Collot is now general manager of Banyan Tree Macau. He joins from Wanda Vista Tianjin, China.
Diane Chen
Chen has been promoted to the position of general manager of the Shenyang New World Expo. She was previously deputy general manager, and has been with the centre since 2012.
Caroline Kerr
Kerr is now general manager of FCM Travel Solutions Hong Kong. She had worked for Flight Centre Travel Group across the Flight Centre, Corporate Traveller, Stage & Screen and FCM Travel brands in Australia and Hong Kong.
Anthony Quin
Quin is now general manager of Mövenpick Hotel Enshi in Hubei, China. He was last general manager of Mövenpick Hotel Hanoi.
Fulfilling a dream conference
Event brief
The supplier of bathroom and plumbing products, Plumbing Plus, wanted to hold its annual conference and had invited Daydream Island Resort & Spa – located in the Whitsundays island cluster in Queensland, Australia – to host it. The four-day event had 170 delegates and featured conference sessions, networking parties and dining functions which utilised multiple locations on the island.
Challenges
The resort was tasked to make the event memorable for delegates, hence organisers had to brainstorm for entertainment and activities that were one-of-a-kind.
There was also a lot of logistical planning and coordination required in order to ensure the programme ran smoothly, as meetings and activities were organised in various locations across the 1km-long Daydream Island.
The organisers also had to ensure that there were sufficient support vessels to transport all 170 delegates, and plan for them to arrive in a timely fashion so as not to disrupt the flow of activities.
Solutions
Delegates were invited to explore the resort’s stunning reef in its man-made lagoon – home to some of The Great Barrier Reef’s marine life – and the view left them with a memorable impression of the area’s natural wonders.
The resort also worked with local tourism operator Cruise Whitsundays to take all delegates, in separate batches, to the iconic Whitehaven Beach. The scenic cruise to the magnificent beach included a friendly guide who provided an informative commentary on the history of the area.
Meanwhile, the island’s variety of indoor and outdoor venues provided the flexibility required for both business meetings and leisure activities.
Jane Hermann, director of sales and marketing with Daydream Island Resort and Spa, said the compact size of Daydream Island had worked to the event’s advantage, as all locations used in the programme were within easy reach of the resort’s accommodation and conference venues.
“Hence, there was minimal disruption to the schedule,” said Hermann.
For the event to end in a spectacular style, the island called upon its specialist suppliers and on-island team. High profile performers such as Samantha Jade, Daryl Braithwaite and comedian Mikey Robins were brought in to entertain the crowd, while a pyrotechnics expert was on hand to light up the night sky with a dazzling fireworks finale.
Key takeaways
Hermann noted that “good pre-event planning and site inspections with the organiser” allowed logistical issues to be resolved before the event.
Event: Plumbing Plus Conference
Organiser: Conference In Style
Venue: Daydream Island Resort & Spa
Date: October 23-26, 2014
Number of participants: 170
Shangri-La’s Hambantota Resort & Spa
By Feizal Samath 
The latest hotel in Sri Lanka made waves in the tourism and events trade as soon as it was first announced; it was going to be the largest luxury resort in the country and the first internationally-branded high-end property to be built in Hambantota.
Now opened, Shangri-La’s Hambantota Resort & Spa is regarded as the best multipurpose facility for business events.
Location wise, Colombo is just an hour’s flight away. Daily flights available makes the hotel an easy pre/post-event product for event groups.
Rooms All 300 rooms and suites are luxurious and offer magnificent views of either the golf course, the sparkling lagoon or the Indian Ocean.
My deluxe room was spacious, with all the modern amenities one would expect of a five-star hotel. I especially appreciated the hassle-free Wi-Fi connection, which came complimentary and with instant connectivity, without troublesome password entry.
MICE facilities The hotel’s multipurpose ballroom can seat 1,200 guests and this is supported by five break-out rooms. Planners looking for an outdoor option have sprawling greens to choose from. These lush spaces are dotted with swaying king coconut trees.
Should planner desire, the hotel can help to arrange visits to the nearby Yala Wildlife Park and a bird sanctuary.
Other facilities It is home to an 18-hole golf course, three swimming pools, the signature CHI spa, four restaurants and bars, and The Village, which celebrates local arts and crafts and provides guest activities and entertainment.
This is truly my kind of a business hotel, where I get to mix business with pleasure by playing water sports and a round of golf, before ending the day with a cold beer on the beach bar after the convention is over.
Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall
By Feizal Samath
Built in 1973 to host the Non-Aligned Conference, the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) is Sri Lanka’s largest convention centre. It underwent refurbishments about 18 months ago, and has since reopened.
BMICH is a popular venue choice for major national and international conferences as well as weddings and musical concerts.
MICE application Its unique selling point is its collection of 16 different venues spread across 17 hectares.
The Sirimavo Bandaranaike Memorial Exhibition Centre is perfect for exhibitions, conventions and seminars. Spread across 4,500m2 are two exhibition halls, a lobby, a dining room, a lounge, a kitchen and other amenities.
