Its latest event, the SingapoReimagine MICE Virtual Show – the first such collaboration between Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and local Mice players – will be held from March 3 to 4 and is expected to host some 700 participants. It will be a showcase of reimagined experiences and an opportunity to connect over new business opportunities.
Building on the success of hosting the PCMA Convening Leaders 2021 and several other pilot projects since the SingapoReimagine initiative was first launched in November 2020, the SingapoReimagine MICE Virtual Show will facilitate 1-on-1 virtual meetings between participants and up to 40 leading suppliers like hotels, convention centres and tour operators. It will feature a locally curated programme that includes live-streamed cultural and leisure tours, culinary masterclasses by celebrity chefs, and a live panel discussion with industry leaders on organising pilot events in Singapore. It will also
“Singapore has started its journey to reimagine the future of business events, and we are doing so in partnership with our Mice industry to push new boundaries using technology and creativity,” Dr Edward Koh, Executive Director (Conventions, Meetings & Incentive Travel), Singapore Tourism Board, said. “The SingapoReimagine MICE Virtual Show demonstrates how we are transforming industry models to seize new opportunities, and underlines our reputation as a safe, trusted and innovative destination for business events. We look forward to having delegates from around the world join us in this journey of exploration and reimagination.”
The event will be held within a virtual 3D environment, where participants can navigate the virtual tradeshow floor easily with their mobile devices and connect with exhibitors, such as Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Airlines and Sentosa Development Corporation. They can also catch up on various event programmes on demand and take part in trivia quizzes to win prizes.
The top 5 voted buyers will each win a hosted trip to Singapore on Singapore Airlines, inclusive of a hosted stay and exclusive experiences (subject to prevailing international travel restrictions and travel protocols).
Participants can also look forward to seven unique experiences exclusively curated for them, including live cultural tours at Waterloo Street and Little India; masterclasses by homegrown distillery Brass Lion Distillery and Malcolm Lee, chef-owner of the world’s first Michelin star Peranakan restaurant Candlenut; and a behind-the-scenes tour of one of Singapore’s oldest coffee shops, Killiney. To further enhance the experience, experience kits will be sent to selected participants, allowing them to participate alongside the sessions or enjoy the activities at their own pace.
To bring the SingapoReimagine MICE Virtual Show to life, STB has partnered established local event organisers MICE Neurol, Aspen Event Planners and TLC Events. The event organisers have organised over 48 digital events between them in the last eight months, including providing production and event management services for the 2020 Alzheimer’s Disease International Conference, a 3-day event with over 1,000 delegates.
Voted the best convention city in the world for 18 years straight, despite the challenges placed by the global pandemic, Singapore garnered global acclaim earlier this year when it hosted the Global Broadcast Centre for the Professional Convention Management Association’s (PCMA) Convening Leaders 2021 conference.
The conference was held for the first time outside North America in its 64-year history.
“Singapore is not afraid to embrace technology,” PCMA President and CEO, Sherrif Karamat, said in an interview with Meetings & Conventions Asia praising the event, which took place in a state-of-the-art hybrid event broadcast studio, located within Singapore’s iconic Marina Bay Sands. “They have the ability, but they also have the expertise to work with new technologies.”
With health and safety as the top priority during Covid-19, Singapore has resumed Mice events in a gradual and calibrated manner, leveraging on technology to reimagine the future of business travel in Singapore.
As part of the Event Industry Resilience Roadmap, which serves to establish a national standard for the implementation of STB’s Safe Business Events framework, strict safety management measures are put in place by the organisers, venues and suppliers to ensure utmost safety without compromising too much on the event experience.
These measures include pre-event communication, pre-event Antigen Rapid Tests, issuance of TraceTogether tokens to foreign delegates for contact tracing, social distancing robots, and a strict cohorting system to minimise inter-mingling between delegates.
All these events fall under the SingapoReimagine initiative launched by STB in November last year to reimagine travel for Singapore and the rest of the world, and to collectively shape the future of the tourism sector.