With business events scaling upwards, the 7th Architecture & Building Services (ABS) 2021 is aiming to host up to 2,500 attendees at Sands Expo & Convention Centre – and another 5,000 online – from June 30 to July 2.
It will be the third and largest tradeshow among pilot business events that Singapore is testing, as the country carefully reopens its borders.
Edward Liu, CEMS’ managing director, said: “We are not aiming for big numbers at the exhibition. We all want to be safe, and adopt measures that are relevant and proven to be useful. However, should there be foreign companies wishing to take part, in compliance with the safe management measures (SMM), we will be happy to appeal to the authorities for consideration of their participation.”
Comprising a slate of seven tradeshows and 12 conferences in the built environment and related sectors, organiser Conference & Exhibition Management Services (CEMS) estimates a bigger audience of 5,000 attendees online, with physical visitors mostly residing in Singapore.
The exhibition will occupy four zones in Halls E and F of Sands Expo. There will be four cycles of four groups touring the showfloor between 10.00 and 18.00 each day. Sub-groups totalling 50 trade visitors will rotate through the halls in two hours; i.e. 30 minutes per zone.
Concurrent conference and seminar sessions will run on the upper floors with the same formula of 50 pax per zone and no intermingling between events. Most of the constituent events are already well established, but Design Asia is new, which will focus on interior design.
The organisers are still discussing and assessing various event technology applications, including those used at the recent Geo Connect Asia. But a confirmed SMM feature is CG5 Servbot, a robotic terminal that integrates temperature screening, facial recognition and visitor registration through embedded QR for authentication.
Andrew Phua, executive director, exhibitions & conferences, Singapore Tourism Board, said innovative solutions are being tried in the learn/test/build framework.
Citing ABS 2021, he added: “We are progressively resuming such (larger) events with rigorous protocols and innovative solutions for the end-to-end visitor journey.”
