Avani Hotels & Resorts has made several senior appointments for its upcoming properties: FCC Angkor – Managed by Avani, opening in2Q2019; Avani Central Busan Hotel, opening mid-2019; and Avani Sukhumvit Bangkok, also scheduled to open mid-2019.
From left: Tyson Bae and Dennis Gordienko
Dennis Gordienko has been appointed general manager of FCC Angkor – Managed by Avani.
Gordienko joins Avani from Vistana Penang Bukit Jambul, Malaysia, where he held his first general manager role. The Ukrainian began his career in hospitality in 2008 as a restaurant manager for Copthorne Tara Hotel in London, before moving to his homeland to work with InterContinental Kyiv Hotel as deputy manager, and Riviera Boutique Hotel Kyiv and Fairmont Grand Hotel Kyiv as front office manager. In 2013, Gordienko joined Holiday Villa Bahrain where he led the pre-opening team as operations manager, before joining Onyx Hospitality Group as executive assistant manager leading the pre-opening of Amari Dhaka in Bangladesh. In 2015, he joined Anantara Hotels as cluster resident manager at Anantara Maldives.
In South Korea, Tyson Bae will helm Avani Central Busan Hotel, as well as the upcoming Avani Busan Resort opening in 2020, as cluster general manager.
Tyson brings with him two decades of hospitality experience, having started his career in Seoul before venturing to the US, Singapore, and China. He was also the chairman of rooms operations for the Shanghai Business Council, Marriott International; as well as board member of the Asia-Pacific Rooms Advisory Board for Marriott’s headquarters. In 2012, Tyson led the pre-opening of the Marriott Hotel Pudong East, Shanghai, as the director of rooms operations. He was then promoted to his first general manager role at Shanghai Marriott Hotel Hongqiao in 2014.
From left: Naowarat Arunkong and Ravi Ganglani
In Bangkok, Naowarat Arunkong has been appointed appointed cluster general manager of Avani Sukhumvit Bangkok, also overseeing Avani Khon Kaen Hotel & Convention Center.
Naowarat joined Minor Hotels in 1999 and worked at Bangkok Marriott until 2007, where she led the rooms division. She subsequently transferred to Hua Hin Marriott Resort & Spa and took on the roles of director of operations and hotel manager, which led to her promotion to her first general manager role at Hua Hin Marriott Resort & Spa in January 2011. Later that year, she moved to Anantara Hua Hin Resort in the same capacity. Naowarat then transferred to Bangkok in May 2013 to take the role of general manager at Anantara Sathorn Bangkok Hotel and Oaks Bangkok Sathorn. In 2016, she was appointed to the role of cluster general manager, overseeing Anantara Sathorn Bangkok Hotel, Oaks Bangkok Sathorn and Avani Khon Kaen Hotel & Convention Centre.
Ravi Ganglani has also joined Avani Sukhumvit Bangkok as director of sales and marketing. While this is his debut in the role, Ganglani is a familiar face at Minor Hotels, having started with the company in 2012 as cluster director of sales – MICE in Thailand, before being promoted to area director of sales – MICE across South-east Asia.
Tell me more about the work of the AIDS Society of India (ASI).
ASI is a national association of medical doctors and researchers who are engaged in HIV care and support. We have more than 650 members, 10 per cent of whom are researchers. We organise the annual National Conference of AIDS Society of India that is attended by 500 to 600 people – our members, as well as stakeholders such as government agents and representatives from pharmaceutical companies and donor agencies.
We also invest in continuing education. HIV is a vibrant field – many new treatments and medicine are coming up. We need to keep our members abreast of what’s happening globally.
Ishwar Gilada
The most important aspect of our work is advocacy. A lot of the available HIV medicines are too pricey for most patients from Asia and Africa, and some parts of Europe even.
Along with Indian pharmaceutical companies, we lobbied to (legally) violate patents. Our role as clinicians is for patients, not for patents. Indian generic pharmaceutical companies have been wonderful in this regard, as they have fought legal battles (to violate patents) that have been supported by the World Intellectual Property Organization, which also agrees that patients’ rights are more important than patents.
