The UFI Asia-Pacific Conference will take place in Kuala Lumpur (pictured)
UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, will organise its full flagship series of Regional Conferences around the world in 2023.
The UFI Asia-Pacific Conference will take place in Kuala Lumpur (pictured)
The dates and locations are:
UFI Asia-Pacific Conference, March 2-3, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
UFI LATAM Conference, April 25-27, in San José, Costa Rica
UFI MEA Conference, May 9-11, 2023, in Doha, Qatar
UFI European Conference, June 14-16, at the MECC Maastricht, The Netherlands
Co-located with the European Conference, UFI will also run two specialised events focusing on human resources, and operations & services. The UFI HR Forum, and the UFI Operations & Services Forum, will take place at the MECC Maastricht, The Netherlands from May 13-14.
Open to all industry professionals, the programming of the conferences will have a global perspective. While the majority of participants at each regional event will be from the region where it takes place, UFI usually welcomes a significant share of participants from other parts of the world.
Emirates will scale up its A380 operations with a return to Scotland’s Glasgow (March 26), France’s Nice (June 1) and the UK’s Birmingham (July 1).
It will also resume its second daily service to London Stansted from May 1 this year, utilising the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft that is outfitted with the Game Changer First Class product.
Emirates will resume services to Scotland, France and the UK
With the return of the second daily flight to London Stansted, Emirates will operate 11 daily flights to London, including six times daily to London Heathrow and three times daily to Gatwick.
The Calyx, a venue set in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, managed to achieve a zero-waste dinner during one of its recent events.
Themed ZERO – where sustainability tastes better, the dinner was hosted by Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust’s Principal Environment Partner, HSBC Bank Australia.
Reducing environmental impact is a key focus for the Gardens, and extends to The Calyx and the events it hosts
The Calyx team – including the on-site event firm Laissez-faire Catering – teamed up with one of Australia’s leading sustainable chefs Matt Stone, to curate a sustainably-sourced menu highlighting some of the best produce Australia has to offer.
Sara Flaksbard, general manager, Laissez-faire Catering said the creative recipes were planned to create minimal waste and a reduced footprint, with strategically sourced local and seasonal ingredients selected.
“Produce was requested to be organic or biodynamic with no single-use plastic items being used (not even cling wrap) and any unused produce was recycled and used in the cooking process or composted to grow more ingredients.
“Food wastage is a big by-product of events, so we carefully planned the amount of food to match attendees, limiting supply to minimise the environmental impact,” said Flaksbard.
A taster of the sustainable menu included fried akoya oysters, a native oyster that reinvigorates the fisheries industry in Albany, Western Australia; cricket balls, made with crickets, a sustainable protein booster; and a gin and orange parfait with cultured butter where the whole fruit of the orange was used.
The event was also an opportunity to celebrate the work HSBC’s clients are doing to transition to net zero, as well as recognise the support HSBC has offered to a number of projects designed to accelerate and scale up investments in coastal ecosystems.
Alpa Bhattacharjee, head of sustainability, HSBC Bank Australia said their 25-year partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust has always focused on biodiversity conservation, so The Calyx was the ideal choice to highlight their environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments.
“We needed a venue that was flexible enough to showcase and deliver the zero-waste goals that we had set for the evening while providing an immersive and memorable experience. The Calyx is a physical embodiment of what our partnership aims to deliver, and the team were able to translate this vision from start to finish,” said Bhattacharjee.
Elevating the environmentally-themed event, The Calyx’s moveable floral displays and the spectacular green wall made up of over 18,000 plants immersed the guests. An organic style runner featured as the table centrepiece and included cabbages, pumpkins and radishes, which were donated to OzHarvest after the event, along with any leftover prepared food. Even the napkins were washable velvet to reduce paper waste.
In total, 16kg of produce was donated to OzHarvest and 2.5kg of waste was composted. The whole event was 99 per cent zero food waste.
Business Events Sydney (BESydney) has appointed Joo-Rei Mathieson as associate director – global corporate & incentive.
In this role, Mathieson is in charge of targeting new opportunities in the rapidly rising Indian market and driving business development across the South-east Asia region. She will also engage local and global stakeholders and companies to secure their corporate meetings and incentive programmes for Sydney and NSW.
Mathieson brings to BESydney close to 19 years in the hotel industry covering various roles and experience in sales, business development, conferencing, and business events.
She was most recently with Marriott International as the market director of sales (Australia and Fiji). Prior to that, Joo-Rei held MICE director of sales role at dual property Sheraton Grand and St Regis Macau, Langham Hospitality Group Hong Kong, and Island Shangri-La Hong Kong.
Iain Langridge has been appointed as vice president and divisional leader of Northern Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific.
