Encouraged by “remarkable growth and potential” in its business events performance, second-tier Chinese city Hangzhou is furthering its steps onto the global business events stage by launching business events training for local practitioners and a service centre to gun for hosting rights of international meetings.
The new MICE Talent Program brings experienced PCOs from abroad and across China to Hangzhou where they provided special training for the city’s business events stakeholders in a bid to raise their level of professionalism to global standards. This in turn will encourage leading conference organisers to host their events in Hangzhou.
Hangzhou finds its footing on the global MICE stage
In June, Hangzhou city government also established the Hangzhou International Meeting Bidding Service Center, an organisation that partners local companies, organisations and convention ambassadors to provide bidding services for international association conferences and other meetings.
In addition, the city is also doing more to get target planners to experience the best of Hangzhou.
The recently-concluded Hangzhou, Inspiring New Connections event brought international PCOs to the city where they participated in a programme comprising interactive experiences and site visits suitable for business events. Some of the activities included visits to the China National Silk Museum, cruises on West Lake, tea-picking in Longjing Village and yacht racing.
At the end of the event, a banquet and sharing session was held at Hangzhou International Expo Center, the main venue of the G20 summit.
The Hangzhou Tourism Commission also ran a parallel event in Paris, France, where two pop-up venues were set up to give European-based conference organisers a chance to experience the Chinese city without leaving the continent.
The 28th annual TTG Travel Awards 2017 has named 82 outstanding travel and tourism stars last Thursday in Bangkok.
Eighteen new winners have emerged across various categories, taking home the signature Hermes trophy for the first time. Debuting winners include Mandara Spa, and Sands Expo and Convention Centre Marina Bay Sands who have successfully claimed titles that were dominated by long-time winners, taking the honour of the Best Spa Operator and Best Convention & Exhibition Centre respectively.
Indonesian tourism minister Arief Yahya, Marina Bay Sands’ Ailynn Seah, and TTG’s Darren Ng at the awards
Other first-time winners who made their way into the TTG Travel Awards include American Airlines Group Inc., Hainan Airlines Holding Co., The Siam, Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau, and Oneday Korea Tours and Travel.
They are among the 52 award-winners across Travel Supplier and Travel Agency categories that were voted in by the travel trade industry, comprising majority TTG Asia, TTG China, TTG India, TTGmice, TTG- BTmice China, TTGassociations and TTG Asia Luxury readers.
Outstanding Achievement Award recipients handpicked by TTG’s editorial team for exceptional contributions as industry role-models are, Peter Bellew, CEO of Malaysia Airlines Berhad, as Travel Personality of the Year; Indonesia as Destination of the Year; Thomas Cook India Group as Travel Entrepreneur of the Year; Tourism Authority of Thailand for Best Travel Marketing Effort and Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas as Most Sustainable Travel Company. All are first-time winners to these titles.
The complete list of BT-MICE Award winners are:
Cathay Pacific Airways for Best Airline – Business Class
Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok for Best Business Hotel
Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre at CentralWorld for Best Meetings & Conventions Hotel
Singapore for Best BT-MICE City
Sands Expo and Convention Centre Marina Bay Sands for Best Convention & Exhibition Centre
Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau for Best Convention & Exhibition Bureau
Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Grab have struck a partnership which will see the integration of their mobile apps to offer convenience to customers travelling to the airport in six South-east Asian countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
SIA customers can now book Grab rides through the SingaporeAir mobile app. Customers using the app will see an option to book a Grab ride to the airport seven days before their scheduled flight. Selecting this option will direct customers to the Grab app, where they can choose to order a Grab ride to the airport on demand or in advance. The airport will be automatically listed as the destination, so the user simply fills in the pick-up point and desired time.
Members of SIA’s KrisFlyer and Grab’s GrabRewards programmes will enjoy additional benefits under the partnership, where GrabRewards members have the option to convert their GrabRewards points into KrisFlyer miles.
Environmental experts to gather in Portorož in 2019
The 6th European Conference on Environmental Applications of Advanced Oxidation Processes (EAAOP-6) will take place from June 26-30, 2019, at the Grand Hotel Bernardin Convention Center in Portorož-Portorose, Slovenia.
The event will bring together 300 scientists and engineers from all over the world to present their findings and discuss future trends and directions concerning various environmental applications of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs).
A student paper contest will be also held as an integral part of this event, as well as an exhibition of scientific and process equipment and other materials.
Sandton and Gauteng land bid to host Meetings Africa
Gauteng Province and its Sandton Convention Centre (SCC) in Johannesburg have won their bid to host Meetings Africa for the next five years. The venue had previously hosted the event for 12 years, and next year’s edition will take place on February 26-28.
Eighteen African countries were represented at Meetings Africa 2017, which attracted 298 exhibitors, 177 international hosted buyers, 57 African association hosted buyers, and 126 local corporate hosted buyers.