(Without patent restrictions) a three-in-one HIV combo medicine that costs US$10,492 per patient per year internationally is priced at only US$69 in India. Now, 92 per cent of the world’s HIV patients are taking India-made medicine. If India – and ASI – fought none of this battle, Africa’s HIV-positive community would have been finished.
How can patent violation be legal?
It is done through legal recourse in two ways: Compulsory License and Voluntary License.
Compulsory License is issued by governments under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Doha 2001 declaration when the innovator company is unable/unwilling to offer life-saving medicines at affordable costs. In this case, the copy maker pays five per cent of the trade cost to the innovator.
Voluntary License is issued by the innovator company to one or more generic manufacturer, free of charge, to prevent litigations, compulsory licensing, etc to protect their own markets in the innovator and patent-respecting countries.
Indian pharmaceutical companies have been able to make excellent copies of HIV medicine (using either Compulsory License or Voluntary License) that are sold in India, Asia or Africa.
The same is happening with medicine for Hepatitis C, a viral infection that is commonly spread among drug users. Medicine costs around US$1,000 per tablet, and patients need to take it across 84 days. That’s US$84,000 for a course of treatment. But innovator company Gilead issued Voluntary License to 11 Indian pharmaceutical companies to manufacture and sell these anti-HCV (Hepatitis C) medicines at just US$1,000, greatly expanding the medicine’s accessibility to patients. Isn’t it a great achievement?
ASI may be a small organisation, but we make huge changes in the world.
Now that ASI has succeeded in bringing down the cost of HIV medication, what’s next on your agenda for advocacy?
HIV patients face a three-way cost: medication, investigation and medical care. Investigation kits are made abroad. We are now asking Indian pharmaceutical companies to also produce test kits and machines, so that investigation costs will go down. Plus, being able to conduct tests in India cuts down on investigation time.
We are pushing for greater HIV care acumen, so that patients can also be treated by high quality caregivers.
Another important task is to make vaccines more affordable. There are some (HIV-related) infections and diseases that are vaccine-preventable, such as Hepatitis B. One Hepatitis B vaccine costs less that US$1 in India. In other countries, it can cost as much as US$100. By getting the production license of these vaccines as well, for production in India, we can help make them more affordable to patients in developing countries.
So your society isn’t just looking after the wellbeing of HIV/AIDs patients in India.
As medical people, we need to fight for anyone who cannot have easy access to medication and help. But you could say what we do is also for selfish reasons (laughs). If patients survive, we will survive. If everyone’s dead from HIV/AIDs, what use is there of us?
What other countries are benefitting from your advocacy work?
Most of Asia and Eastern Europe, as well as South America. North America and Western Europe can well afford the pricier medication.
Considering the work ASI does beyond India, is it affiliated with any global association?
There is an International AIDS Society (IAS). ASI was initially formed as an offshoot of that, with the aim of being affiliated at a later stage. We’re still unable to be affiliated, which limits our power.
What’s stopping ASI from being affiliated with IAS?
ASI restricts our membership to only doctors and researchers but IAS opens its membership to also social workers, sex workers, HIV-positive people – everybody. There’s no right or wrong membership structure. ASI has a more restricted membership because our focus is on education in HIV management and prevention.
To be affiliated with IAS would possibly require us to expand our membership, something we are not yet ready to do. But we are looking at other ways to work with IAS.
(Editor’s update: Following the interview in late-September 2018, Gilada was elected to the IAS Governing Council for Asia and the Pacific Islands in October 2018, a seat he will hold for four years.)
You mentioned that ASI alone has limited power. Is your society then working with other organisations to expand its ability to effect changes?
Yes. One example is our work with APACC (Asia Pacific AIDS & Co-infections Conference) which held its third edition in Hong Kong (June 2018). Wherever opportunities for collaboration emerges in Asia, we are interested. Asia makes up 60 per cent of the world’s population, but the region is not significantly united (in terms of HIV work). As such, Asia’s role in HIV specialisation isn’t sufficiently regarded. We need to do more to make our voices heard on the global stage.
