?
The Ecological Society of Australia‘s 2025 conference ran across six days in November: a Postgraduate Day and Welcome Reception, four conference days, up to seven concurrent streams, 555 approved abstracts, plenaries, symposia, poster sessions, a book launch, field trips and workshops. It attracted 787 participants across 43 ticket types and 490 room nights.
ESA’s stakeholder environment was genuinely complex. A board and finance team, a volunteer Local Organising Committee, academics, researchers, students, practitioners, government representatives, speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, venue teams and suppliers. Each with a different sense of what the conference is for.
The temptation with an event like this is to impose a standard conference model on it. We spent the time instead working out what ESA members actually valued, and shaped delivery around that. Regular reporting, clear milestones and centralised participant and program management gave the event structure without flattening its character. It’s the approach we take to association conference management generally.
Complexity intensified late. Nearly 30% of attendees registered in October and November, which put pressure on catering, collateral, staffing and exhibitor support. Several field trip and social function details landed late too. We held it together with active milestone follow-up, additional registration support and direct venue coordination, and our technical director used floating technicians between breakout rooms to avoid last-minute room changes.
Professor Dieter Hochuli, ESA President, said we went above and beyond to understand what members wanted, and credited the team with listening and adapting to a diverse community.
We also documented what didn’t work. App navigation, program density and the timing of field trip information all went into the debrief with recommendations attached, which is how a repeat event improves rather than simply repeats.
Can a milestone conference also be financially sustainable?
The Australian Society for Music Education‘s 25th National Conference ran across four days in September at Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. A milestone year, roughly 200 music educators, researchers and ensemble directors, and a program spanning a Welcome Dinner, Gala Concert, plenaries, practical workshops, papers, symposia, ensemble performances, awards, a trade display and up to eight concurrent sessions.
The event recorded 204 participants, 182 processed registrations, 26 ticket types, 120 room nights and 97 dinner and concert attendees. Delegates came from every Australian state and territory, and around 44% were attending an ASME conference for the first time.
The interesting part of this one was doing two things at once: designing a celebratory milestone experience while transitioning to a more sustainable financial model. As a small organisation hosting a conference amid a cost of living crisis, ticket prices needed to be carefully considered.To support these goals we introduced ASME’s attendee app, giving delegates central access to program, speaker and venue information, and letting exhibitors capture and follow up consenting leads. We reshaped the sponsorship offer with clearer assets, including a Conference App Sponsor. Nineteen sponsors were secured, and sponsorship finished ahead of target.
Then there was the problem nobody plans for. Shortly before bump-in, the venue withdrew agreed Friday afternoon exhibitor access because of a public performance. We negotiated late-night access instead and secured a waiver on the additional security costs, protecting both the exhibition schedule and the budget. A further 22.5% of attendees registered in the event month, which intensified catering, materials and staffing. When presenters struggled with venue AV, team members stepped into breakout rooms to keep sessions moving.
Dr Simon Petty described our organisation and delivery as absolutely outstanding, praising proactive communication, anticipation of needs and teamwork.
What do three first-year clients have in common?
Not much, on the surface. A cybersecurity conference for more than a thousand people, an ecological society’s six-day scientific program, and a music education milestone for two hundred. Different sectors, different sizes, different definitions of success.
What they shared was the position we started from. In each case we inherited an event that mattered enormously to a community we didn’t yet know, with a committee or board who had reasons to be nervous about handing it over.
The work in year one is mostly listening. Understanding what the organisation values, what its members turn up for, what the previous event got right that shouldn’t be touched. The systems and processes matter, but they’re what lets you deliver on what you learned, not a substitute for learning it.
All three organisations have appointed us again. That’s the outcome we’d point to.
What should an association look for when appointing a PCO?
Use the same test the judges use, and ask for evidence rather than assurances.
Ask how the last three conferences performed against their objectives, and what the delegate survey actually said. Ask what the project management system looks like and how you’ll see progress between meetings. Ask how the budget is forecast, reconciled and reported. Ask what went wrong on a recent event and how it was handled, because something always does.
A professional conference organiser who can answer those questions with numbers is one who measures their own work. You can read more about the people who would run your event, or get in touch
