The three-day Industrial Transformation Asia-Pacific (ITAP) 2021 was successfully held last November, setting the right foundation for future hybrid events at the Singapore Expo
Event brief
The 4th edition of ITAP 2021 took place from November 22-24 at the Singapore EXPO, the largest in-person exhibition since the pandemic began.
Held in a hybrid format, there were a total of 143 exhibitors and five national pavilions from Singapore, China, Germany, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Over three days, an estimated 3,600 visitors attended in-person, while another 7,400 attended online. Total attendance stood at over 11,000, where attendees hailed from 70 countries. Attendees received opportunities to network with industry experts and counterparts from key manufacturing sectors in the region, to explore new partnerships and collaborations.
Event highlights
This year’s ITAP featured over 150 content sessions by more than 120 speakers to discuss the latest in manufacturing technologies, key industry developments, strategic regional developments, and regional government initiatives on I4.0.
Attendees at the physical event got the chance to visit exhibitions and activities such as the Gateway to Industry 4.0 (I4.0), the I4.0 Experience Zone, open mic presentations (Industry Connect Live Talks) by the Whole-of-Government (WOG) pavilion, over 100 other I4.0 physical showcases, as well as country and industry pavilions.
The I4.0 Experience Zone, powered by Singapore Polytechnic, gave visitors an insight into the vast and diverse possibilities that 5G and Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) technologies will bring to Advanced Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 through Augmented Reality technology. As part of the zone, visitors also had a live 5G experience with industry-use cases and observed live demos of remote field assistance and robotic arms.
On the online front, ITAP engaged over 7,400 attendees on the digital platform called, ITAP CONNECTED. Online attendees also had access to a comprehensive exhibition e-showcase and networking opportunities through AI-powered business matching.
Challenges
ITAP 2021 allowed exhibitors and delegates to interact face-to-face and engage in a safe manner as a pilot event of the Vaccinated-Differentiated Safe Management Measures + Test (VDS + Test) protocol in Singapore.
Protocols included the requirement to conduct pre-event testing, where attendance was broken into timeslots with capacity limits to further manage the flow of attendees.
The event also leveraged technology service providers such as Viatick and Trakomatic to enable contactless registration through facial recognition and data-based crowd management.
Dubbed the Safe Event Tool, it allowed the live tracking of attendee numbers and business interactions, as well as the printing of delegate passes through an integrated facial recognition technology. The use of these technologies helped to minimise minimised physical interaction.
Organisers Constellar worked closely with local authorities to ensure attendees could have safe face-to-face interactions, which is a key component of business events.
While such measures added cost and operational pressures, the resumption of business events in Singapore with increased capacity limits has created an air of optimism that the industry is recovering.
Event Industrial Transformation Asia-Pacific (ITAP) 2021
Organiser Constellar and Deutsche Messe
Venue Singapore Expo, Hall 2
Date November 22-24, 2021
Attendance Over 11,000 attendees in total