I think Asian HIV specialists can build a more prominent presence in the global space if related associations here could come together to bring more global HIV/AIDs conferences to this region.
I agree, and Asia is more than ready to play host. Having attended so many conferences around the world, I can tell you that Asian destinations make the best host. I’ve attended international conferences in the West where I paid US$1,000 in registration fees and was not given even a bottle of water. Attendees had to buy a drink and pay for every single thing. There was no welcome reception, no lunch, no dinner functions. In contrast, at any conference hosted in Asia, attendees can expect three coffee breaks a day at least!
Such hospitality is important because who wants the trouble of stepping away from the sessions just to hunt down a cup of coffee or a quick bite?
Let’s talk more about the National Conference of AIDS Society of India. Does it rotate across India?
They are mostly held in the South, such as Bangalore and Hyderabad. Editions held in the North saw weaker attendance. Two-thirds of India’s HIV cases are in the South, so naturally there is a larger population of doctors and researchers based there. Pharmaceutical companies also have more intensive marketing in the South. It makes better sense to keep our conferences in the South.
Is attendance growing?
Not much because HIV cases aren’t rising in India due to improved access to quality treatment, as well as greater knowledge among the people about the virus and its prevention.
Does ASI conduct public seminars?
Earlier, yes, in a big way. Over the past eight years or so, education campaigns have gone down (in frequency) because the government’s focus has shifted to providing treatment.
But ASI has been telling the government that doing so would push HIV rates up again. Education on HIV awareness and prevention must continue, especially among the younger generation.
What are the professional challenges faced by HIV/AIDS specialists, and how is ASI helping to address these?
One of the challenges is fear. First, the fear of being infected in the course of our work. While that fear is natural, it is also wrong. I’ve been practicing for the last three decades and I’m not infected. With sufficient knowledge of how infection occurs, one can take steps to avoid it – so education plays a part.
Second, the fear of losing patients. There was a time, in the 1990s to 2000, when many of our patients died. Back in those dark days, only two per cent of patients in India could afford medicine. The deep emotional impact of that caused doctors to get burnt out very quickly and slip into depression.
But once ASI was able to push for patent violation and have medicine made cheaply in India, access to medicine improved vastly, and things got a lot better for patients, doctors and caregivers.
The second major challenge is the sustainability of this profession. If one day HIV is completely controlled, medical experts in this field will have nothing left to do. So, we’ve been asking the government to move away from vertical (academic) programmes on HIV and related infections and diseases, and instead combine them to create a specialised field in anti-viral that covers Hepatitis A, B and C, or HIV and tuberculosis. HIV and tuberculosis are two separate verticals but commonly occurring together because of reduced immunity.
By combining related verticals, future medical specialists will become infectious disease specialists and not just an HIV specialist.
My daughter, for example, has taken this route herself. As an infectious disease specialist, she is able to tackle many different infections not limited to HIV.
How soon will this change be reflected in university courses?
The actual change in academic courses will take a longer time because curriculum is determined by many regulators like the Medical Council of India, the government, state government and college’s own academic authorities. This change could take years, or decades even.
That is why ASI’s education services are important. We can develop programmes to train HIV specialists and broaden their scope of knowledge now. We give participants certificates and points for completing courses with us.
ASI must have a direct line of communication with the government in order to achieve many of its goals. How is this achieved?
Whenever we have a conference, we include an interactive session with the government. We invite government officials, as well as representatives from international HIV/AIDs organisations, for open discussions. In reciprocation, ASI is called into government-led consultation sessions. Increasingly we are seeing more of our expert members being involved in government processes. We even have a WhatsApp group chat comprising government officials and ASI members!