In his new role, Langridge will be responsible for the operations and management of the newly created Northern Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific division, which consists of properties in those regions.
He joined Belmond in 2020 as divisional managing director for Asia-Pacific where he has since led the company’s Asian hotels through the pandemic, developing and implementing plans of ambition as well as playing an active role in multiple steering committees that have led to the rollout of strategic initiatives across the company.
Rautenbach: 2023 will bring new programmes and partnerships, and a destination marketing campaign, to create even greater value for members
SKÅL International Thailand, the national representative committee of SKÅL International – the world’s largest global association of travel and tourism professionals in 100 countries – has appointed a new executive committee comprising members from the country’s six SKÅL clubs, notably Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Phuket, Koh Samui and Krabi.
The new committee under the leadership of newly-elected president, Kevin Rautenbach will support the country’s six clubs in building membership, engaging young tourism professionals and promoting SKÅL’s key mission of doing sustainable business among friends.
Rautenbach: 2023 will bring new programmes and partnerships, and a destination marketing campaign, to create even greater value for members
Rautenbach said: “For 2023, my focus will be to give back to our members through several programmes and partnerships. We have already taken steps to save on annual membership fees and now that travel has restarted, we will use some funds to enhance our #RediscoverThailand program – a consumer-focused tourism campaign designed to drive traffic directly to members’ businesses.”
Another focus will be the SKÅL Talks Thailand programme – a webinar series launched in 2020 to support members through the pandemic tourism recovery process. It will continue to feature talks, panels, and workshops hosted by industry experts and personalities to share expertise and inject fresh ideas to rebuild the industry.
Meanwhile, SIT’s destination marketing websites for each SKÅL Thailand destination will be given additional funding for their development. The seven destination-specific websites will focus on promoting different areas and aspects of Thailand, and members’ tourism-related enterprises, at no cost to members.
Rautenbach added that sustainability will continue to be a priority, and the association’s campaign will continue both at the club and national levels.
Rautenbach is a South African national who spent most part of the past 17 years in Thailand. He is the managing director & co-founder at Miand Asia. He was formerly president of SKÅL International Krabi, vice president of SKÅL International Thailand and vice president South-east Asia at SKÅL Asia.
Philippines DoT is making changes to its MICE roadmap; Manila pictured
The Philippines MICE Roadmap 2020-2030 will soon be undergoing major revisions that will cover four areas – policy and governance; infrastructure; human resources; and marketing and promotions – after taking into account the two-year disruption caused by the pandemic.
The new strategies, to be added to existing ones, are the results of the Focus Group Discussion initiated by the Department of Tourism’s (DoT) Policy Formulation and International Cooperation Division.
Philippines DoT is making changes to its MICE roadmap; Manila pictured
Among the recommendations on policy and governance include crisis-proofing of business events facilities (health, security issues, natural threats); providing incentives for suppliers of safety events requirements, importation of materials, tax breaks, and sustainability; and developing a checklist for local government units who intend to promote corporate events as a priority tourism product.
The infrastructure recommendations also included the development of other regions and cities with the help of business events, based on documents obtained by TTGmice.
The documents also mentioned the need to strengthen the country’s Internet infrastructure to support the requirements of virtual and hybrid events, and strengthen transportation connectivity.
As for human resources, the document mentioned that upskilling and retooling programmes would be beneficial, alongside the development of other skills such virtual events management, video production, online branding, online marketing and promotions, English proficiency, data collection, interpretation, ecommerce, fintech, and cybersecurity.
Meanwhile, marketing recommendations include encouraging the private sector to pursue incentive groups to help the country in its recovery; promoting local events to drive more business’; develop an inventory of business events destinations and their support services.
Verna Buensuceso, DoT officer in charge – undersecretary for tourism development and assistant secretary for product and market development, said that reformulating Philippines’ MICE Roadmap also entailed updating the targets for each of the four segments with the help of statistical data, and understanding the country’s targeted source markets.
Wootton: AV1 will never stop investing in new technology
Australian audiovisual production company AV1 has invested A$1 million (US$912,740) in equipment upgrades, as well as moved to a 1,287m2 premise at 64 Burrows Road in Alexandria, Sydney.
The new AV1 headquarters is a reflection of the company’s investments in three key areas – inventory, operations, and recruitment of staff.
Wootton: AV1 will never stop investing in new technology
The larger facility has a dedicated space for set up and rehearsal of live events, training capabilities, studios for content production and remote recordings, increased inventory storage for operational efficiencies, including pre-loading vehicles.
AV1 has also beefed up its inventory – there were over 15,000 products in its inventory at last count – with the latest equipment including Barco vision switching systems, Sony cameras and advanced wireless communications systems, along with the replenishment of digital audio equipment and lighting.