New to BMICH is a garden which can be spruced up for a candle-lit barbecue dinner for 20 to 30 guests.
In BMICH’s main building are two conference rooms that can accommodate 309 and 200 guests, and two smaller rooms for 50 and 30 people.
A 1,500-seat auditorium is the largest in the city.
BMICH is supported by advanced equipment including a simultaneous translation facility that can handle seven languages at one time as well as a dedicated kitchen, staffed by around 100 employees and managed by the Mount Lavinia Hotel, one of Sri Lanka’s oldest properties.
Providing much ease to event planners is BMICH’s own hotel, the 60-key Sovereign. It is, however, located a 20-minute drive away. Smaller meetings can be held at the hotel.
Service Although the management promises to offer the best, service is slow and food served at events held at BMICH isn’t extraordinary. Perhaps some training to update the service crew would help.
il Lido Bali
By Mimi Hudoyo
Bali’s fashionable district, Seminyak, has gotten a tad more chic with the arrival of iL Lido Bali Italian restaurant which is perfect for romantic dinners, relaxing corporate gatherings and everything else in between.
Concept Inspired by the leisure islands of Venice’s Lido and Singapore’s Sentosa, il Lido Bali is the brainchild of Beppe De Vito, who has combined Balinese hospitality with Italian elegance to create his latest baby. The result is an uber-chic and relaxed restaurant which promises authentic Italian food that is value for money. It also offers prime options for world-class wines, fine spirits and craft cocktails.
The dinner set menu is priced from 580,000 rupiah (US$45) per person while the buffet menu starts from 780,000 rupiah per person.
MICE application The restaurant has both indoor and outdoor spaces. The Courtyard in the middle, which draws shade from surrounding trees, along with the Portico, can accommodate 150 guests while the Pergola houses 24 seats.
There is also a private room which is suitable for an intimate gathering of 30 people, and a 30-seat bar.
In all, the restaurant can comfortably host a sit-down event for 200 guests and standing cocktails for 300 people.
Planners will appreciate the many open spaces here, which adds flexibilty to theming efforts. I imagine a sit-down dinner with acoustic music, a buffet dinner with entertainment, or a cocktail party with a fashion show can all be easily arranged here.
Service The restaurant delivered on its promise as far as the food is concerned. Service is friendly but there is room for improvement. The restaurant was not busy when we were there, so the service staff could have afforded to be more attentive to our needs by clearing the crumbs off our table or replenising our empty glasses.
Inaya Putri Bali
By Mimi Hudoyo
Once home to Hotel Inna Putri Bali, one of the earliest hotels to be built in Nusa Dua in the mid-80s, the building’s latest incarnation is Inaya Putri Bali. Although it underwent a thorough reconstruction that started in 2012, the building has retained the Balinese and Indonesian architectural elements.
Rooms The resort has 460 rooms, of which 306 are deluxe rooms and 117 are deluxe rooms with pool access. The other room categories include suites and villas.
My ocean-view suite is huge – 90m2 in size – and conveniently located near the restaurants and lounge. There are two balconies – one connected to the living room and another to the sleeping quarters. I loved the latter which became my favourite spot to sip my morning coffee.
Views of the gardens and the ocean are stunning.
MICE facilities I like that the meeting facilities have their own entrance which sits away from the main one to the hotel. From this entrance, event attendees can go down an unsheltered walkway – my only complaint – to arrive at the ballroom’s pre-function area.
Another walkway connects the main hotel building to the meetings complex.
Facilities include the Mengiat Ballroom and two meeting rooms on the upper floor and breakout rooms on the lower floor. A staircase connects the two levels.
Mengiat Ballroom can take 800 pax, theatre-style and is equipped with a sound system and Wi-Fi. Pandawa and Balangan meeting rooms next to it can each accommodate 50 pax, or be combined for larger gatherings.
Three meeting rooms downstairs can each can take up to 50 pax, theatre-style.
A separate kitchen supports events held here.
Inaya Putri Bali’s sprawling gardens and beach are suitable for outdoor events.
Other facilities There are five F&B outlets, with capacity ranging from 50 to 250 seats. For recreation, there are three-tier infinity pools, spa facilities and water activities such as kayaking and windsurfing.
Too little to show: Sri Lanka
Insufficient hardware to support large-scale events continues to be a bugbear for Sri Lanka’s MICE players, writes Feizal Samath
A new convention centre in Sri Lanka is on the cards while the industry has pulled off a major coup in cajoling a top French travel association to hold its congress in the country. The congress of the Syndicat National Des agents de Voyages in October will bring over 500 agents and their guests to the country.
These should be enough reasons for Sri Lanka’s MICE stakeholders to celebrate but the mood is still sombre as current and upcoming event infrastructure is seen as being inadequate to support their desire for mega events.
Sri Lanka presently offers the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) and the Sri Lanka Exhibition & Convention Centre. The former houses multipurpose facilities for meetings and a separate exhibition centre, with the main hall capable of accommodating only 1,500 seats. The latter, managed by Singapore-based Pico Group, can also accommodate 1,500 pax but lacks proper parking facilities. Furthermore, this facility will likely be demolished once its contract ends in three to four years, to make way for the construction of a financial centre.
