According to ICCA data, forward bookings for these meetings indicate Sydney will maintain its number one status in 1999, with Melbourne likely to take the number two spot. Both cities are well ahead of Paris, London, New York and Singapore.
Australia has shot ahead of competing countries in being able to offer a first-world and "safe" travel experience in a part of the world largely dominated by developing countries.
Melbourne Exhibition & Convention Centre chief executive Leigh Harry says the positioning of Australia as a desirable travel destination by the Australian Tourist Commission has been a key contributor to success, as has a local talent for special event management and service delivery.
"The quality of the food and beverage that is provided by Australian venues is far and away better than what you get at the majority of venues overseas," he says.
"Basically, every city in the United States has got a convention and exhibition centre and Japan has about 40. But it's very unusual to have an exhibition centre located in the middle of the city in the way ours is.
"To have it within walking distance of things like Crown Casino, city hotels, city shopping, and to have it supplemented by tram services going by, means that the infrastructure works as a whole."
Sydney Convention & Visitors Bureau (SCVB) managing director Jon Hutchison, agrees that CBD-sited centres set Australia apart from competitors.
Hutchison says Australian cities are at a disadvantage, compared to competitors such as Hong Kong and Singapore, when it comes to providing large meeting areas in hotels for conferences of around 1,000 delegates.
Despite publicity given to meetings that attract 10,000-plus delegates, the 1,000-delegate conference is the profitable mainstay of the business. Yet, in Australia there are few hotels able to accommodate 1,000 people at a meeting.
Melbourne's Crown Towers and the new Westin Sydney hotel are exceptions, but in Asian cities there are dozens of hotels with large-format meeting areas and the guest-room capacity to accommodate all delegates in one hotel.
"One must ask why are we so successful if we don't have that," says Hutchison.
"With Darling Harbour, you have got a convention centre closer to the centre of the city than most of our competitors, particularly in Asia. Around Darling Harbour, there are eight hotels within walking distance with a capacity 2,850 rooms."
When the SCVB supports the local branch of an international association to bid for a meeting, it pitches Sydney as a cross between a resort and a metropolis, often using images of Bondi Beach in the foreground and skyscrapers in the background. A key aim is to present Sydney as a microcosm of Australia, says Hutchison.
Hutchison says this detailed preparatory work is really paying off. In 1998/99, the SCVB's win-rate for bids it made for international conventions was 59 per cent, he says. This financial year it is currently running at 70 per cent.