A younger Gilada, wearing a garland of condoms, addressed sex workers in Mumbai’s infamous red-light district Kamathipura on the use of protection
A personality in India’s war against HIV/AIDS
Ishwar Gilada was the first person to raise the alarm against AIDS in India (1985). He started India’s first AIDS Clinic (1986) at the government-run JJ Hospital, Mumbai. Today, he is a globally acclaimed HIV expert, credited with bringing India onto the AIDS control map of the world. He is presently the president of the AIDS Society of India, secretary general of the Peoples Health Organisation India, and elected member of the IAS Governing Council for Asia and the Pacific Islands.
He has a sub-specialisation in Skin and STDs.
He has initiated, supervised and evaluated 38 AIDS projects in seven Indian states; worked as a consultant for the American Foundation for AIDS Research, World Vision International, USAID; and evaluated Zambia’s National STD/AIDS Control programme.
He has addressed over 3,700 meetings and training programmes in India and high HIV burdened African nations.
His work has earned him 70 awards to-date. Notable awards include The Junior Chamber International, USA’s Outstanding Young Person of the World (1995) and the Annemarie Madison International Award (1999) which came along with a recognition for being “the Indian Machine gun against AIDS”.
This article was first published in TTGassociation April 2019, a sister publication of TTGmice
Event brief
Organiser SingEx Exhibitions and international partner Deutsche Messe decided against replicating the world-renowned Hannover Messe as an Asian edition. Instead, they chose to focus on specific applications and opportunities for Asia-Pacific businesses to start, scale and sustain their industrial transformation journey.
The event covered sectors such as aerospace, automotive, biomedical sciences, chemicals, consumer goods manufacturing, electronics, marine and offshore, oil and gas, and precision engineering.
The aim was to create a strategic platform that could evolve with these industries, shaped by current leaders and experts, yet encouraging newcomers as well. Companies could exchange best practices and forge new partnerships to tap on the region’s growth.
Challenges
Starting a new tradeshow isn’t easy, let alone running it well to satisfy partners, exhibitors and attendees. From stimulating awareness and interest among companies to participate, the organising team then had to market the event, and draw buyers and visitors to the exhibition and simultaneous conference.
“We recognised the strategic importance of the event in spearheading economic progress and also synergies that can be drawn through community collaboration,” said James Boey, executive director, SingEx Exhibitions.
“However, companies would also have to recognise that transforming an organisation requires a mindset shift among leaders and staff alike. It is Workforce 4.0 who are crucial to the success of Industry 4.0.”
Another challenge was to maximise exposure for exhibitors while enabling buyers and visitors to cover the two halls (20,000m2) efficiently. A further consideration was to live up to the event’s name by using innovative technologies and creating multi-faceted, seamless touch points for attendees.
Solution
SingEx set about engaging governments and the business community. For a solid foundation, it first tapped Singapore government agencies to form the steering committee. An international advisory committee was also formed, comprising leading MNCs from the European Union and Japan with strong presence in Singapore, and trade associations.
The show featured five country pavilions. Many advisory committee members became partners with prominent stands.
While transformational roadmaps are important, in reality, players are of different sizes and at varying stages of adoption.
“We developed a unique ‘Learning Journey’ to help attendees navigate the event and maximise their return on engagement and learning,” Boey explained.
Beginners, early adopters and trailblazers were channelled to well-laid-out exhibition sections and sessions, which included two learning labs, two ‘sandboxes’ and a novel interchange booth – a SingEx knowledge-exchange platform to facilitate offline to online engagement among exhibitors and attendees. On the sidelines were a plenary hall and two ‘theatres’.
Some 2,400 visitors registered for 110 guided tours over three days.
“ITAP 2018 was well-represented by professionals from a wide spectrum of industrial sectors who shared their valuable knowledge and skills with over 15,000 global attendees,” noted Boey.
Founding partner Siemens’ big islands, for instance, stood out in the industrial automation and digital factory sections. Siemens had a separate registration desk in the foyer for invited visitors and conducted special tours of its pavilions.
For sustenance, Rasel Catering offered international F&B with local elements, such as curry puffs, laksa and chicken rice. It also introduced new technology – the ‘IBOX’, an innovative way to reduce queues and waiting time. People could use a tablet or download the app to order food in advance and collect at scheduled times.
