Through this partnership, GainingEdge is able to provide strong support in communicating to all an association's decision-makers globally
GainingEdge and Arena Destination Marketing have inked a partnership to offer destination representation services in North America.
The aim of this partnership is to assist international destinations in securing conventions, incentive programmes and meetings originating from the US and Canada.
Through this partnership, GainingEdge is able to provide strong support in communicating to all an association’s decision-makers globally
Arena Destination Marketing, based out of New York, has worked with GainingEdge for several years in North America representing the Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau, Meetings Africa and the Guadalajara Convention & Visitors Bureau. They have established strong client relationships throughout America and provide in-market services to leading international MICE destinations.
Meanwhile, GainingEdge provides in-market services in Europe, Asia and Australia to clients from various parts of the world.
Jon Sivertson, GainingEdge’s CEO, said that the company now offers a “seamless” solution that can both source business from North America, while connecting to people based in other parts of the world that are decision-makers for meetings coming out of the US.
Another advantage is that destinations wanting support in other regions of the world, as well as in the US, can have a single solution rather than having to manage relationships with multiple representation companies.
Alessandra Delmonte, vice president and Arena Destination Marketing partner, pointed out that securing conventions requires effective coordination at both the place of origin and the proposed destination.
“The most successful destinations have representation where the decisions are being made. But, they also have to work locally to develop relationships with local hosts and to put together bids that are more strategic and have a higher chance of success. This partnership means that we can offer destinations strong support at both ends of that value chain,” she said.
New Scoot PDT portal allows passengers to manage Covid-19 test bookings, as well as receive and present test results in digital form
From March 17, all outbound Scoot passengers flying from Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong will be able to book Covid-19 pre-departure RT-PCR and serology tests as part of a trial service run by Collinson.
The service builds upon the pilot recently launched for Singapore Airlines, Scoot’s parent company.
The new Scoot PDT portal allows passengers to manage Covid-19 test bookings, as well as receive and present test results in digital form
The Collinson online portal, accessible via the Scoot website or mobile app, will allow passengers departing on flights to book pre-departure testing appointments with recognised and accredited partner clinics and digitally receive results within 36 hours.
Passengers will receive their serology test results directly from the clinic. However, RT-PCR test results can be obtained through the portal, with QR codes embedded within the RT-PCR result certificates, enabling digital authentication, streamlining verification and strengthening the integrity of the process.
There are plans to expand the service to other destinations in the Scoot network post-trial.
A digital verification solution from Affinidi, a Temasek-founded technology company, is also being trialled by Scoot at check-in for selected flights from Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. By scanning the QR code with a secure app, check-in agents are able to quickly and reliably determine the authenticity of digital or printed Covid-19 test results bearing a verifiable QR code, issued by selected clinics. This will reduce the check-in time for passengers, thereby, improving their travel experience.
Todd Handcock, president, Asia Pacific, Collinson, said: “Helping to reopen key routes for travellers in a safe way is our utmost priority and this partnership is another step forward in our aim of achieving the long-term return of global travel.”
Campbell Wilson, Scoot CEO, added: “Through both solutions, we hope our customers can be assured of a more convenient, efficient and reliable experience when they travel with us.”
The Seoul Convention Bureau has launched a virtual teambuilding programme, another addition to its digital offerings that include the Virtual Seoul platform and Seoul MICE World.
Named Virtual Seoul Playground, the programme is an add-on to the Virtual Seoul platform.
Participants having a go at yunnori
After downloading the programme, participants can choose avatars with various hanboks. Within the playground are three games that will bring about cooperative play that aims to instil a teambuilding spirit by working towards the same goal.
Participants can make gimbap (Korean seaweed rice rolls) at Changdeokgung Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the heart of Seoul. They can also have a go at yunnori – a traditional Korean game in which players throw four sticks and move markers on a mat accordingly in the square in front of Seoul City Hall. In addition, at Some Sevit on the Hangang River, participants can learn more about Seoul through a quiz and decorate a lantern to float it down the river with a wish written on it.
Jihyun Kim, director of Seoul Convention Bureau said: “As virtual MICE events increase drastically, the importance of gamification that induces participants’ immersion along with metaverses that allows interaction through avatars in a virtual world is on the rise. We have developed a non-face-to-face teambuilding program that can be used as content for gamification in the industry, while providing an experience similar to the actual experience by building a metaverse in the background of Seoul.”
Event planners can upload the Virtual Seoul Playground as a link to their on their event page, and even create a tournament-like setting for participants.
AIPC, the International Association of Convention Centres; ICCA, the International Convention and Congress Association; and UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, have come together once again to jointly produce the Good Practice Guide: Convention and Exhibition as Temporary Vaccination Centres.