NH Marseille Palm Beach opens
Standing in La Joliette – the new business district of Marseille in France – is the four-star NH Marseille Palm Beach. Offering 176 rooms in an historical Haussmanian building, meeting facilities include 12 naturally-lit meeting rooms, as well as a 322-pax auditorium with sea views.
Aside from recreational facilities such as a private pool overlooking the sea and a fitness centre on the sixth floor, the property also boasts Spanish restaurant Tablafina, Mediterranean eatery La Reserve, a cocktail bar in the lobby, and a winter garden where drinks and snacks are served.
As the use of sharing-economy suppliers such as Uber, Airbnb, Grab and Lyft becomes increasingly prevalent, travel managers are beginning to integrate them into their corporate travel programmes.
“Even though they weren’t included in my company’s corporate programme, our travellers were already using companies like Uber,” said Adriana Nainggolan, travel programme manager, APAC, Autodesk.
The sharing economy is booming
“These companies are providing additional solutions for companies that need more cost-effective travel programmes.”
The “undeniable” benefits, listed Nainggolan, were cost savings, legitimate market presence, and resource-friendly business practices.
For United Spirits Limited in India, employees often have to travel to remote areas in the country where public transport is not an option. Compared to private rentals and taxis, local car hire company Ola turned up “huge cost savings” of “one-third the rate”, shared Jani Jermans, consultant – mobility & wellness, United Spirits.
Before incorporating Ola into its travel programme, Jermans first gleaned feedback from employees who used the service, and ensured the service promised and provided several guarantees.
These include having all employees’ email addresses tied to the corporate account, conducting an education session for the employees to ensure they correctly log their corporate rides using a drop-down menu, having a team account manager to provide round-the-clock support, as well as an SOS service in case of emergencies.
United Spirits is currently looking to incorporate Ola and Uber into its corporate travel programme, said Jermans.
In the hospitality sphere, Airbnb has also conducted “many dialogues with corporate clients to offer business-ready apartments and properties”, said Stephenie Lee, business development director of FCM Travel Solutions.
Business-ready rentals include assurances such as laptop-friendly stations, high-speed Wi-Fi connection, full private apartment rental, flexible cancellation policies and high-ranking hosts, noted Lee.
She shared an instance of a client that once spent “near A$30 million (US$23.6 million)” on domestic travel expenses, a high percentage of which went into long hotel stays and non-flexible travelling dates.
She continued: “When Airbnb became popular, professors and staff started to book (apartments) on their own – there was no control. We had a conversation with them (about it), and as a TMC, we decided to provide a solution – we will book it for them.”
Lee established a special arrangement with Airbnb to allow them to book on behalf of individuals using their account, which could be switched between personal and business profiles.”
Li Lei, founder of Youli Consulting, opined that sharing economies like Airbnb “still have a lot of space to improve” for business travel, maintaining that hotels still have a stronghold with corporate comforts like a meeting lounge, a gym and ironing board.
He said: “They can learn from hotel chains and make their service standards more concise and consistent.”
It is a toss-up between Malaysia and the Philippines to host the 2026 World Congress of Applied Linguistics, said the International Association of Applied Linguistics’ (AILA) secretary general Christina Gitsaki.
AILA held the most recent edition of its triennial congress in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro in July this year, and has decided on South-east Asia for its 2026 gathering. The last time the congress was held in South-east Asia, was in Singapore in 2002.
A speaker at ALIA in Rio de Janeiro
As it searches for its next venue in the region, Gitsaki said the main consideration was finding a large convention centre with 30 to 35 breakout rooms and a plenary hall to accommodate the targeted turnout of 1,500 to 2,000 delegates.
“Many centres are built for exhibitions and include a large exhibition space but not many breakout rooms. We want a small exhibition space and many breakout rooms.”
Other criteria include three-, four- and five-star hotels within walking distance to the convention centre, or a good public transport system allowing delegates to travel conveniently back and forth.
AILA is open to having the congress outside the capital city too, as long as the main criteria are met.
“It is good if the convention centre adopts green practices, but is it is not as important a consideration as the (aforementioned) criteria,” Gitsaki added.
AILA’s world congress is the largest event in applied linguistics, bringing together researchers and practitioners from all areas of the field for five days.
Different parts of the world are chosen for the different editions of the congress to reflect the association’s global character, TTGmice understands.
A gala dinner that features seven rare vintage champagnes paired with a curated musical programme of opera, jazz, classic vinyl pieces, dances, and Michelin-inspired dishes will soon be an experience available to those looking to impress the crème de la crème of their business partners.
Aptly named The Ultimate Champagne Dinner, the idea was developed by Athikom Jeerapairotekun, managing director of Thailand-based Premier Incoming Group Services – PIGS DMC.
