Carlson Wagonlit Travel has appointed Wong to the role of vice president, global supplier management, Asia Pacific. She has been a key member of CWT’s global supplier management team since 2012 and has over 22 years of experience in the travel industry.
A force to be reckoned with
Kaohsiung’s Asian New Bay Area Redevelopment project will transform the city’s waterfront precinct
Kaohsiung’s city government has been building new infrastructure and setting up MICE alliances, reports Prudence Lui
The success of the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan has proven the port city’s capability in organising international events and led to a slew of major international events for the destination.
In 2013 Kaohsiung welcomed the Asia-Pacific Cities Summit, followed by Taiwan International Fastener Show, Taiwan Boat Show and AIESEC International Congress in 2014. Last year it hosted the 2015 International Harbor Cities Conference, while the Global Harbor Cities Forum will sail into town this September.
Recognising the value of the business events sector, the Kaohsiung city government has established the Kaohsiung MICE Alliance to put up a stronger fight with rival MICE destinations. This alliance not only covers the resources of southern Taiwan (comprising the cities of Kaohsiung, Tainan, Pingtung and Penghu), but it also combines resources from the industry, government and academia. Currently, there are 10 conference ambassadors and 138 members in the alliance.
The city government has also initiated the Asian New Bay Area Redevelopment project which features four major building projects – the existing Kaohsiung Exhibition Centre (KEC), Kaohsiung Main Public Library as well as the soon-to-be-built Maritime Cultural and Popular Music Center and Kaohsiung Port Terminal. The Asian New Bay Area will be supported by a light rail system for greater accessibility.
Kaohsiung’s stand in the global MICE scene will get a further boost with national MICE body Meet Taiwan’s recent efforts to promote second- and third-tier cities in Taiwan for business events.
Kaohsiung Meeting & Event Promotion Office now enjoys help and support from Meet Taiwan.
Meet Taiwan’s deputy executive director, Lily Su, said: “We no longer rely just on Taipei (to attract international events). Kaohsiung is an ideal option as its infrastructure is taking shape. For instance, the KEC and the Kaohsiung Main Public Library are stylish spaces that enhance the venue options in the city.”
The Kaohsiung Main Public Library offers a 182m2 multifunction conference room and a 1,375m2 auditorium, while the waterfront KEC has 13 meeting rooms and two main halls that have capacity for 1,424 exhibition booths.
KEC vice president, Robert Campbell, said 70 per cent of business at the centre comes from exhibitions while conferences make up 30 per cent. However, the latter has been “expanding quite nicely”.
Campbell said: “Since (KEC’s) inception, occupancy has grown from 17 per cent to 22 per cent last year. Hopefully, it will exceed 30 per cent this year.”
However, venues alone are not enough to make a destination attractive for events. Local industry players are hoping for more opportunities to inject creativity into event programmes.
Lion Travel’s director of exhibition & convention travel service department, Joy Tsai, said: “I hope to see more vibrant elements that can excite delegates. For instance, The Pier-2 Art Center could be (a unique) venue for teambuilding and themed events. Also, (planners should be able to work) with yacht clubs (to organise) cruises (on luxury yachts) or waterfront parties for small-sized, high-end groups.”
Illustrating the opportunities to deliver creative events in Kaohsiung, Tsai told TTGmice that his company had recently hosted an outdoor dinner for 200 guests at the Confucius Temple in Kaohsiung. The meal was prepared by a team of private chefs who whipped up Taiwanese favourites, while live Chinese music entertained the crowd.
Ably Conference and Exhibition, project manager, Paul Chuang, added that Kaohsiung could make available opportunities for visiting event delegates to do good for the local community.
“In the last two years, we have seen a growing need (for such activities), beyond doing the usual sightseeing spots,” Chuang said.
Citing an example, Chuang said a group of 600 delegates from a cosmetic firm in Shanghai had asked to work with a primary school in Kaohsiung to sell the students’ handicraft to raise funds for charity.
Patti Tang, director with Taiwan-based PCO Willy Event Consultant, opined that Kaohsiung is often perceived as “an industrial hub without much history”, so spotlighting its arts and culture would help improve its appeal among event planners.
There is also a need for the city to expand its inventory of five-star hotels to do well among incentive event planners, according to Ambassador Hotel Kaohsiung’s director of sales, Paul Hsu.
Hsu, who hopes to court a larger number of incentive business, said more rooms in the city are needed to accommodate huge incentive groups but there are only a limited number of five-star hotels.
