On 24 May, the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) organised an exhibition workshop titled –‘Macao MICE Industry Workshop - Creating a MICE Brand and Product Offering’ - at the Macao Business Support Centre. Over 50 representatives participated in the workshop including those from local hotel industries, convention and exhibition centres, professional convention organisers, destination managers and representatives of industry-related associations. The participants thought that the workshop was highly practical, and could help improving the professional level of the industry.
In order to remain consistent with the direction the exhibition industry is taking the Macao SAR launched ‘Priority to Conventions’, and advance the development of the convention and exhibition industry, IPIM, the government department designated to co-ordinate the development of the MICE industry in Macao, aims to enhance the professional standard of the industry operators by organising various thematic seminars and workshops. In the welcoming speech delivered by Irene Va Kuan Lau IPIM’s Executive Director, said that in terms of the promotion of the Convention Industry Macao SAR Government and the local convention industry keep in closecontact and co-operate with each other. At the same time, the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) has recently released its latest Annual Statistics and Rankings. In its 2016 report, Macao surged to 72nd from 93rd in worldwide ranking, while it was up to 17th in the Asia-Pacific. Furthermore, 37 international meetings held in Macao were recognisedby ICCA, the highest number in history. The overall results are encouraging.
The workshop was conducted by Mike Williams, senior consultant of IPIM in the convention and exhibition area, who has over 20 years of experience of marketing in international conventions and exhibitions. The emphasis of the workshop was to discuss how to build up the ‘Convention’ image of Macao to increase the competitive advantages of the developing convention industry. Further emphasis wasplaced onthe analysis of the needs and the service expectations of customers, and using a unique selling strategy to attract more international conventions to be held in Macao. At the same time, the knowledge of the participants aboutthe convention market and the needs of customers were enhanced through the workshop, which wasaimed atbetter understanding and satisfying the real needs of the customers in the production promotion service and to increase competitiveness.
Besides, the representatives of The Industry and Commerce Association of Macao from central and southern and northern parts of Macao peninsular and theislands were also invited to the workshop to introduce the latest community activities, so as to encourage business people and customers of the convention to engage in the neighbourhoods in Macao to push forward the development of the communities economies. Most of the participants thought that the workshop increased their knowledge and skills in the area of the fundamentals, marketing and promoting. Moreover, there is also an increase in the professional standards of the convention industry and the workshop provided a chance to encourage communication throughoutthe industry.