Delegates emerging from the ASEAN MICE Forum at IT&CMA for their coffee break were surprised by an opera performance by Grand Opera Thailand’s Stefan Sanchez (centre), a fun stunt by Premier Incoming Group Services – PIGS DMC for the launch of its new luxury dinner event idea. Photo: Richard Caleb Lai
The Ultimate Champagne Dinner was launched on September 26 at IT&CMA 2017, through a surprise opera performance by Stefan Sanchez, CEO of Grand Opera Thailand and impresario during a morning coffee break. Sanchez is also the curator of The Ultimate Champagne Dinner’s musical programme.
“This is the Rolls Royce of dinners. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event and, due to the scarcity of the vintage champagnes, it is not for everyone and is reserved for a very exclusive and extra special occasion,” remarked Athikom.
While Athikom declined to state the price range for this idea, David Barrett, CEO of Hype Global, who represents PIGS DMC as its publicity agent, revealed that one of the vintage champagne costs a whopping 50,000 baht (US$1,507) per bottle.
To complete the exclusive experience promised by The Ultimate Champagne Dinner, Athikom recommends that a “flexible and fabulous” venue be used.
“Our preferred venues would be Nai Lert Heritage Home in central Bangkok. We also have a couple of palaces and historic landmarks that we can open doors to. (Beyond) the capital, we would love to arrange this at The Slate in Phuket or at 137 Pillars or Dhara Dhevi in Chiang Mai,” he said.
The event ideally takes 12 to 16 guests, or up to 32 people. PIGS DMC is able to execute the event in other destinations, and is in talks with clients who have requested for Vietnam, Cambodia and Dubai.
The smartphone is the new window to the world, allowing people faster access to information and more developed technology.
Today, 2.5 billion smartphones are used globally, and this number is projected to increase to five billion by 2020, said Bertrand Saillet, general manager, Asia, FCM Travel Solutions (FCM), citing figures from World Bank, GSMA, Apple and Google.
Saillet: chatbots are a way to interact with customers
With this trend, mobile-optimised artificial intelligence (AI) is going to “drive massive change”, he predicted at a CTW Asia-Pacific session on September 27.
The wave is already taking shape. Delta’s partner in Brazil, GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes, this year launched Selfie Check-in, the world’s first app to use facial recognition to allow customers to check into flights. It is currently available for Brazil’s domestic and international flights.
Similar technology is also being tested for JetBlue flights from New York’s JFK Airport to Boston. Saillet suggested that in the future, facial recognition could even be used in hospitality for concierge officers to greet guests with preferred welcome amenities.
However, the business-travel world is “still very fragmented”, noted Saillet. For this, AI can help determine who the traveller is, and chatbots are a way to interact with customers on their mobile phone and deliver personalised products.
“I believe that the chatbot is going to completely revolutionise the travel industry, especially for corporate travel in Asia,” Saillet told TTGmice.
Saillet proposed that, with apps such as FCM’s Sam Chatbot, travel managers and agents can offer their clients an “organised itinerary” with “responsive” advisories and content on the user’s intended destination, capped off with a chatbot to aid in other requests and queries.
The app can help travel managers “connect with the best players of the (travel) market”, Saillet pointed out, such as expense management systems and sharing economy suppliers.
However, he was also quick to clarify that mobile AI does not replace customer service. To maintain the human touch, FCM retains 8,000 consultants to aid its clients and communicate with its partners.
Sam Chatbot is currently live in the US, to be launched in Singapore and Hong Kong in November and in the rest of Asia come January 2018. It will also be available to use on social media platforms like Facebook Messenger and WeChat, concluded Saillet.
In 1H2017, Singapore has successfully secured five world congresses and two tradeshows to be held in the years to come.
These events, some of which are taking place for the first time in South-east Asia, are estimated to bring in an additional 20,000 visitors to the city.
Singapore remains attractive as a business events destination
Three medical congresses set to take place for the first time in South-east Asia.
The first of which is the International Urogynecological Association (IUGA) Annual Meeting in 2021, which will attract 1,200 visiting physicians and healthcare professionals.
The following year, Singapore will host the 20th International Congress of Endocrinology (ICE). The ICE 2022 will gather more than 4,000 endocrinologists from over 70 countries.
Further down the road, the World Congress of Anaesthesiologists (WCA) in 2024 will welcome 8,000 anaesthesiologists from around the world.
Meanwhile, two world congresses in the industrial solutions sector will make their first forays into South-east Asia.
The world’s largest technical professional association, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), will be bringing engineers, computer scientists and allied professionals to the city state for two of its flagship events – the 46th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON) in 2020, to be attended by around 1,300 overseas attendees; and the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech
and Signal Processing (ICASSP) in 2022, with an expected attendance of 2,000 people.