“We will never stop investing in new technology, as we return to live events to continue our post-lockdown growth phase. Even throughout the pandemic, we invested in new cameras, lighting and studio broadcast equipment,” shared Keith Wootton, managing director, AV1.
Such efforts will go into keeping the events AV1 produces “fresh and innovative”. In fact, AV1 was one of the few events companies that set up one of Sydney’s first webcasting studios within a week of the pandemic’s beginning.
The Australian company went on to establish a studio on level six of the Museum of Contemporary Art that provided a stunning backdrop of the Opera House and Sydney Harbour, which Wootton called a “gamechanger” during the days of video conferencing.
Although there is still a place for hybrid and virtual events, these make up a “very small part” of AV1’s business now. However, the option still exists, as “organisers have seen the advantage of being able to broadcast out to a wider audience, and want to have this option”.
Addressing the current workforce shortages, AV1 also welcomes new permanent positions and an 18-month training programme to level up existing staff and attract new team members.
Wootton lamented: “Unfortunately, many skilled staff left our industry during the pandemic. We have been recruiting to deal with the demand for live events, as well as in complementary services such as video production.
There is still a place for hybrid and virtual events, although live events have returned in full force
“Previously, our industry relied heavily on a casual technical workforce, we are now recruiting more full-time technical staff to offer more job security and keep a bench of skilled technicians on hand for short lead time events.”
These are the main reasons why the new facility also has a dedicated training space to allow rapid upskilling.
Regardless, AV1 is striding into 2023 with optimism, and is pushing forward to show that it is possible to succeed and prosper as an industry.
“It’s vital that we do so in order to attract the next generation of event organisers and the next generation of staff. This is a great industry and we are determined to leave a positive mark on it,” concluded Wootton.
CWT has appointed Richard Thompson as its global head of Environmental, Social, and Corporate (ESG) and employee experience.
He reports to executive vice president & chief HR officer Laura Watterson.
Formerly CWT’s vice president, global internal communication & culture, Thompson will lead the company’s responsible business activities and continue to oversee the company’s HR communications and CWT workplace culture initiatives, while handing over global internal communication responsibilities to the company’s chief communications officer, Julian Walker.
Having joined the company in 2016, Thompson was appointed vice president, global internal communication & Culture in January 2022. Prior to joining CWT, Thompson spent over 25 years consulting in the automotive, manufacturing and B2B industries with companies like Nissan Europe, Capgemini, Technip and Cargill.
Philippine Airlines (PAL) has resumed Manila-Xiamen services on January 13, and launched a new flight to Guangzhou the following day.
Both services are operated once a week for a start.
PAL is rebuilding its services to China
The direct flight between Manila and Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport offers travellers early morning departures. PR 382 departs Manila at 03.35 every Saturday, arriving in Guangzhou at 06.10, while PR 383 departs Guangzhou at 08.40 every Saturday, arriving in Manila at 11.10.
Timings will be adjusted from January 28, with PR 383 setting off at 7.10 instead.
For its calibrated and progressive resumption of flights to the Chinese mainland, PAL is working closely with Chinese and Philippine health and aviation authorities to ensure the highest level of health safety protections for travellers.
Prior to the pandemic, the flag carrier served Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Quanzhou (Jinjiang) and Xiamen with a total of 34 weekly flights.
A polished urban retreat designed for business travellers, Hyatt Regency Kuala Lumpur at KL Midtown combines thoughtful design, seamless service, and exceptional facilities.
The five-star property excels in backing its expansive facilities with seamless service and personalised attention, setting the benchmark for luxury in Bangkok.
He joined Belmond in 2020 as divisional managing director for Asia-Pacific where he has since led the company’s Asian hotels through the pandemic, developing and implementing plans of ambition as well as playing an active role in multiple steering committees that have led to the rollout of strategic initiatives across the company.
Philippine Airlines (PAL) has resumed Manila-Xiamen services on January 13, and launched a new flight to Guangzhou the following day.
Both services are operated once a week for a start.
The direct flight between Manila and Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport offers travellers early morning departures. PR 382 departs Manila at 03.35 every Saturday, arriving in Guangzhou at 06.10, while PR 383 departs Guangzhou at 08.40 every Saturday, arriving in Manila at 11.10.
Timings will be adjusted from January 28, with PR 383 setting off at 7.10 instead.
For its calibrated and progressive resumption of flights to the Chinese mainland, PAL is working closely with Chinese and Philippine health and aviation authorities to ensure the highest level of health safety protections for travellers.
Prior to the pandemic, the flag carrier served Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Quanzhou (Jinjiang) and Xiamen with a total of 34 weekly flights.