Following the success of ADEX (Asia Dive Expo) 2017 – which was named the Best Exhibition Organiser at the May 8 Singapore Tourism Awards 2018 – Asian Geographic Magazines continues to raise the bar for the niche event, the largest and longest-running in the region.
Among the innovations introduced in 2017 was the creation of an event app equipped to handle payments, the streamlining of information to enhance convenience for visitors and exhibitors, and offering water sports activities for visitors to try out.
Karter Lee, Asian Geographic Magazines’ events and marketing manager, said a 10 x 6 x 1.3 metres swimming pool and a 6 x 2.4 metres waist-high diving tank were constructed at the Suntec Singapore venue for visitors to try out activities such as stand-up paddling, kayaking, scuba diving, and underwater rugby and hockey.
Aside from the cost, Lee commented it was a transport, engineering and manpower challenge to set up and maintain the swimming pool, which was a bigger investment compared to developing the event app.
“We talked to the venue operator – whom we have worked with for many years since 1995 – and their engineers, and they were very supportive.
“It took 12 hours to fill the 60m3 swimming pool, or the equivalent of 60,000 one-litre water bottles, and the 10-man team had to work overnight.”
This year, ADEX decided to introduce the Mermaid Festival, where “mermaid participants” demonstrated acrobatic manoeuvres at its 2018 edition in April, and visitors could sign up for a mermaid swimming course.
Lee noted: “We added 2,000m2 of space in 2018 to become 10,000m2 . There was a 10 per cent increase in visitors and a 20 per cent increase in the number of exhibitors, including new countries and destinations such as Taiwan, Terengganu, Jeju and Fiji.”