Six food kiosks also drew a steady stream of people throughout the day, as did the casual dining area with complimentary refreshments for VIPs, speakers, conference delegates and media.
Key takeaways
ITAP 2018 was one year in the making. With strong public and private sector support, and creative planning and design, it drew a good turnout. It showed the business of Industry 4.0, not just gadgets or slick presentations.
Post-exhibition, several exhibitors hosted technical visits to demonstrate various advanced manufacturing facilities and innovation centres.
Event: Industrial Transformation Asia-Pacific Organiser: SingEx Exhibitions, with international partner Deutsche Messe Venue: Singapore EXPO Halls 1 and 2 Date: October 16-18, 2018 Number of participants: 15,000 from 55 countries
Onyx Hospitality Group has appointed Paul Halford as general manager of the soon-to-open OZO Phuket at Kata Beach.
Halford joins Onyx with close to 20 years of hospitality industry experience at hotels and resorts in Australia, Vanuatu, Fiji and Thailand, including a 10-year tenure across multiple Radisson Hotel Group locations. Most recently, he was general manager of Park Plaza Bangkok Soi 18.
In his current role, Halford will lead the pre-opening and positioning of the brand-new Ozo in Phuket, scheduled to open in June 2019; the family-oriented resort will feature 255 rooms and suites.
A rendering of the upcoming Sabah International Convention Centre
A reliable source within the Sabah Convention Bureau is correcting the misconception that the formation of the body has been terminated by the Sabah State Government, stating that the process has instead only been put on hold.
Since its inception in January 2018 until January this year, the source described the bureau as being “in-transition” while waiting for its endorsement from the state government.
A rendering of the upcoming Sabah International Convention Centre
It is understood that staff from Sabah Tourism Board’s MICE unit who were seconded to the future bureau have temporarily returned to the parent. They report to Noredah Othman, acting general manager at Sabah Tourism Board.
The MICE unit supports business events related educational programmes for the travel trade and attends related overseas tradeshows organised by the Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau.
With limited budget allocated by Sabah Tourism Board, the MICE unit cannot perform the traditional roles of a convention centre, such as fully supporting business events held in Sabah, actively bidding for international business events or marketing the destination overseas.
Malaysia’s travel trade is unanimous in their belief that a dedicated state-based convention bureau that actively went out, marketed the destination, and bid for international events, was the way forward for Sabah.
KL Tan, president of the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents, stressed: “It is imperative that the government set up a dedicated convention bureau to further tap the large potential of the business events segment and to go out and market and bid for major events.
“Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau (PCEB) which reports directly to the chief minister of Penang, has helped the business events sector in Penang grow from strength to strength, and the state has experienced a 62 per cent growth over three years in business events, with an estimated economic impact of RM808 million (US$194 million) reported for 2016, compared with RM1.3 billion for 2018,” Tan added.
“Having a state convention bureau in Sabah will realise the potential that Sabah has and will help the business events sector grow as well.”
Mike Cannon, managing director, Business Events – Asia Pacific and former managing director of Sarawak Convention Bureau, believes that the “government should own and fund the convention bureau”.
He added: “If a government is honest about addressing the three basic necessities for society, i.e. health, education and security, then meetings are the answer. Sarawak’s leadership understood the need, and back in 2006 created a convention bureau and convention centre, as well as a government-funded sponsorship so as to attract a multitude of business events that (help bring about) benefits to society.”
Also pushing for the formation of the Sabah Convention Bureau is Gracie V Geikie, director of Place Borneo (Sabah), a PCO with business locations in Kuching and Kuala Lumpur.
She opined: “Sabah has all the dynamics in attracting high-yield and mega conventions as it has the infrastructure to support these. The soon-to-open state-of-the-art Sabah International Convention Centre speaks volumes on why a convention bureau is much needed to steer Sabah, especially Kota Kinabalu, as the next big destination for business events.”
