Hospitality-led co-working operator, The Great Room by Industrious, has expanded to Australia, with the first location set in Sydney to open in 3Q2023.
It will be located in the heart of Sydney’s CBD at Level 29, 85 Castlereagh Street, marking its first foray into the country in partnership with Australia & New Zealand-based asset manager 151 Property.
A rendering of the upcoming Sydney space
Spanning 1,200m2, there will be 35 dedicated offices and customised spaces. The dedicated offices can take teams from three up to 20 people, while other spaces include hot desk options, and virtual office services for businesses needing a corporate address. Day passes for short-term space and amenity use will also be available, along with an enterprise suite option.
Founded in Singapore in 2016, The Great Room has since grown to 10 prime locations in key cities across Asia, including Singapore, Bangkok, and Hong Kong.
There’s a new rooftop venue in the heart of Singapore’s Orchard Road, aptly named Rooftop@24 at voco Orchard Singapore.
Rooftop@24 is a spacious open terrace with views of the city skyline, and is able to hold up to 150 pax. The space also comes with a pool.
A team of experienced event planners will work with clients to create a customised event package that suits their specific needs and preferences, while chefs will be able to create an event-specific menu including appetisers, signature cocktails, and desserts.
To celebrate the launch, voco Orchard Singapore is offering the following exclusive introductory packages. From Mondays to Thursdays, bookings will cost S$6,000++ (US$4,480; usual price is S$10,000++), while from Fridays to Sundays, bookings will cost S$8,000++ (usual price is S$12,000++).
Bearing testimony to its eco-friendly credentials, DoubleTree by Hilton Shah Alam i-City won the International Sustainable Award 2022 by Luxury Lifestyle Awards in the same year it opened its doors to guests.
According to general manager, Gagan Talwar, prioritising sustainability is a strategic move as it caters to the current green meeting trends.
The 300-key five-star hotel strives to drive the message of sustainability to its guests by implementing eco-friendly practices throughout its premises – from the guestrooms to the hotel F&B options.
Green meeting initiatives
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To make sure eco-friendly menu items are available for delegates, the hotel takes on the responsibility to find continuous supplies of fresh local produce
All meeting rooms are fitted with LED lights and managed by a building management system to ensure optimal conditions are maintained without excessive use of energy and resources
Sustainable meeting initiatives extend to linen-less set-ups and eco-friendly Tetra packs of water to further reduce carbon footprint
The hotel is well-positioned to capture the MICE demand with its expansive 1,594m² state-of-the-art meeting spaces and facilities
The hotel is an ideal venue for business conferences, events, weddings and other social gatherings
Eco-conscious organisers and planners keen to ensure their events and meetings are sustainable will find the hotel a green MICE venue of choice
Talwar told TTG mice that sustainability considerations begin from the procurement and sourcing operations.
Eco-conscious organisers and planners keen to ensure their events and meetings are sustainable will find DoubleTree by Hilton Shah Alam i-City a green MICE venue of choice.
For a start, the hotel can offer them the option of “offsetting their carbon emission through a meeting calculator”.
To make sure eco-friendly menu items are available for delegates, the hotel takes on the responsibility to find continuous supplies of fresh local produce for its restaurants too.
Talwar said: “Our kitchen team has specially curated menus that promote locally sourced and nutritious food options. In line with our Meet with Purpose goals, we work with local vendors like BOOM GROW and GWG Fresh to ensure we continue to support local businesses and the community.”
The green meeting initiatives extend to linen-less set-ups and environmentally-friendly Tetra packs of water to further reduce carbon footprint.
All meeting rooms are also fitted with LED lights and managed by a building management system to ensure optimal conditions are maintained without excessive use of energy and resources.
Well-positioned to capture demand
DoubleTree by Hilton Shah Alam i-City is also well-positioned to capture the MICE demand with its expansive 1,594m² state-of-the-art meeting spaces and facilities spread over two floors, making it an ideal venue for business conferences, events, weddings and other social gatherings.
The stunning pillar-less grand ballroom, with three built-in LED screens, measures at 1,170m² and can accommodate up to 1,000 guests.
In addition, another 10 flexible meeting rooms are equipped with advanced audio-visual and technical facilities, high-speed internet, bespoke coffee stations, quality catering services and have direct access to the car park.
Within close proximity to the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, the hotel is also well connected to major highways, as well as just 40 and 25 minutes away from Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport respectively.
Apart from the eforea Spa – first in Malaysia – within the hotel premises, bleisure options are aplenty for business delegates with Central i-City mall locating next door to the hotel housing about 350 retail stores, kiosks, and pop-up shops, only three minutes away and i-City Convention Centre, and a theme park consisting of SnoWalk, WaterWorld @ i-City and City Of Digital Lights, just a stone’s throw away.
Furthermore, Talwar also believes that DoubleTree by Hilton Shah Alam i-City being nearby to the major manufacturing hubs of Shah Alam can step up to fill the market gap of five-star meeting and convention offerings needed in the area too.
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.
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.
Taruna Ikrar, chair of the Indonesian Medical Council
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
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 Technology in Events: How to Navigate the Journey Ahead panel discussion
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.
The Technology in Events: How to Navigate the Journey Ahead panel discussion
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.”
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.
Attendees testing out Project Spark
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.
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He was previously resort manager of Anantara Kihavah Maldives Villas.
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.
Teune’s most recent position was as director of operations at The Reykjavik Edition, Iceland.
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.