The waterfront Kaohsiung Exhibition Centre
opened in 2014
{Taking Numbers}
{Insider}
Pairry Chiang, Asia Concentrate Corporation’s marketing manager
Pairry Chiang, Asia Concentrate Corporation’s marketing manager, recommends three must-dos in the massive port city
Walk around Yancheng district
Take a stroll along the boardwalk and enjoy the sunset against a backdrop of restaurants. Also, check out The Pier-2 Art Center, old warehouses that have been converted into art galleries and museums.
Go on a harbour cruise
A leisurely cruise around the Kaohsiung harbour is a must. You can sail the Golden Triangle, which makes stops at the British Consulate, The Pier-2 Art Center and Hongmaogang.
Get actively involved in local culture
The Song-Jiang Jhen Battle Array, held in Kaohsiung’s Neimen district, is an annual festival that features martial arts displays, lion dances, Chinese cultural music and dance, and more. This festival was portrayed in the movie, Din Tao: Leader of the Parade.
The Pier-2 Art Center was once a warehouse
area but it has undergone a revamp and is now a
creative and cultural hub
{Spotlight}
Moving to the beat of your drum
From left:
A teambuilding session on site; the park’s iconic chimney
A wave of cultural and creative concepts have swept across Taiwan in the last decade and historical industrial sites have been revitalised into creative parks.
For example, a former sugar refinery site built circa 1902 was transformed in 2010 by the renowned Ten Drum Art Percussion Group into the Ten Drum Ciaotou Creative Park.
Aside from an iconic old chimney towering over the three-hectare park, the venue has eight converted storage areas that are open to the public. These spaces have been turned into a restaurant, theatre, museum, conference hall and souvenir shops, with more room for further expansion.
The site also features a large outdoor space that includes grassland and an open-air concrete plaza – all of which are suitable for outdoor events.
According to business development team leader, Maggie Yang, the site can easily host 1,000 pax.
She elaborated: “Our 30-minute drum performance staged at the waterfall power chimney theatre can accommodate an audience of 470. We have one show each in the morning and afternoon so a large group may be split into smaller groups. While one group enjoys the thrilling performance, others may join the hour-long guided tour or drum lesson. Our space allows 200 people to practice drums simultaneously by breaking into small group of 25 to 30 pax each.
“For corporate meetings, we have two meeting rooms with a seating capacity of 150 to 200 and 20 to 30 people respectively. There is also a dedicated kitchen that caters to guests. Corporate buyout is possible with at least a six-month notice, while a three-month notice is necessary for ordinary corporate events.”
The Ten Drum Ciaotou Creative Park is a 30-minute drive from Kaohsiung. The park can also be accessed via the nearby Ciaotou Station of the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit System.
E-mail tendrumsugar@gmail.com for more details.
Taryn de Belen
The soon-to-open Conrad Manila has appointed de Belen its director of business development. She brings to the table more than 15 years of hotel sales and business event experience.
Robert Sauer
Sauer is now executive chef at Four Points by Sheraton Sydney, Darling Harbour. He has over 20 years of culinary experience from working across the globe.
Patrick Manthe
Manthe has been appointed general manager of Chatrium Hotel Riverside Bangkok and Chatrium Residence Riverside Bangkok. He joins from U Sathorn Bangkok where he was general manager.
The exposure factor
Upcoming Queen’s Wharf Brisbane integrated resort, which will
sit slong the Brisbane River (pictured), is expected to serve as a
conversation starter to elevate Brisbane’s visibility
Supporting tourism infrastructure and branding intelligence may be the driving forces to finally put Brisbane’s overlooked incentive products on the map, Rebecca Elliott reports
It’s the capital city of arguably Australia’s most popular state for hosting incentive programmes, yet Brisbane, just an hour’s drive north of the Gold Coast, rarely appears on the itinerary.
But that’s all about to change, according to the Brisbane Marketing’s general manager of conventions and business events, Rob Nelson, who admitted that the agency, as the city’s conventions bureau, had long had a more associations-focused strategy.
“We want to explore our capabilities in the incentives space and are doing work now to look at what that market potential might be,” he remarked.
Hosting the G20 Leaders’ Summit in 2014 was a pivotal point for Brisbane, said Nelson. In addition to providing unprecedented exposure for the city, he said it also enhanced its reputation for hosting world-class business events, which led to greater confidence in the sector and improvements in infrastructure.
On the hotel front, 900 rooms have been added to the city’s inventory in the last two years with the likes of TRYP, Hotel Jen, Four Points by Sheraton and NEXT Hotels among the new entrants. They will be joined by new Mantra, Holiday Inn Express, Pullman, ibis, Emporium, W and Westin offerings over the next few years.
