Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC) has held its first event since reopening earlier this month, one of the first venues in Australia to reopen since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Centre played host to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) Queensland State of the State Lunch on Thursday, with Queensland Premier and minister for trade, Annastacia Palaszczuk, the keynote speaker.
The socially-distanced event was also live-streamed
Event attendance was capped at 260 attendees and took place in the Centre’s refurbished Plaza Ballroom, adhering to social distancing regulations. There was an interactive livestream of the event to a virtual audience of 1,500.
BCEC has 140 event bookings through to the end of the year with a number of conferences and exhibitions on the agenda, as well as local events including corporate meetings. BCEC is working closely with clients to successfully deliver these events according to Covid Safe guidelines.
Corporate clients and partners with Avis get to double their Asia Miles and receive discounts off car rentals
Avis has partnered with Asia Miles on its newly-launched Asia Miles for Business, which provides special offers and discounts for its corporate clients and partners.
The partnership means that Avis’ corporate clients and partners worldwide can earn 500 miles per qualifying rental and an additional 500 miles when they use a dedicated Avis Worldwide Discount (AWD) number and business email address on their booking. Corporate clients and partners can also enjoy up to 10 per cent discount on Avis regular retail rates.
Corporate clients get to double their Asia Miles and receive discounts off rentals
Asia Miles for Business is a new business-to-business initiative launched by Asia Miles, a travel and lifestyle rewards programme in Asia. In addition, the car rental company is one of Asia Miles’ first partners to reward corporate clients and partners through this programme.
Avis has also reiterated its commitment to provide a safe, clean and convenient transport solution, where measures under its safety initiative, the Avis Safety Pledge, have been implemented across its rental stations.
This means enhanced vehicle cleaning protocols, with special attention paid to high-touch point surfaces such as steering wheels, indicators, dashboards, hand grips, in-car entertainment controls, cup holders, centre consoles, and door handles. The Avis Safety Pledge also allows customers to pick up and drop off vehicles with minimal contact during both delivery and collection of cars.
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) has opened its latest property within the Raffles City complex in Chongqing’s Chao Tian Men Square, China.
InterContinental Chongqing Raffles City
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There are 2,000m2 of meetings and events spaces available, which includes two pillarless ballrooms of 1,250m2 and 450m2 with ceiling heights of up to 7.6 metres.
The 380 rooms are spread across the 44th to 65th floors, while facilities such as the 25m-long infinity pool and fitness centre are located on the 43rd floor. F&B options include Jing Dining Room & Bar which serves a blend of Cantonese cuisine and Chonqing’s local specialities, as well as lounges The Maven, and Horizon.
As the hotel occupies the top floors of one of the complex’s eight towers, as well as part of The Crystal – a skybridge 300 metres in length, connecting the top of four skyscrapers on the 42nd floor – guests will be able to access the fully-glazed observation deck for views beyond.
Hybrid or virtual events are the new normal, but experts caution that organising an online event is very different from a virtual one, with more to consider
An ongoing Global Recovery Project research conducted by Explori, UFI and the Society for Independent Show Organizers has found an overwhelming preference for face-to-face events, with opportunities for networking regarded as being the strongest advantage of such business gatherings.
More than half of 9,000 respondents have experienced an online-only event, and the majority prefer meeting face-to-face
The study, which drew more than 9,000 responses from 30 countries, noted that around half of respondents have now experienced an online-only event in some format, with two thirds of exhibitors having spoken at a third-party event, or run their own online event.
As of early August, only 13 per cent of exhibitors had paid to sponsor a third-party online event.
Both visitors and exhibitors rate live events more highly across almost all aspects. Networking is seen as a particular strength of live events, with 77 per cent of exhibitors and 83 per cent of visitors stating that face-to-face events were much better than online in this respect.
However, visitors recognise that online-only events offer a reduced cost of attending and are beginning to compete with face-to-face events in the quality of the content they can offer.
In fact, 52 per cent of visitors felt online-only events were as good as, if not better than live events in their content offering.
Respondents were more likely to attend a new event remotely compared to a familiar one, and 79 per cent showed some some interest in attending a hybrid event as an online-only delegate.
“This global survey delivers key insights to organisers as they plan ahead. It underlines the clear preference that people want to meet in person to do business. At the same time, it gives a clear roadmap for areas where digital events need to evolve to become a permanent fixture in a hybrid future for the business events industry,” said Kai Hattendorf, UFI CEO.
Sophie Holt, global strategy director with Explori, added: “Online and hybrid seem to have a complimentary role to play alongside live events. Not only will they give reassurance to visitors who are concerned about safety in the short term, but still want to connect with their community, but they may also have an important role to play in bringing new audiences to established events.