This publication e aims to help convention and exhibition centres and event and congress organisers called upon by health authorities to convert part or all of their venue into a temporary vaccination centre.
Cover of the latest guide
This comes as a gowing number of convention and exhibition sites across the world have started operating as temporary COVID-19 vaccination centres, getting anywhere from 500 to over 6,000 people vaccinated every day at each location. At the same time, an increasing number of markets around the globe have begun to reopen business events with varying Covid-19 protocols in place.
The good practice conveyed in this document was collected over February-March 2021 from a range of AIPC, ICCA and UFI member facilities, and enhanced by insights and information made available through the associations’ joint Safety & Security Task Force.
The use of convention and exhibition facilities as vaccination sites is still evolving, and this document should therefore be viewed as a dynamic one, as new insights continue to emerge over time.
This guide complements earlier publications, which were produced and distributed within the last year, such as the Good Practice Guide: Addressing Covid-19 Requirements for Re-Opening Business Events – version 2 (and version 1 previously).
AIPC President, Aloysius Arlando, said in a statement: “As vaccination strategies roll out worldwide, event venues are once again playing a critical role in economic recovery as they transform themselves into vaccination centres. This collaborative endeavour, which features knowledge and insights from industry experts around the world, serves as an important reference for event venues to safely establish and operate a vaccination centre within their own spaces. It also firmly demonstrates the commitment of the business events industry to support the safe return of face-to-face events.”
James Rees, ICCA president, added: “The economic impact of global events generates the investment that makes possible the building of our industry’s venue infrastructure. It is good to see how venues worldwide have repurposed their facilities to help support government vaccination programmes.”
“Our industry’s support to the vaccination effort also benefits our whole industry ecosystem: rolling out vaccinations around the world in a fast and effective way will speed up the return of face-to-face events,” concluded Anbu Varathan, UFI’s President.
Following distribution, a dedicated UFI connects session is scheduled on March 31 to facilitate the implementation of the guidance provided in this publication and to assist members in interpreting its content into local actions.
The hybrid event will take place at the National Convention Centre Canberra
The National Convention Centre Canberra (NCCC) is all geared up for a return to large in-person business events as it hosts the Australian Information Security Association (AISA)’s 2021 Australian Cyber Conference from March 16-18.
Delivered by Canberra-based Conference Logistics (Conlog), the hybrid conference is expected to attract 800 in-person delegates, with an additional 400 attending virtually.
The hybrid event will take place at the National Convention Centre Canberra
The Australian Cyber Conference is significant as it marks not only one of Canberra’s, but also Australia’s, first major multi-day conferences in 12 months, and attests to a growing confidence from delegates to meet in person again.
Canberra has been the least impacted major city in Australia, where there are stringent Covid-safe guidelines in venues and institutions in place, as well as zero community transmitted cases since mid-2020.
The NCCC has managed the planning and delivery of the event collaboratively with Conlog, navigating through changing restrictions and finding creative solutions for a successful hybrid event.
“The size and scope of the event delivery network in Canberra allows for immediate and creative response times, allowing us to pre-empt any guideline updates or logistical changes in the lead up to the event.
“NCCC has been leading the Covid-safe response with a focus on delegate safety and wellbeing, which has been paramount to a growing confidence among meeting planners and delegates to return to business in Canberra,” states Stephen Wood, general manager at NCCC.
NDC (new distribution capability) findings by Travelport during the Covid-19 pandemic show it provided a “robust servicing solution” for core requirements like airline refunds, exchanges, scheduling, ancillaries and the management of multi-sector leisure bookings.
Will Owen Hughes, head of customer strategy and marketing – air, Travelport, observed that even though some airlines “paused” their NDC programmes at the height of the virus outbreak, most continued to be invested.
Qantas’ NDC offer is about delivering a better experience and richer content to travellers
Nadine Dawood Morgan, Qantas head of distribution, who participated with Hughes in a CAPA Live webinar on how NDC is influencing recovery in the travel Industry, commented its partners were moving at a different pace during the pandemic and that outcomes were “inconsistent”.
Morgan said leisure travel was on a faster recovery track and was confident corporate travel would come back.
Qantas, she continued, had already gained a lot of momentum with NDC and did not change its roadmap; was taking a long-term strategy of “making a better (shopping and booking) experience for customers and to support the agents who service them”.
It is rolling out new content for frequent flyers and is launching discounts for Frequent Flyer Program members in “the indirect space, which was not available before”, and creating “a great opportunity for the trade” to access better and richer information.
Hughes added NDC did not only allow airlines to provide “certain fares” but allowed them to “personalise products”.
Morgan noted: “Some of the features and capabilities that we are building are not about the price at all, but value-add for the customer,” citing the ability to buy carbon offsets – which is important for their customers – and which was not available on the direct channel before.
