Anantara Bophut Koh Samui Resort has appointed Thomas Boehringer as its general manager.
Boehringer brings with him extensive luxury hospitality knowledge and experience, and will manage the overall operations of the property in his new role.
He was previously resort manager of Anantara Kihavah Maldives Villas.
Tom Van Tuijl is the new general manager at Kandima Maldives.
In his new role, he will drive commercial growth and optimise operations at the resort.
With over 20 years of experience in the leisure and business hospitality industries, he was most recently general manager of Centara Mirage Resort Mui Ne, Vietnam.
Pieter Teune has been appointed as The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore’s new hotel manager.
He will be part of the hotel’s executive team, and will oversee the food and beverage division, as well as the banquet and in-room dining operations.
Teune’s most recent position was as director of operations at The Reykjavik Edition, Iceland.
Angga Febrian has joined Wyndham Casablanca Jakarta as its new executive chef.
Angga will oversee the hotel’s banquet and culinary operations, including the all-day dining restaurant, Café One Asian Fusion, and RIVA Grill Bar and Terrace. He will lead an F&B team of more than 30 people.
The Bali tourism and medical society has seized the opportunity to launch its first International Medical Conference (IMC) on November 10-13, 2023, on the back of the 2023 International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities (IAMRA) Conference on international medical regulation.
The IMARA conference will take place first in Merusaka Nusa Dua from November 6-9, 2023, and more than 600 delegates from around the world are expected to attend.
Taruna Ikrar, chair of the Indonesian Medical Council, explained: “The IAMRA conference is a prestigious regulatory event, and we saw the opportunity to create a sequence event, the IMC, with an expectation that the IAMRA delegates (would be able to) participate too.
“The IMC aims to support Bali’s aspiration of becoming a leading health tourism destination. It will also be an annual event, and help to bridge Bali’s thriving tourism industry and healthcare development.”
The IMC is slated to take place at a convention centre that is currently under construction in the new Sanur Special Economic Zone area. It is owned and organised by Bali Nusantara Sembilan Semesta, a collaboration between Bali Convention Management (Bacoma) and several medical experts like Taruna.
Taruna opined that the IMC would make history as a medical conference that not only discusses regulation, but medicine in general, noting that there were other medical conference dedicated to specific fields such as cardiology and pulmonary diseases.
The intrusion of artificial intelligence (AI) into business events will enhance the productivity of industry professionals and participants by compacting event duration and delivering a better return on investment, according to a panel of technology experts and event organisers at the MICE and Luxury Forum on June 8.
As part of The Macao Showcase, speakers at the Technology in Events: How to Navigate the Journey Ahead session discussed the impact of AI, the metaverse, ChatGPT and new iterations aiding or threatening the role of meeting planners.
Jason Ho, co-founder of Beyond International Technology Innovation Expo, pointed out that AI could be used to come up with 150 speakers and topics, and chips could be embedded into badges to track the time a participant spends in an exhibition booth and how he navigates the show floor.
Ian Roberts, vice president Asia, Informa Markets, added AI has helped to enhance productivity in areas such as marketing and PR.
However, Glenn Gore, CEO, Affinidi Group, commented some aspects of technology like the metaverse in business events were still five to six years out, and while he believed it has “a place, a niche”, it is not what everyone makes it out to be.
Gore explained that stage one in technology development is characterised by “overpromising” and “not delivering”. The metaverse is now in stage two “stuck in deception” and finding a solution in the next stage is extremely hard before it can “disrupt” and “democratise” at stage six.
Gore cautioned: “AI is smart but it does not understand what it is telling you”, noting that it “takes bad advice from the Internet” and what it churns out amounts to “groupthink”.
Rebecca Hallet, vice president and director of experience, Jack Morton Worldwide, Asia, said carving out a budget to use technology in events would depend on the event and the target audience.
And in answering what industry roles could potentially be replaced by technology, Gore described a scenario where the job is “isolated and task-driven”, could be done “fully remotely” and with the “least collaborative role”.
He reassured the audience: “AI does not have an opinion (unlike what meeting planners provide their customers). Do not be stressed from the initial chaos.”
Collinson has partnered with Singapore Airlines (SIA) to offer Lounge Pass to SIA’s customers, allowing them to pre-book airport lounge access for both the outbound and inbound legs of their journeys.
Lounge Pass is available to all travellers flying with SIA and their codeshare airline partners, regardless of cabin class, programme status, or route.