“This could form part of the customer journey, with online-only events acting as qualification and conversion tools for a flagship live event, or giving sponsors access to a totally new audience whose needs are better met by the virtual setting.”
Global Recovery Project research work will continue, with a further study in the near future to understand the sentiments of visitors and exhibitors, including their views on different aspects of the digital event formats.
Airlines are resuming some flights in the region but these are not enough to lift the beleaguered travel and tourism industry out of the woods, opine Subhas Menon, director general of Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines.
In this debut episode of TTG Conversations: Five questions video series, Subhas talks about how the resumption of flights will look in the near future, progress on the airline industry’s advocacy for evidence-based health and safety measures to support travel resumption, and why travel bubbles are so difficult to establish.
Langham Hospitality Group has appointed Bob van den Oord as COO, a newly created position to support the company’s hotel operations and core business functions that are spread over four continents. He will report directly to CEO Stefan Leser.
In his new role, van den Oord will oversee the regional vice presidents, hotel managing directors and general managers of the group’s properties in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.
At the corporate level, he will steer the food and beverage, spa, rooms and quality divisions to ensure that the hotels around the world meet or exceed operational, guest service, strategic, branding and fiscal plans, while maintaining the highest standards of regulatory compliance.
Van den Oord brings over two decades of experience to his new role based at the corporate office in Hong Kong. He was most recently managing director at The Langham, London as well as regional vice president, operations (Europe, Middle East and the US.)
Prior to his tenure in London, he was managing director at The Langham, Hong Kong. During that time, van den Oord also concurrently took on the corporate role as vice president, brands at Langham Hospitality Group and played an integral part in shaping the brand guidelines for both The Langham Hotels and Resorts and Cordis Hotels and Resorts.
He first joined the group in 1999 as resident manager of Le Meridien Boston (now The Langham, Boston.)
Suntec Singapore cuts 85 jobs as Covid-19 takes toll on MICE industry
Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre is laying off 85 employees, almost half of its workforce, according to Today.
The retrenched staff comprise 60 locals and 25 foreigners from all departments. Following this cut, its staff strength now stands at 89 locals and four foreigners.
Suntec Singapore cuts jobs as Covid-19 takes its toll on the local MICE industry
As events have been suspended since April, the company has deployed cost control measures such as hiring freezes and pay cuts. However, the retrenchment exercise had to be done to the severe impact Covid-19 has had on Singapore’s MICE industry. Moreover, it is still unknown when the situation will improve.
Affected and eligible employees will be receiving a month’s salary for every year of service as severance payment. Eligible staff will also be paid their pro-rated Annual Wage Supplement for the year and be allowed to encash their remaining annual leave entitlements.
All affected staff will also be allowed to use their entire notice period to attend job fairs, interviews and trainings.
Several European carriers have restarted and are restarting flights to Shanghai (pictured) and Beijing
Business event companies in China are optimistic the resumption of new visa applications for European citizens, suspended since March 28 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, bodes well for the return of international travellers soon.
In early August, China announced eligible foreign nationals from 36 European countries can apply for free new Chinese visas without having to submit an invitation letter.
Several European carriers have restarted and are restarting flights to Shanghai (pictured) and Beijing
Meanwhile, European and Chinese carriers are expanding services. Air France is planning to restart flights to Beijing, having relaunched twice-weekly services to Shanghai in June; Air China has resumed direct flights from Chengdu to Frankfurt; while Lufthansa is looking to operate some flights from Shanghai and Nanjing to Frankfurt and Zurich in September.
China and the EU have also been stepping up economic and trade ties in recent weeks.
Violet Wang, China head at Pacific World, commented the improvements in visa applications for Europeans is “definitely warming up the market”, even though there is no direct gain for business now as air capacity is still limited and there are 14-day quarantine measures are in place.
Wang said: “But the (resumption of visa applications for European citizens) is helping companies to make strategic decisions about launching international events in 4Q2020,” nothing that shows like CIIE (China International Import Expo) 2020, taking place in Shanghai from November 5-19, is on track.
Also eyeing a return of international travellers and new markets, Sarah Keenlyside, CEO and founder, Bespoke Travel Company, plans to include Europe in its incentive travel marketing plans.
Keenlyside explained: “Previously, we received a lot of American business, so we focused the majority of our marketing efforts on that region. We now plan to shift that focus to Europe and other Asian countries.”
“I think the (resumption of visa applications for European citizens) is a good sign,” declared Alicia Yao, general manager of IM&E Consulting, adding that the seven-day validity of Covid-19-free tests imposed by China would allow international meeting groups of 300 to 1,000 delegates to return by end-2020 or early 2012.
