SHAHRAM SABER
Managing director, GTMS Ltd
MACAU

Human resources and skill shortages will be the major challenge in 2010. Coming out of a downturn, competition will be even greater and industry must focus on providing a total quality experience – the industry can’t afford to disappoint the consumer.

Asia’s business events industry must respond to the urgent human resource needs to support a sustainable recovery and address skills shortages, particularly in key growth markets such as China and northeast Asia. Where is the industry going to find the people with the skills and experience necessary to support this growth?

From the established hotels and convention centres in the rest of Asia, of course. Training the chefs, sales teams, housekeeping managers and other important heads of departments as well as key support staff needs more than just a six-month training course. It takes time and will be a major challenge for the industry in the short term. 

PETER PECOTIC
Managing director, Turningpoint Solutions
CHINA

We expect the inbound corporate and government sectors, and sophisticated outbound incentives to resume growth, but the association market still needs to be viewed long-term.

World Expo 2010 in May will see Shanghai and China’s economic, political and cultural relevance higher than ever. This is an opportunity both for China and other countries and corporations involved to have not two weeks, but six months to project their respective brands and messages through a two-way event and exhibition platform.

However, regardless of how well Expo teams on the ground have organised themselves, the economic turmoil of last year meant most governments and corporations did not focus on developing event calendars to leverage their participation or sponsorship.

It will be challenging to balance the many short-lead, high-profile and sensitive Expo-related inbound events with the growing demands of the local corporate and government markets.

BRETT HOLLIS
Director, Big Stick Adventures
AUSTRALIA

MICE sector bookings will improve over the next 12 months, with a stronger uplift from October. Accountability to shareholders will remain extremely high, as it should. Clients may have become used to operating under very short lead times and, while this presents challenges, I think it may remain the norm this year. At the end of the day, people need to meet. 

In direct relation to what we do, I think clients will continue with more natural experiences – something that creates a journey, remains exciting and has real relevance back to their workplace. People still need motivation beyond money.

Companies that have done away with teambuilding and reward programmes during the downturn may find themselves behind those that haven’t in terms of job satisfaction, and attracting and retaining high-performing talent. This will become an important factor as employment levels rise around the world. The world will continue to get smaller so we all need to smile and say hello to each other.


LEE HWA-JUNG
CEO, People-x, Inc
KOREA

Heavyweight European PCOs are expanding their franchises to Asia, raising the possibility of merger and acquisition activity with local PCOs across the region. Meanwhile, service charges for organising meetings and events will likely continue to fluctuate due to the unstable global economy.

In this climate it is best to focus on market-price stabilisation and establishing partnerships with meetings and events planners, and their clients. Rising industries related to IT, bio- and nanotechnology will continue to develop and thus, create many small- to mid-sized meetings and incentive trips around Asia.

Domestically, Korea is building its brand among international events organisers and several bids have recently been won for major world conferences up to 2015, including this year’s G20 Summit. The government, in turn, is placing a strong emphasis on the MICE industry and preparing an extensive ‘Visit Korea’ campaign to attract international and corporate meetings.