Lounge Pass presently offers pre-bookable airport lounge access at over 600 airport lounges worldwide, located across 100 markets and countries, at over 350 airports.
Todd Handcock, global chief commercial officer and president, Asia-Pacific, Collinson, said: “We are very much looking forward to welcoming SIA’s customers into our airport lounges and delivering a comfortable airport experience where they can unwind and recharge before their flight.”
The Electronics Manufacturing Expo Asia (EMAX) and Penang Manufacturing Expo (PMAX) are set to take place from July 12-14, 2023, at the Setia SPICE Convention Centre in Penang, Malaysia.
EMAX and PMAX, well-known tradeshows in the manufacturing industry, are back with even greater offerings, showcasing the latest advancements in electronics manufacturing equipment, assembly technology, and industrial manufacturing equipment. This year’s event has experienced remarkable growth, expanding by over 30 per cent compared to its previous edition, and will feature a lineup of more than 200 international exhibitors.
The shows are expected to attract over 8,000 trade visitors such as engineers, researchers, procurement specialists, maintenance personnel, contractors, as well as equipment manufacturers and suppliers.
Ashwin Gunasekeran, CEO of Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau (PCEB), highlighted that manufacturing tech events such as EMAX and PMAX play a vital role in driving the adoption of technology among local manufacturers. These events facilitate knowledge exchange, foster innovation, and showcase cutting-edge solutions, empowering local manufacturers to stay at the forefront of technological advancements.
New Zealand’s capital, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, is set to host New Zealand’s largest business events showcase MEETINGS 2023 next week, the first time it has been held in the city.
Staged by Business Events Industry Aotearoa (BEIA), MEETINGS will be held on June 21 and 22. And for the first time in four years, buyers from international markets including Asia and North America will also be in attendance.
Over 100 buyers from Australia, 134 hosted buyers from New Zealand and 10 from international markets including North America and Singapore will attend. Up to 300 day buyers from Wellington and around New Zealand have also registered.
Over the two days, and across two floors at Tākina, buyers can pre-schedule appointments of their choice from 224 stands across 19 regions of New Zealand.
Many Australian-hosted buyers are set to stay on and discover more with the support of Air New Zealand and regional business events bureaux. They can choose to visit Auckland, Taupō, Rotorua, Waikato, Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough, Christchurch and Canterbury, Dunedin, Queenstown and Southland/Fiordland.
A range of professional development sessions are also part of MEETINGS. They include the Tourism New Zealand Knowledge and Destination Hub, Celebrity Speakers Showcase, and a Professional Conference Organisers (PCO) Masterclass.
Registrations are still open for day buyer positions. The event is free to attend.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI), its impact on event planning, and real-world applications were some of the topics discussed at The Future of Work: Impact of AI on the Workforce workshop held at the PCMA Labs in Hong Kong earlier this month.
One of the speakers, Prudential’s regional director of technology innovation, Andy Chun, walked the audience through the evolution of AI and the latest developments. He pointed out that AI and cloud storage has been growing rapidly over the past seven years, which gave rise to chatbots and ChatGPT.
Chun said: “ChatGPT can help us to write content, emails, do research, and can even design and plan things. But you would have to develop carefully-crafted prompts to guide the AI to produce the correct answers.”
He likened it to explaining work processes to an intern with no prior experience, and outlining information such as what is the objective, target audiences, and details on what to include.
However, he cautioned that ChatGPT is “not always accurate”, so it is advisable for users to “double check their sources of information”. Copyright is another issue that has not been settled. That is why users should never share confidential data, and opt out of data sharing.
Still, generative AI could be useful for business events planners, Chun noted. For instance, event planners can use generative AI to conduct market research on trending topics and find out what topics people are interested in now; run data analysis; design an event; create content; and even come up with a marketing campaign design.
Gevme’s vice president design, Johnathan Easton, also spoke about various AI practical applications to spark or amplify creativity, as well as build content quickly.
He said: “ChatGPT can also be used to write a blog post, event agenda, or even a legal review. It can even generate a summary after a virtual meeting.”
Moreover, generative AI can help to generate images, such as those by Midjourney, a generative AI programme and service created by San Francisco-based independent research lab Midjourney. Animations, videos, and music can also be generated through prompts.
As part of the workshop, the 40 attendees were also given early access to the recently-launched Project Spark by PCMA and Gevme, an AI tool aimed at helping planners jumpstart routine event design and planning tasks, content generation and marketing communications.