Event brief
The annual Philips Asia Pacific Customer Event is targeted at customers and business partners from South-east Asia and Asia-Pacific. It is usually held overseas and for the first time, the 2017 event was staged in Singapore at the Philips APAC Center.

The theme of the event was Made to Perform, based on the concept of healthy living through sustained performance. Every touchpoint of the event would have to allow attendees to experience sustainability “live”.

The client also wanted a paperless event with no disposables, to recycle and to reuse; and to convey an impactful tone-of-voice.

The event was held on April 10 and 11, with the first day focusing on Health of the Body, and the second on Health of the Mind.

Challenges
A major challenge was how to conceptualise the event. Daniel Tay, director, corporate meetings & events with Destination Asia Singapore, said: “An immense amount of time was spent on this and how to conceptualise the event theme Made to Perform, which also revolved around sustainability.

“We had to abandon traditional ways of organising events, like not printing large amounts of collaterals, and had to intensify our brainstorming to come up with new ideas to reduce, reuse and recycle.”

Another challenge was to convert the Philips APAC Center into an event space. He explained: “Due to major space constraints, we had to make sure the selected breakout rooms were appropriate and large enough to accommodate the carousel groups which were divided into nine groups.”

The DMC also had to convert the office space of Philips APAC Center into an event venue in four days.

Solution
The DMC used digital LED walls, developed an event mobile app, and utilised recycled pallets to display the products and biodegradable corn ware disposable tableware during meals.

The event app developed covered important information such as the event schedule, health analysis (tracking of steps taken daily) and useful contacts. It consisted of a photo gallery and attendees were encouraged to take photos throughout the event and to upload them. This allowed the attendees to engage and communicate both effectively and efficiently. At the same time, it acted as a sustainability initiative of going paperless.

Key takeaways
Philips has worked with Destination Asia for the last five years and in the fast-paced world of retail marketing and sales, new product releases containing innovations and value improvement are key to success.

This often means that new products are released at the very last moment and are only available to be showcased days, sometimes hours, before an event. This creates the need for the DMC to be very flexible as key information is often only known the day before the event, requiring additional showcase design and build.

For the 2017 event, the DMC had to work with one hotel, five venues and the customer’s own regional headquarters. This required good teamwork and coordination among a broad range of individuals at Destination Asia.

Tay commented; “One of the key takeaways from the event was our ability to come together as a team, which consisted of internal and external staff, to deliver the event successfully within the tight time frame.

“Each and every individual team member was important as we had our own specific roles to play.  We were pleased that we managed to deliver our very best and live up to our logo tagline to “exceed expectations.”

Event: Philips Asia Pacific Customer Event 2017
Organiser: Destination Asia Singapore
Venue: Philips APAC Center, Singapore
Date: April 10 to 11, 2017
Number of participants: 386
Challenges: A need to bring the client’s concept, Made to Perform, to live through multiple touchpoints; a sustainable living experience must be conveyed throughout the event; major space constraints at chosen venue