US-BASED MD Events has opened an office each in Singapore and Sacramento, bringing its current global network of operations to six.
The two new offices, joining existing ones in London, St Petersburg, Philadelphia and Hong Kong, will comprise three divisions to deliver MD Events’ specialisations in life sciences, corporate and destination management.
General manager Tarquin Scadding-Hunt said in a press statement that MD Events needs to base its services where clients need them.
Scadding-Hunt said: “Singapore is a hotbed of business for a number of industries, especially pharmaceutical R&D, which was demonstrated recently with companies like Takeda and GSK establishing a presence there.
“There (are) lots of activity in the US’ West Coast and we think it is a logical step to expand our footprint in the US.”
Jowyn Tan, account director of Asia and Australia, told TTGmice e-Weekly that she expects all three divisions in the Singapore office to flourish.
“Singapore is home to regional headquarters within Asia for the pharmaceutical industry and we are expecting at least a 30 per cent increase in meetings for the life sciences division within the next five years. The corporate division is specially tailored for our existing and new clients dealing in non-life sciences meetings. We will be increasing our client base to other industries including IT, electronics, banking & finance, and insurance, etc.
“Meanwhile, our DMC division allows us to demonstrate our knowledge of Asia and Australia. We will expand our client base to event companies that are not based in this region,” Tan said.
Commenting on the company’s decision to open a second office in the US, Agnès Canonica, general manager of the Americas, said: “(There are) many life sciences companies in the San Francisco and San Diego area. In addition, we are targeting IT companies on the corporate side of things, so our presence in Sacramento aligns with our growth strategy.”
Canonica revealed that most of the demand for the US, specifically the West Coast, is from the north-east corridor where most of its current clients are located.
“In a couple of years, we feel that will be spread evenly throughout the East Coast, Midwest (Chicago area) and West Coast, in addition to Canada, based on our diversifying marketing strategy.”
She expects demand from Asian clients to rise five years from now.