NDC, she opined, was really important in helping Qantas in areas such as fare availability and scheduling, to “pump information” to agents and in plugging service gaps, which was a complex process and crucial to have a certain level of detail.
On the NDC focus for Qantas this year, Morgan said it was to ensure a robust service roadmap, to continue to value add “ancillaries which are very important to clients”, and to “release things quickly”.
Singapore, Australia in travel bubble talks; a party boat sailing at a very quiet Sydney Harbour on Australia Day 2021 pictured
Singapore and Australia are in talks to forge a quarantine-free air travel bubble which will facilitate cross-border travel between both countries.
Additionally, the two nations are also in discussions on the mutual recognition of vaccination certificates and resumption of travel with priority for students and business travellers, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in a statement on Sunday (March 14).
Singapore, Australia in travel bubble talks; a party boat sailing at a very quiet Sydney Harbour on Australia Day 2021 pictured
MFA was responding to media queries following a report by The Sydney Morning Herald which said that plans for a two-way bubble between Singapore and Australia was underway. The report also stated that it could be possible for people from third countries to enter Australia via Singapore after completing a 14-day quarantine in the city-state.
“Australia is a key partner of Singapore in the region. We are in discussions on how to cooperate in opening our economies safely, taking into consideration the Covid-19 situation in both countries,” MFA said.
The ministry also stated that both countries are not in discussion on the concept of a quarantine centre or vaccination hub. It said: “Australian nationals can transit via Singapore without quarantining to return home if they travel on approved transit routes and if they comply with our public health protocols while in transit.”
CTMs are once again placing more focus on sustainability now that the Covid situation is under control
Corporate Travel Community (CTC) members have reaffirmed their commitment to “environmental sustainability” in their travel programmes, with many saying they plan to strengthen “core value statements” after having had to prioritise duty of care in the last year.
During last week’s CTC Roundtable discussion, a buyer from a pharmaceutical company, which had set clear sustainability guidelines for business operations, was seeking suppliers with “sustainable missions” to meet its 2030 goals, adding it was already working with a TMC on how to offset carbon emissions.
CTMs are once again placing more focus on sustainability with the Covid situation is under control
He continued: “It is not only about suppliers, but on educating travellers to turn off hotel room lights, to use less water, to take public transport instead of a taxi from the airport and to use technology to track carbon emissions.”
CTMs acknowledged the airlines were taking the sustainability lead in reducing carbon emissions in the type of fuel and aircraft used, and Shirley Yuen, regional director – global and strategic sales Asia Oceania Sale Office, Japan Airlines (JAL), said its long-term goal was to cut carbon emissions to zero by 2050.
Yuen said: “JAL has set up a specific department to address this because it is of utmost importance for our clients.”
An insurance industry CTM shared that her company was working with its TMC on cutting carbon emissions, tracking travel patterns and how to plan to drive sustainability better.
The Delhi-based buyer of a global professional services company, who acknowledged sustainability took a back seat at the height of the Covid-19 outbreak, noted the global travel team did not only look at travel sustainability.
He pointed out that facilities, the type of rental cars provided, etc, were also part of the sustainability strategy, and the travel target is a 2024 deadline to deliver “real-time flight bookings and carbon emissions” and airfares with a “threshold for reducing carbon emissions”.
In addressing the sustainability challenge, CAPA – Centre for Aviation founder and chairman emeritus, Peter Harbison, said “finding a balance between an existential threat and a threat to our existence was not an easy equation”.
“Sustainability and the recovery of air travel need to go hand in glove,” he said, adding the focus for governments should remain on how to reduce carbon emissions rather than measures such as new taxes.
Harbison commented: “Incentivising the creation of new sustainable fuels for aircraft is a real step in the right direction. Sustainability is a critical part of the whole aviation equation.”
A positive outcome from the collapse of air travel demand, he noted, was that global passenger levels were similar to what was last seen in 2005, that global aviation emissions had reduced significantly and would remain “well below 2019 levels for some years to come”.
According to Harbison, longhaul international air travel accounted for around 40 per cent of emissions in 2019 and flight levels will be constrained for at least two years; and with airlines operating around half the wide-body fleet of 2019 alone would help reduce previous aviation emissions by around 20 per cent.
But the reduction in air travel in 2020 was unprecedented, and it is already starting to recover as Covid-19 vaccination programmes become more widespread, he added.
As the recovery continues, he said the industry would have to – and be seen to – take bolder steps to produce new solutions and show progress is being made because “governments, businesses and investors will increasingly pressure the aviation industry moving forward”.
The knowledge economy forms part of the advocacy platform for the business events industry
It’s been almost 12 months since Covid-19 hit Australia and abruptly shut down the business events industry. Events including conventions, symposiums, association meetings and trade exhibitions all disappeared overnight.
