Undergraduates of Hong Kong Polytechnic University put textbook knowledge into practice to make a challenging two-in-one conference possible. By Prudence Lui
The joint Global Tourism & Hospitality Conference & 11th Asian Tourism Forum 2014 at Hotel ICON owed its success to an organising committee comprising 30 students from Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM).
A collaboration with Taylor & Francis Group, the event also coincided with SHTM’s 35th anniversary, doubling the pressure on the committee, according to second-year student and committee chairman, Leo Yip.
“Our school had placed a lot of emphasis on this two-in-one conference. It took us almost 10 months to make it possible, from conceptualisation and planning to delivery. Six sub-teams were created to monitor various areas such as publicity, registration, programme, and hotel and tour arrangement,” said Yip.
With guidance from the department’s professors and staff, preparation started in September 2013.
Yip shared that producing the conference programme was one of the challenges, taking a longer time to be confirmed with the different teams having to provide content, such as the programme line-up and speaker information, outside their own busy study schedule.
“It took longer than we expected also because of many amendments. Authors of paper presentations were allowed to update their papers after the initial submission. Subsequently, many of them changed their papers’ content.”
Another pre-conference challenge was that of having to liaise with the hotel and performers for rehearsals and conduct numerous briefing sessions with various parties all at once, nearer the event date.
Yip recalled: “For instance, the printing and production team struggled with typesetting, designing and formatting the conference information, on top of designing the conference backdrop and souvenirs for delegates. One day before the conference, we were still doing the final review as well as packing of the materials.”
The conference’s interactive session for attendees and invited speakers presented a challenge too. Yip said: “The speakers included editors of top academic journals and leading educators in the tourism and hospitality field. Preparation for the session and handling of the speakers were challenging for us, but luckily it all worked out nicely and we gained a lot of valuable experience.”
Nevertheless, the organisers’ efforts paid off because the target number of attendees was met. Asked if there was any room for improvement, Yip said: “This is the first practical experience for us in organising an event. Of course we can always improve, such as exercising greater caution in the selection of (the vegetarian) menu, and better time management for rehearsals. We believe we can do better in the future with the experience we have gained from organising this conference.”
