It's a major event for winning education program

UTS's Australian Centre for Event Management (ACEM) has won the Best Education or Training Program category in this year's Australian Event Awards.

The ACEM Professional Development Program was acknowledged as an "industry training benchmark and an amazing export of Australian knowledge to the world" in the awards, announced late last week.

Judged by an independent panel representing the breadth of the Australian events industry, the awards encompass everything from major sporting tournaments and arts festivals, to charity events and business conferences.

ACEM Director Rob Harris said the education award recognised the centre's efforts over 15 years to connect strongly with the industry's agenda for professionalisation.

"ACEM saw the opportunity to partner with the industry in its professional journey, starting with the Executive Certificate in Event Management in 1996," Mr Harris said.

"Originally the course was taught only in Sydney, but now it is delivered in multiple locations across Australia and internationally including London, Edinburgh, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Macau, Taipei, Shanghai and Auckland.

"The executive certificate provided the platform for specialised workshops and short courses in areas such as risk and crowd management, sustainability, creativity and festival management. It also gave rise to a masters in event management and later an undergraduate degree in the same area at UTS.

"Over 4000 people worldwide have participated in ACEM's short courses and conferences. Emerging from the program has been a text which is used throughout Australia and internationally – Festival & Special Event Management – now in its 5th edition.

"The ACEM commitment to the Australian event industry continues with an extensive free online resources site encompassing studies, reports, event manuals and a myriad of other areas associated with the creation and delivery of events, such as a free online event carbon calculator developed in association with the Carbon Reduction Institute."