The financial impact of the pandemic on Australia’s economic health has been well and truly documented. Specifically looking at our industry, the Business Council of Australia (BECA) reported a loss of A$35 billion (US$27.1 billion) in direct expenditure to the Australian economy and over 230,000 jobs being impacted as a result of the pandemic.
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are other impacts not so easily quantified, but with enormous ramifications that will continue to have a lasting effect long after the pandemic has retreated.
As I reflect one year on, one such ramification that hasn’t been widely acknowledged is the long term impact on Australia’s knowledge economy which is silently suffering.
Business events deliver much more than travel and hospitality spend, as significant as that is. They are a driving force for innovation, providing researchers and practitioners with a platform to discuss and disseminate new ideas. They are where the brightest minds come together to solve the world’s problems – from health and medical breakthroughs, technology and ethics, engineering and development, to environmental sustainability and more.
Meeting in person allows for networking opportunities, business exchanges, recruitment efforts and introductions. Some of the greatest business ideas, scientific developments and technical innovations have been sparked during an event workshop or in the corridors outside of formal sessions.
Connections are made and actions are taken, which otherwise may never have taken place. For example, The University of New South Wales (UNSW) was awarded a A$17.7 million grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council to support research into HIV AIDS as a direct result of the World Aids Conference held in Sydney. They also received an A$18 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support a research study into HIV drug therapy while being recognised as an international leader in HIV AIDS research.
Hosting virtual and hybrid events in the current climate has certainly been valuable for businesses and organisations to continue to communicate in a pandemic environment however, there are some things that we need to do together face-to-face that you can’t easily replicate online.
As the pandemic endures, it’s never been more important for private industry, government and the community to recognise the broader value of business events to our society, beyond the obvious monetary outcomes. It may be difficult to quantify the non-monetary benefits but it’s crucial that they are ultimately recognised and outcomes are captured.
Along with the reactivation of the visitor economy, the knowledge economy forms part of the advocacy platform for the business events industry. It is yet another reason why we need to bring the return of face-to-face events into the foreground and make this our primary focus in 2021.
We have reached a major milestone with the beginning of the vaccination roll out in Australia but realistically, the business events industry remains in survival and immediate recovery mode.
In order for business events to reach their full potential, we need to reach a unified approach to interstate border closures, agree on a national definition for hot spots and ultimately open our international borders so that international travel can resume.
Longer-term, once we have achieved effective global vaccination, only then will people be able to move freely to attend international events with confidence, putting the industry in a position to fully recover and once again deliver intellectual, business and social legacies for Australia.
Geoff Donaghy is the CEO of ICC Sydney, as well as group director of convention centres (Asia Pacific) for ASM Global.
Donaghy is also the immediate past-president of the International Association of Congress Centres and is their representative on peak global body, the Joint Meetings Industry Council.
His extensive experience in the business events industry was born from his airline and hotel industry experience. He headed the Cairns region’s tourism and convention bureau for five years before managing the 1996 opening of the Cairns Convention Centre. He previously also served five years as chairman of the Business Events Council of Australia.
Hosted buyer applications have opened for New Zealand’s business events showcase MEETINGS 2021 in Auckland, scheduled for June 2 and 3.
Business Events Industry Aotearoa (BEIA) chief executive, Lisa Hopkins said in a press statement: “We believe MEETINGS is the first event for the sector globally in 2021, after other key events have unfortunately had to cancel. Our timing will enable New Zealand’s business events industry to connect early with buyers who are focused on 2022 and beyond.
Buyers and suppliers speaking in person at the previous MEETINGS 2019
“With the roll-out of the vaccine programme, confidence will be streaming back. Now is the time for business to be secured and to provide certainty for the future.”
MEETINGS is New Zealand’s largest business events trade show and this year it includes a two-day programme, plus eight regional fam tours.
Business event organisers can attend MEETINGS in a number of different ways this year.
They can choose to be fully hosted for two days in Auckland, attend fully-hosted for a day, or visit for a few hours as a local day buyer. There will also be a virtual Hosted Buyer programme to ensure Australian and international buyers will be able to get in touch with New Zealand suppliers at MEETINGS 2021.
Pre-fams will take place from May 30 to June 1 in Auckland, Northland, Rotorua, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin-Central Otago. After MEETINGS, from June 4-6, hosted buyers can choose to visit either Waikato or Queenstown.
“Following the huge success of BE Reconnected, supporting the industry to connect consistently is vital. The interest we have for MEETINGS is really exciting. Some of the comments from Australian-based buyers are giving us insight into the pent-up demand for New Zealand, which is seen as a low-risk international destination,” Hopkins said.
Hosted buyer applications for MEETINGS 2021 close on April 9, and pre-scheduled appointment requests will begin online from April 19.
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