On the exhibitions and conferences front, Singapore has also secured various travel, technology and F&B tradeshows.
Two events will take place for the first time next year. Making its debut from May 21-24, 2018, at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, is the International Luxury Travel Mart (ILTM) Asia-Pacific. It is expected to receive around 1,400 visitors.
In July 2018, Campus Party – the world’s largest technology-based festival – will also come to Asia for the first time. Set to take place at the Singapore Expo, Campus Party Singapore will present a wide range of activities, talks, competitions and workshops for 72 hours (round-the-clock for three consecutive days), and is expected to bring in around 1,000 visitors to Singapore.
Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM)’s executive director, Irene Lau, tells Prudence Lui more about the training course for Macau’s business events professionals, and the future of the industry.
Irene Lau
This summer’s MICE Talent Training Program was the third edition. How did it differ from the last two?
Venue wise, after Shanghai and Dalian, Hangzhou was picked as the destination thanks to its commercial, tourism and cultural hub in eastern China. Content-wise, we have it in line with the Macau government’s policy of giving “Priority to Conventions”, so this training programme was structured to focus more on the elements related to conventions.
Among the speakers, Liu Haiying, the CEO of China National Convention Center, was invited to share his experience in organising and attracting mega international conventions.
The group also visited relevant venues and facilities such as the Hangzhou International Expo Center, so as to obtain a preliminary understanding of the business events-related environment in Hangzhou, and got acquainted with local business events professionals.
How effective has the programme been?
The three editions of the MICE Talent Training Program attracted 70 business events industry practitioners from Macau.
The programme combines theory with practice, and helps to enhance the strengths and professional level of Macau’s business events industry. It also improves competitiveness, and provides upward mobility for industry professionals, so as to cultivate a larger number of middle-level managers.
At the same time, the programme helps to promote exchange and collaboration between professionals, enterprises of Macau’s business events industry and their counterparts in Mainland China.
In fact, the rising standard of local business practitioners enabled Macau to hold a variety of large-scale regional and international events.
In January 2017, The 13th China Expo Forum for International Cooperation was hosted in Macau. This annual event of the international convention and exhibition industry was hosted outside of Mainland China for the first time.
It attracted more than 800 elites and high-ranking individuals in the business events industry. The helmsmen of the three international convention and exhibition organisations, UFI, IAEE and SISO, were also invited to the forum in Macau to share their experiences.
What was the highlight of this summer’s edition? What did the participants learn?
We had 20 Macau business events practitioners in participation. With the cooperation of Training Center of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the CCPIT Zhejiang, the group visited the Hangzhou International Expo Center, the headquarters of Alibaba Group, and the largest organiser of Chinese companies to participate in the overseas exhibition – Meorient International Exhibition.
Trainees learnt the protocol in serving VVIPs at the Hangzhou International Expo Center, for instance. They also learnt about the application of Internet and technology in business events through the Alibaba Group visit. They also picked up strategies, techniques, and use of O2O services in attracting exhibitors efficiently at Meorient International Exhibition.
Is manpower quality the key issue for Macau’s business events industry today and into the near future?
Absolutely. A large number of high-quality personnel are needed to drive the growth of Macau’s business events industry.
According to the Macau Talents Development Committee, in 2015 there were 1,729 employees in the business events industry (taking large business events companies into account) of which 44 per cent were managerial class, 42 per cent were middle-level and 14 percent were ground-level. The research predicted a demand for an additional 1,683 employees from 2016 to 2018. As well, more high-quality practitioners are in demand to meet the increasing number and size of events held in Macau.
What needs to be done to allow Macau to keep pace with international standards in business events?
Aside from conducting training courses and exchange activities, the participation in international tradeshows is also an active and effective way for business events professionals to keep pace with international standards.
IPIM organises and encourages local business events practitioners to participate in overseas tradeshows, such as IMEX, where they can stay updated and learn more about the latest market trends.
Are there enough training opportunities for local business events professionals?
Nurturing talents is an important component in the sustainable development of the industry. In view of this, IPIM initiates and works closely with the industry to organise different programmes and training for the business events and business events-related professionals.
For instance, the Support Program for Professional Training and Education in the Convention and Exhibition Sector (MICE) aims to provide financial support for convention and exhibition organisers.
As well, our regular business events industry workshops cover different topics and themes. Local associations, such as the Macau Fair and Trade Association, also run courses and training.
What is your one biggest wish for Macau’s business events talent pool?
We hope that more fresh blood can be brought into the business events industry to meet the manpower needs for future development. The requirement for well-trained business events practitioners is becoming dire as Macau continues to flourish with new construction projects and business events facilities.
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.
Indonesian tourism minister Arief Yahya, Marina Bay Sands’ Ailynn Seah, and TTG’s Darren Ng at the awards