Interest in second-tier destinations like Yogyakarta (pictured) are on the rise
Diverse experiences and affordable ground services are endearing Indonesia’s Yogyakarta to business event planners, say destination specialists at last week’s Indonesia International Mice Expo (IIME) in Jakarta.
Rudy Po, president and director of Cosmo Holidays Indonesia, has recorded greater demand for Yogyakarta over the last two years, some from repeat clients and others from new groups that desire fresh experiences.
Interest in second-tier destinations like Yogyakarta (pictured) are on the rise
Po elaborated: “Yogyakarta appeals to corporates because of its cultural attractions and experiential tourism, such as taking part in a batik workshop or temple hopping.”
Shaharin Bin Samsuri, manager of KAA Travel & Tours, Malaysia reported similar booking patterns. He shared: “Corporates in Malaysia are no longer looking at Bali or Jakarta because they have become too touristy. They are more interested in Indonesia’s second-tier destinations, such as Yogyakarta and Surabaya.”
Shaharin added: “Surabaya is more popular, but since Yogyakarta is cheaper we see more corporates choosing Yogyakarta for incentive programmes.”
This growing demand has prompted KAA Travel & Tours to develop more Yogyakarta packages, offering clients the opportunity to team-build in Prambanan’s backyard or have dinner on Prambanan temple grounds followed by a Ramayana dance performance.
For Indonesian corporate buyer Aphul Juliawan, general affair manager of Isna Agung Mandiri, Yogyakarta is an ideal destination thanks to its diverse tours and activities and accessibility by airplane, train and bus.
“For Indonesian corporates, train is the best option at the moment because airfares are so expensive,” he explained, adding that corporates are now tightening spend.
Aphul shared that his company is planning to two incentive trips to Yogyakarta and one trip to Semarang this year. “Overall, the total (ground) cost of Yogyakarta and Semarang are similar. But Yogyakarta is more charming, so when we announced that the company will be making a trip to Yogyakarta, our employees were excited,” he said.
A ‘360-degree’ tagline took centre stage at Korea Tourism Organization’s (KTO) MICE roadshow in Singapore last Friday, as the tourism body hopes to convince local planners of the destination’s year-round appeal for event attendees of all ages and interest.
Explaining the motivation, KTO’s director Yoon Seung Hwan, said activities at the destination are “not limited to just kimchi making, K-pop or Kdrama”.
Meeting with tourism suppliers at the KTO roadshow
Yoon said: “South Korea is an interesting destination with many hidden gems. There are programmes and places that travellers do not know of. We also wanted to emphasise that even local experiences such as harvesting seasonal fruits and sampling seasonal food can create interesting team-bonding opportunities.”
He added that in addition to South Korea’s diverse calendar of festivals which corporate groups can partake in, there was always a constant stream of new and unique venues to keep participants entertained.
“The Singapore MICE market is sophisticated and planners want something new in South Korea for their clients. We have to invest greater effort in identifying, and promoting new and trendy experiences and venues to planners here,” he said.
The 360-degree destination appeal would also help to maintain the high level of interest event planners and attendees have in Pyeongchang county and Gangwon province, where the 2018 Winter Olympics was held.
Yoon said the Games had brought heightened media and traveller attention to Pyeongchang, Gangwon and South Korea in general, and much of the interest was centred on the ski resorts in Gangwon.
Besides promoting the corporate event capability at ski resorts in Gangwon, the Singapore roadshow also drew attention to the province’s seasonal delights.
“We are collaborating with Gangwon to promote its attractiveness throughout the four seasons. Travellers can enjoy cherry blossoms in spring, fun at the water park in summer, autumn foliage along the mountainous areas in autumn, and snow in winter,” said Yoon.
Eventbrite, a global ticketing and event technology platform that powers millions of events, has added Hong Kong to its global presence and brought with it a raft of new features designed to empower local event creators.
The localised platform at eventbrite.hk will be one of the first in Asia to benefit from Eventbrite’s Publish To Facebook feature – an integration allowing event-goers to purchase tickets directly through Facebook – alongside payment processing in Hong Kong dollars, curated local content and seamless native checkout.