Yet these projects pale in comparison to the AU$3 billion (US$2.2 billion) development of integrated resort, Queen’s Wharf Brisbane by the Destination Brisbane Consortium.
Announcing the development at AIME in February, Consortium partner The Star Entertainment Group’s Queensland managing director, Geoff Hogg, said the project would restore and reactivate nine heritage buildings in the precinct and upon completion in 2022, would feature 3,100 hotel rooms and apartments, 50 bars and restaurants, a pedestrian bridge to South Bank, a mixture of retail offerings and, “12 football fields of public realm space that will accommodate up to 60,000 people”.
“Situated along the Brisbane River, it will transform a (largely underutilised) heritage area of the city into a world-class and iconic multi-use precinct,” he said.
Increased air access to Brisbane will also assist Nelson’s cause, with Qantas, Etihad, Air Canada, China Eastern all upgrading or introducing new routes to the city.
As well, Brisbane Airport is constructing a new parallel runway which will double the airport’s capacity to handle flights coming from Singapore and Hong Kong.
The bureau is currently working with Business Events Australia on a new market segmentation project and marketing assets to shape their brand, which could tackle the lack of awareness and visibility where Brisbane’s offerings are concerned.
Nelson said: “We look at itineraries of other destinations and we think you can do all that in Brisbane, but perhaps we’re not telling the story well enough through the right distribution channels.
“You can do the Australian bucket list in Brisbane – feed the dolphins in Moreton Island, go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, do all the Australian things under beautiful sky. We need to get that message across, particularly for the Asian market.”
And with the supporting infrastructure now in place, “we’ve got the capacity now”, Nelson expressed.
Moreton Island makes an interesting post-show tour destination;
G20 Leaders Summit 2014 delivered unprecedented exposure for Brisbane
{Taking Numbers}
{Spotlight}
Making waves at events
Brand new to the business events product offering in Brisbane is Pop Up Radio Australia, an online station that provides live radio streams and podcasts on event-related content to conference participants at the venue, in regional locations or anywhere in the world.
The brainchild of Anthony Frangi, who’s been facilitating conferences for over 25 years, Pop Up Radio was launched in October 2015 at the Business Innovation & Improvement in Government Conference in Brisbane.
“Podcasting and streaming is very much a way of life today,” said Frangi, “We wanted to build a business that not only captures a permanent record of the extraordinary people who present at events, but also to celebrate the highly successful conference market.”
To date, Pop Up Radio has secured more than 12 events within the health, planning, community, government, university and innovation sectors.
As its name suggests, the Pop Up Radio station is set up at the conference venue and inclusions are customised to the needs of the event such as on-air branding, sponsorship opportunities, panel discussions and more.
{Insider}
Mat Finch, general manager, Ibis Styles Brisbane Elizabeth Street
Mat Finch, general manager, Ibis Styles Brisbane Elizabeth Street
Discover homegrown produce
A visit to the weekly Jan Powers Farmers Markets make for a feel good, grassroots experience right in the heart of the city. With a social and community slant, the markets are a great place to explore exotic products sourced from local growers and producers. It is a big, bustling, open-air food market that sells all the most interesting food and plants, kitchen goods and wine, breads, meat, fish and fowl under the sun.
Immerse in contemporary art
Housing over 16,000 works, the combined Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) is the centrepiece of Brisbane’s South Bank cultural precinct. GOMA is home to a unique interactive Children’s Art Centre and the Australian Cinémathèque, the only dedicated cinema facility in an Australian art museum.
Get a taste of street food where it meets urban vibes
Brisbane’s urban food scene comes alive in a disused container wharf a stone’s throw from the city each Friday and Saturday night. Wander through the Eat Street Markets bazaar and sample everything from aromatic international cuisine to boutique beers.
Lim Boon Kwee
Dusit International has appointed Lim as COO. Based in Bangkok, he joined Dusit in March 2013 as president of Dusit Fudu Hotel Management Company, Dusit’s joint venture company based in Shanghai. With this appointment, the office of the president of Dusit Fudu will be integrated with that of the COO of Dusit International.
Kurt Ekert
Ekert now leads CWT in the position of president and CEO, replacing Douglas Anderson who has left to pursue other opportunities. Ekert was last executive vice president and COO of Travelport.
Jose Alberto Ocasio
Ocasio has been chosen to open Mövenpick Resort Boracay this July. He has extensive hospitality experience, and was general manager at various properties under the Banyan Tree Holdings.
Elvis Ng
Suntec Singapore has made Ng its new chef de cuisine. Ng joins from Orchard Hotel where he was sous chef. He has over 20 years of culinary experience.
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