Say yes to Singapore: Where inspiring incentive travel itineraries abound

Singapore was the MICE destination of choice for Lawrence & Hanson’s biggest incentive trip to date and Rachel Raschilla, senior marketer at Australia's most recognised electrical wholesaler, shares why the city-state is a clear standout

The incentive trip’s interesting itinerary includes a vintage Vespa sidecar tour to explore Singapore's civic district
The incentive trip’s interesting itinerary includes a vintage Vespa sidecar tour to explore Singapore’s civic district

Brought to you by Singapore Tourism Board

Lawrence & Hanson, Australia’s most recognised electrical wholesaler with a strong heritage and over 170 branches, pulled off their biggest incentive trip in Singapore this year with more than 660 customers, managers and supplier sponsors in attendance.

For the Lawrence & Hanson Singapore Bucket List 2022, about 1,200 flight segments (itineraries with multiple city landings) and 335 room bookings were required and more than 1,000 tours and 28 individual events were staged in the city-state over one week.

For example, we had a golf day on Sentosa for our VIP customers, a private dinner on the roof top of CÉ LA VI, a beautiful Italian-themed night at Fiamma in Capella Singapore, and a relaxing spa day.

This year’s event even earned industry acclaim as one of the best held by the company, according to Rachel Raschilla, senior marketer, Lawrence & Hanson.

With only a one-year hiatus during the pandemic, the much-anticipated annual incentive trips have been ongoing for about six years now.

In the second instalment of the Say yes to Singapore series, Raschilla told TTGmice why Australia’s leading electrical wholesaler selected Singapore for the company’s largest incentive travel outing to date.

What are some of the highlights at your event in Singapore? 
Our standout event for the Bucket List 2022 trip was definitely the Next Level event – the official gala night, sponsored by Clipsal & Schneider Electric (a major supplier of Lawrence & Hanson).

Every aspect of the event has been developed with the vision of making it a green one, thus having a smaller eco-footprint on our planet and taking our sustainability efforts to the next level.

Going green and being mindful about our environment for the planning of this sustainable event had so many benefits, such as being both fun and friendly to our earth.

Some of the ways we hosted the environmentally sustainable event included consolidating transport service for guests; managing event plans digitally via a smartphone app and offsetting the carbon footprint of flights for the entertainment.

The biodegradable food packaging had also been made from sustainable plant materials and we used recycled products or products that can be recycled for all our food and beverage utensils. Hired and repurposed furniture were deployed and in-house screens and projected branding made use of re-usable LED lights that utilise less energy and produce low emissions.

The event was held at the stunning Gardens by the Bay – Flower Field Hall. The Gardens is a world-class sustainable event space and we also requested that all our guests wear a sustainable item of clothing that represented “sustainable and green”.

The idea was for our guests to wear something they already owned, borrowed or repurposed – therefore not purchasing a new item of clothing and not contributing to the fashion land fill.

(Overall) our agenda was to build a memorable Singapore trip, visiting as many iconic destinations as possible for our guests across four days.

Our VIP welcome reception was held at the CÉ LA VI roof top, while our official welcome party was hosted at the grand ballroom of The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore. Our cocktail events were held at the Singapore Flyer.

Tour East managed our specially handpicked tours for the entire group – ranging from (those for) Universal Studios Singapore, Singapore Zoo, cultural diversity, Tiger Brewery to of course, the spectacular and highly recommended vespa one.

We even transferred customers to the airport early so that they had time to enjoy Jewel Changi Airport.

This event has also been met with industry acclaim as one of the best events held by Lawrence & Hanson.

What aspects of Singapore made you choose it for your event, and why are these considerations important to host destination selection?
When selecting the destination for 2022, Lawrence & Hanson had to consider many variables for the safety of our guests.

After an extensive review of proposed destinations for 2022, Singapore was a clear standout. Lawrence & Hanson found that Singapore would be the best option to host our Bucket List Trip 2022 because the city-state has unique and eco-friendly venues; wide range of entertainment choices; vast number of cultural tours and activities; as well as wonderful food options for our guests to explore.

There were also easily accessible flights from Australia and the hotel was able to host the group size and manage its operations and movements.

How would you describe your experience working with MICE professionals in Singapore? Any highlights?
Lawrence & Hanson always try and support business locally within the destinations selected for the Bucket List trips.

Singapore was no exception. Lawrence & Hanson contracted Picasso International Productions (PIP) to manage all the events locally and contract local suppliers to coordinate the operations of the events.

PIP did an exceptional job and exceeded all expectations. With their help, Lawrence & Hanson was able to utilise many iconic local venues for our events and functions.

Working with Gardens by the Bay was wonderful – the team was open to all of our creative ideas and was a great supporter of our theme.

But this snapshot simply does not highlight the endless planning hours and video calls required to coordinate this incentive trip with our on-the-ground MICE teams – working within very fractured industries and overcoming the new normal for travel and events management.

Think 660+ guests, six supplier sponsorship partners, about 1,200+ flight segments, 335+ room bookings, 1,000+ tours, and 28 individual events hosted in Singapore over an epic week!

As a team, we pulled off what some wouldn’t have even considered attempting to create off the back of a pandemic!

How likely would you return to Singapore for future events?
Lawrence & Hanson would definitely look at future events in Singapore as it is a destination with so much to offer and explore.

Our customers were able to basically see and experience so much of Singapore and they just loved every minute of it.

In fact, our recent survey suggested most would return to Singapore in the future for their holiday destination.

All images to be credited to Lawrence & Hanson.

Keen to organise your next business event in Singapore?

Singapore has more than 100 exceptional venues ideal for MICE events of varying sizes and profiles. Find out why the city-state is your business event destination of choice here.

Learn how Singapore can support your event here.

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