A screenshot from the localised Hong Kong website
The company’s launch in Hong Kong is further bolstered by a landmark partnership between Eventbrite and Louis Vuitton Hong Kong, which saw Eventbrite power ticket sales for Louis Vuitton’s recent Objets Nomades showcase at Tai Kwun.
The launch of a localised platform in Hong Kong is the latest move in Eventbrite’s Asian expansion, following the company’s debut in Singapore in February.
In a press statement, Eventbrite reported that more than 2.2 million tickets have been processed in Hong Kong since the platform’s inception. The company has observed strong organic growth in health and wellness, food and wine, and music events in Hong Kong, and a generally growing local events industry that is supported by a committed community of event creators.
Eventbrite believes that its opportunity in Hong Kong is fuelled by the city’s growing appetite for live experiences. Research released by Eventbrite in conjunction with Ipsos reveals 84 per cent of Hongkongers attended an event in the past 12 months; with over one-third (37 per cent) of respondents stating they intend to increase the number of events they attend in the next year.
On May 9, the Singapore Tourism Awards 2019 dished out two unique awards and six best-in-class awards to business events specialists, among other top contributors to Singapore’s tourism industry.
Southeast Asia’s largest and most established food and hospitality MICE event, Food&HotelAsia (FHA) by UBM Singapore, was awarded a Special Recognition award for strengthening Singapore’s position as a global business hub and marketplace. In 2018, Singapore hosted FHA’s largest event ever, with over 80,000 participants from 105 countries.
Amy Lim (left) took home the Best Business Event Champion award
Amy Lim, director of events, Asia Pacific at Herbalife Nutrition, was commended as the Best Business Event Champion under the Experience Excellence (MICE) award for her strong advocacy of Singapore as a MICE destination. She played a vital role in anchoring Herbalife Honors 2019, as well as Herbalife South East Asia Extravaganza which has been held in Singapore five times over the past decade with over 10,000 attendees each time.
Ace:Daytons Direct (International), Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists & Obstetrical & Gynaecological Society of Singapore collectively took home the Best Association Conference Organiser for their RCOG World Congress 2018.
Resorts World Sentosa won the Best Meetings/Incentives Organiser award for its delivery of Amway India Incentive Movement.
Singapore EXPO and MAX Atria was handed the Best Business Event Venue Experience for its Singapore FinTech Festival 2018.
The Best Business Event Service Provider award went to Jublia for its handling of the World Cities Summit 2018.
SingEx Exhibitions bagged two awards
SingEx Exhibitions scored two trophies – the Best Exhibition Organiser with partner Deutsche Messe for their Industrial Transformation ASIA-PACIFIC 2018, and Best Trade Conference Organiser with Monetary Authority of Singapore and The Association of Banks in Singapore for their Singapore FinTech Festival 2018.
Brisbane Marriott Hotel, which turns 21 this year, has emerged from an A$20 million (US$14 million) revitalisation that saw an extensive redesign of its 267 guestrooms and suites, Executive Lounge, two floors of event space and its signature restaurant.
The works took place alongside the revitalisation of the hotel’s neighbouring Riverside Precinct.
Guestroom
Malaysian-based company Duoz Design incorporated the hotel’s unique natural and historic surroundings into the new design, and used ambient lighting that are reminiscent of a balmy Brisbane evening, as well as neutral tones that recall the surrounding nature.
Guestrooms have also been fitted with the latest technology, including ASSO ABLOY Orion system, which controls each room’s lighting and air conditioning. This advanced technology also enables front desk staff to adjust lighting and air conditioning upon guest check-in to ensure a welcoming first impression.
The hotel’s signature restaurant, Motion Dining, has been redesigned to include an array of dining offerings and experiences. Diners can be seated at tables overlooking the Grill, sit at high tables at the M bar, or enjoy alfresco dining overlooking the river on MDeck.
Event planners will appreciate the hotel’s selection of 12 flexible spaces divided across two floors, which comes supported by an expert event team.
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.
