Macau hosts MICE seminar featuring international congresses speakers

Organized by IAPCO (International Association of Professional Congress Organizers) and hosted by the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO), the “IAPCO & Macau Regional Seminar on Organizing Congresses” is opened today (March 16) at the Four Seasons Hotel, Macau. About 100 MICE industry professionals from Macau and other regions in Asia participated. This regional seminar aims to provide an educational opportunity for people in the MICE industry to further develop their event planning skills and raise the standards of customer service. This will be IAPCO’s only seminar specifically on professional conference organizing in Asia in 2009. About 100 professional congress organizers (PCOs), convention and visitors bureaus, events management companies and other meetings industry representatives from Macau, the Mainland, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand take part in the four-day seminar and each participant will receive a certificate of attendance from IAPCO & MGTO. Three internationally renowned speakers who are experts in the congress industry are invited to share their knowledge and experience on a broad range of topics like Creating the Project Plan, Promotion of a Destination and Bidding to Win, Financial Planning & Budgets, Venue Management, Program Management & Abstract Handling, Congress Registration and On-Site Arrangements and Accountability & Crisis Management. Philippe Fournier, Vice President of IAPCO, is the managing director of MCI in Europe. He has been in the industry organizing congresses in France and all over the world since 1984. Roslyn McLeod, IAPCO Council Member, is the managing director of Tour Hosts Pty Ltd. in Australia. A frequent speaker at regional seminars, Roslyn was awarded Medal of the Order of Australia for her contribution to the meeting industry. Sarah Storie-Pugh, Chairman of Concorde Services Ltd in London, has involved in over 350 events of various scales. She was awarded the meetings industry Personality of the Year Award in 2004.
Director of MGTO João Manuel Costa Antunes pointed out in his welcome speech that the seminar has received overwhelming response, with around 100 meetings industry representatives from Macau, Pearl River Delta and other regions in Asia. He expressed that though the global economic downturn is hitting hard the business tourism industry, the trade must not be discouraged. “We should take this opportunity to strengthen our fundamentals and be well equipped with necessary trainings to turn challenges into business opportunities,” he stressed. He believed that from the valuable insight of the speakers and interactions with participants, the local business tourism trade could enhance their competitiveness and standards of service. MGTO hopes that through hosting this regional seminar, it will work closer with IAPCO and establish a long term relationship, which will become a very powerful and effective promotional tool to show more industry professionals what Macau as an appealing and competitive MICE destination has to offer. IAPCO is a non-profit organization founded in 1968 that represents professional organizers and managers of international congresses, conventions and special events. IAPCO is committed in raising the standards of service amongst its members and other sectors of the meetings industry by means of continuous education and interaction with other professionals. To stimulate regional business tourism in the markets currently served by local carriers, MGTO and Air Macau jointly invited representatives from major MICE publications to come to Macau and learn about the development of the MICE industry and visit MICE facilities. The media familiarization group also took part in the opening ceremony of the “IAPCO & Macau Regional Seminar on Organizing Congresses” to generate extensive coverage on the event.
The 17 media representatives are from professional convention and exhibition publications based in the Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Korea and the United Kingdom.