THE ICCA Forum for Young Professionals (FYP), to be held alongside AIME next month, will feature more industry speakers, additional case studies, as well as a chance for participants to compete for an attendance at the ICCA Congress 2013 in Shanghai.
Over February 25 and 26, some 18 speakers, including a record eight from overseas – up from four last year, will address participants who are under 30 years old and/or have been in the meetings industry for less than three years on a full-time basis.
The event aims to expose new meetings industry members to the latest trade issues and offer learning points from global experts.
Elizabeth Rich, manager of ICCA FYP at AIME 2013, told TTGmice e-Weekly that “this year seems to be an especially good one for securing overseas speakers”.
Rich added that FYP never had trouble sourcing for speakers. “I’ve always found meetings industry (practitioners) especially collegial in their approach, particularly generous in sharing their experiences to educate others.”
Meanwhile, MeetTaiwan’s Shake to Share event networking programme now joins other industry case studies which will be presented on February 25.
Rich expects ICCA FYP at AIME 2013 to draw the same number of participants as past editions.
She said: “We usually have 30 to 35 pax – most of them are from Australia and a handful from Asia. Last year we had 35 participants, of which 10 were from Asia. This year’s registrations are still streaming in, but already we have participants from South Africa, Malaysia, South Korea and Australia. It is generally a mix of staff from bureaus, centres, PCOs, hotels and occasionally some in-house meetings managers. Young employees of ICCA members predominate since it is a benefit of their membership.”
Rich recognises that staff retention is a problem, but has observed that “the young ones who (attend FYP) go away with a much heightened appreciation of the breadth of the industry…and are enthused with the potential of what they can achieve”.
When asked if FYP has helped the meetings industry to retain young professionals in its 13-year history, Rich said: “While I haven’t actually done any quantitative research of this, I have watched some of my ‘students’ go onto great success in their careers.”
FYP is organised twice a year by ICCA, and the next one will be held in conjunction with EIBTM in Barcelona.