Yao shared that numbers from Spain and Germany are coming back and there is business travel demand from Austria, Hungary and Greece.
“What is most important is for DMCs to implement an SOP that ensures hygiene safety to prevent virus infection throughout the journey and for participants to keep good social distancing during teambuilding activities,” she noted.
A series of short videos on demand fronted by key industry leaders will kick off in September, with conversations centred on current issues impacting travel, tourism and business events industry stakeholders.
Guest speakers for the September season include (from left) Subhas Menon, Carl Jones, Fransiska Handoko and Robert Hecker
The debuting September season of TTG Conversations: Five Questions video series will feature guest speakers such as Subhas Menon, director general, Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines; Carl Jones, vice president and head of travel, Asia Pacific and Greater China, SAP Concur; Fransiska Handoko, director, government and organisation relations, Bali Hotels Association; and Robert Hecker, managing director, Pacific Asia, Horwath HTL.
Each episode will run for 15 to 20 minutes, with the guest speaker tackling five questions that will allow a concise insight into a specific topic.
TTG Conversations: Five Questions content will be circulated to TTG Asia Media’s global audience via the weekly TTG Asia e-Daily and biweekly TTGmice e-News, and hosted on TTG Asia Media’s YouTube page.
Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia, Nancy Shukri giving her welcome address at Malaysia Business Events Week
The corporate sector in Malaysia has been urged to play a bigger role to support the local business events industry by organising incentive trips, conferences, meetings and exhibitions domestically.
Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) CEO Abdul Khani Daud said he has been encouraging the business events sector to start thinking more creatively to help stimulate the economy.
Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia, Nancy Shukri giving her welcome address at Malaysia Business Events Week
For example, Abdul Khani said a small board of directors meeting can be held in a green setting such as the Belum Rainforest, instead of a boardroom in the city.
Currently, MyCEB is researching, developing and identifying such niche products and unique venues that are suitable for business events.
In addition, MyCEB plans to organise roadshows to the country’s major MICE destinations – Penang, Selangor, Melaka, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak in coming months.
Recently, the first business exchange session was organised in Kuala Lumpur in conjunction with MyCEB’s annual flagship event, Malaysia Business Events Week. This sixth edition incorporated a B2B trade component for the first time.
Abdul Khani has also been encouraging venues to invest in upgrading their technology, as technology will drive the business events industry forward.
When asked how large-scale events might take place in the future, he envisioned: “Take for example a hybrid meeting for 5,000 participants. Two thousand of them could be in Kuala Lumpur, another 1,000 in Penang, 1,000 in Sabah and 1,000 in Sarawak. After the conference, they could go for post tours and enjoy themselves in their chosen destination.”
Abdul Khani also plans to revamp MyCEB’s website to make it a user-friendly, one-stop information centre on business events-related matters in the country, which includes information on various MICE venues.
MyCEB will also assist and support potential homegrown events so that such they can grow in size and stature and pull in an international audience when the situation improves.
The newly-opened Ritz-Carlton, Bangkok anchors the One Bangkok development with cosmopolitan elegance. Featuring the city's largest ballroom and a spectacular new penthouse suite, it delivers exceptional hardware and deeply authentic, soulful service for business and leisure travellers alike
Behind the imposing, Brutalist concrete that defines Zurich’s Oerlikon district lies a surprising secret. While its exterior honours the neighbourhood’s industrial roots, stepping inside Mama Shelter reveals a vibrant, neon-soaked world that is a far cry from its rigid shell
A polished urban retreat designed for business travellers, Hyatt Regency Kuala Lumpur at KL Midtown combines thoughtful design, seamless service, and exceptional facilities.
Langham Hospitality Group has appointed Bob van den Oord as COO, a newly created position to support the company’s hotel operations and core business functions that are spread over four continents. He will report directly to CEO Stefan Leser.
In his new role, van den Oord will oversee the regional vice presidents, hotel managing directors and general managers of the group’s properties in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.
At the corporate level, he will steer the food and beverage, spa, rooms and quality divisions to ensure that the hotels around the world meet or exceed operational, guest service, strategic, branding and fiscal plans, while maintaining the highest standards of regulatory compliance.
Van den Oord brings over two decades of experience to his new role based at the corporate office in Hong Kong. He was most recently managing director at The Langham, London as well as regional vice president, operations (Europe, Middle East and the US.)
Prior to his tenure in London, he was managing director at The Langham, Hong Kong. During that time, van den Oord also concurrently took on the corporate role as vice president, brands at Langham Hospitality Group and played an integral part in shaping the brand guidelines for both The Langham Hotels and Resorts and Cordis Hotels and Resorts.
He first joined the group in 1999 as resident manager of Le Meridien Boston (now The Langham, Boston.)