Vipula Wanigasekera, a MICE veteran and former general manager of the state-run Sri Lankan Conventions Bureau (SLCB), lamented: “No one really understands conferences and exhibitions. There is no proper strategy and MICE is seen as a small component of travel, just another add-on.”
Expressing frustration with the upcoming convention centre, which will be only 1.6 hectares in size, Wanigasekera said: “The space allocated for it is, in my view, only enough for parking!”
The new venue, to be located outside of capital city Colombo, is the government’s response to urgent calls from local MICE stakeholders to resolve the capacity crunch.
For years now, local MICE stakeholders have been demanding a bigger convention centre with capacity for over 5,000 people, break-out rooms, areas for special dinners as well as entertainment and residential facilities. They bemoaned that while successful MICE cities like Singapore and Dubai can accommodate more than 10,000 to 15,000 pax in one of many venues, Sri Lanka’s largest conference centre can seat a meagre 1,500 guests.
So, in November, the government set aside three billion rupees (US$20.6 million) for the construction of the country’s third venue. Today, a blue-print is being prepared.
But experts argue that this is simply not enough, especially with the impending loss of the Sri Lanka Exhibition & Convention Centre.
A worried Ziyan Ameen, president of the Sri Lanka Association of Professional Conference, Exhibition & Event Organisers (SLAPCEO), told TTGmice that the remaining venues would be “miniscule compared to our competitors” who have several larger multipurpose venues.
What is rosy, however, is the state of Sri Lanka’s incentive event business which has been flourishing. Trade players expect this segment to continue to see good growth, thanks to the country’s diversity of locations and attractions.
Adding another obstacle to Sri Lanka’s MICE quest is the high taxes. According to the MICE head of a local firm, taxes on bringing a foreign musician or band into Sri Lanka can amount to 46 per cent of the entire event cost.
Local MICE stakeholders want more unique venues in Sri Lanka
and have suggested making existing attractions, such as the
Colombo National Museum, available for event hire Picture by
saiko3p/shutterstock
Accommodation in Colombo, where most of the events are held, is also woefully inadequate to support large-scale meetings. There are now about 4,000 rooms in the capital.
New hotel brands like Shangri-La, Sheraton and Hyatt that are coming into the capital will add 1,000 rooms to the room inventory, but the numbers are still insufficient to make Sri Lanka a worthy global competitor for big events.
The largest meeting in Colombo was in January 2015 when Phillips India held its convention for 1,500 guests. Attendees had to be housed in three to four hotels while meetings were hosted in two hotels at different times.
What the country needs is a stronger convention bureau with more funding and a good strategy in place, according to Ameen.
“We (also) need special venues for theme dinners, for example the Colombo National Museum grounds or a sports complex that can be transformed into something exciting. We don’t have (such venues) at the moment,” Ameen added.
Although Prema Cooray, SLCB chairman has acknowledged these shortfalls, he remains excited about Sri Lanka’s MICE future, confident that India will continue to be the industry’s key to success.
Cooray said: “Our focus will be to concentrate on India (as always). The potential for MICE is huge and (the market) is advantageous to us as we are (located) very close.”
He added that many international companies have moved their corporate headquarters to India from Singapore or Europe, which will encourage more business travels from India.
The southern cities of India – Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore – which are just a short flight from Colombo will be the centre of SLCB’s marketing efforts. Cooray said access is affordable and frequent, as SriLankan Airlines flies 110 times a week to these cities.
Sri Lanka’s Golden Temple of Dambulla is a UNESCO World
Heritage Site
{Taking Numbers}
34
The number of international conventions and meetings in Sri Lanka this year that SriLankan Airlines is supporting as official carrier
61
The number of overseas tradeshows and fairs that Sri Lanka Tourism is taking part in to promote the country
145,773
The number of Indian arrivals in the first five months of 2016. India is Sri Lanka’s largest source market and biggest provider of MICE footfalls
{Developments to Watch}
Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts has become the first hotel chain in Sri Lanka to establish a Chinese-friendly environment, encouraged by the vast increase in Chinese inbound numbers. Two hotels in the chain – Cinnamon Grin both Mandarin and English, trained its front-line staff in basic Mandarin, and dedicated an entire floor in both hotels to Chinese guests. Rooms on this floor feature Chinese décor, Chinese tea and reading materials in Mandarin.
Cinnamon Air’s commencement of daily flights from Colombo to Hambantota in early June has vastly improved access to Sri Lanka’s developing southern coast. While it used to take 2.5 hours to journey between the two points, the flight cuts it down to just an hour, a convenience much appreciated by time-strapped business travellers and event attendees.
Opened earlier this year in the former war-devastated northern town of Jaffna, the 55-keys Jetwing Jaffna is the destination’s first upmarket hotel. Its ability to accommodate small meetings with 30 to 50 guests means it will help attract corporate interest to Jaffna’s unspoiled beaches and rich cultural offerings. Jaffna, meanwhile, is looking to build up its tourism sector.
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