Encouraged by “remarkable growth and potential” in its business events performance, second-tier Chinese city Hangzhou is furthering its steps onto the global business events stage by launching business events training for local practitioners and a service centre to gun for hosting rights of international meetings.
The new MICE Talent Program brings experienced PCOs from abroad and across China to Hangzhou where they provided special training for the city’s business events stakeholders in a bid to raise their level of professionalism to global standards. This in turn will encourage leading conference organisers to host their events in Hangzhou.
Hangzhou finds its footing on the global MICE stage
In June, Hangzhou city government also established the Hangzhou International Meeting Bidding Service Center, an organisation that partners local companies, organisations and convention ambassadors to provide bidding services for international association conferences and other meetings.
In addition, the city is also doing more to get target planners to experience the best of Hangzhou.
The recently-concluded Hangzhou, Inspiring New Connections event brought international PCOs to the city where they participated in a programme comprising interactive experiences and site visits suitable for business events. Some of the activities included visits to the China National Silk Museum, cruises on West Lake, tea-picking in Longjing Village and yacht racing.
At the end of the event, a banquet and sharing session was held at Hangzhou International Expo Center, the main venue of the G20 summit.
The Hangzhou Tourism Commission also ran a parallel event in Paris, France, where two pop-up venues were set up to give European-based conference organisers a chance to experience the Chinese city without leaving the continent.
