The stir caused by last November’s inaugural Singapore Experience Awards may have abated, but for those honoured for excellent product and service delivery, will the event have a lasting impact? And will other operators be inspired to strive for similar achievements?
Excluding the customer service and retail sector, there were 251 self-nominated submissions for the events, experience, marketing and media categories of the awards.
Event organiser Singapore Tourism Board (STB) decided to merge the long-running annual tourism awards with the business travel and MICE awards, which were separated in 2007. The aim was to establish a single, prestigious awards platform for Singapore’s tourism industry.
Integrated products
Staying competitive Tony Lai, STB’s assistant chief executive (sector planning and development), says: “We wanted to emphasise that an integrated product and service delivery model that creates definitive experiences sets businesses apart and keeps customers coming back for more.”
Jean Chia, managing director of Pico Art International, which won Best Business Event Service Experience, says that to stay competitive, Singapore suppliers and service providers must ensure they meet market needs.
She cites Pico’s transition from an event-marketing agency to a platform for launching brands: “We now place more emphasis on devising insightful strategies to engage audiences, generate attention and drive action to deliver dynamic solutions and real value for our clients’ brands.”
Koelnmesse, PCO behind the Association Conference of the Year, SIGGRAPH Asia 2008, sees technical conventions playing a valuable role. Managing director Michael Dreyer says: “The event brought in different communities from the computer graphics industry. The conference emphasised and cultivated new talent, an aspect on which the organisers had spent a lot of money and effort.”
Good publicity STB’s efforts to build a profile for the award winners and finalists included a micro-site, www.singaporeexperience.com, and the main destination site, www.visitsingapore.com; its e-newsletter Passport; marketing collateral; and mass-media publicity.
Winners and finalists, in turn, can and should leverage the positive spin-off opportunities. For instance, Pico publicised its win in its quarterly newsletter, which is circulated to the group’s 34 worldwide offices and client base. Other winners and finalists have been less proactive in their marketing and public relations.
Positive future
For the future, Lai says: “With such an encouraging show of support in the awards’ inaugural year, we are aiming to highlight the aspirational value in being a winner and, in time, elevate the status of the awards and its winners internationally.”
Raising the benchmark and celebrating role models is one of STB’s strategies to ensure Singapore remains competitive, helping to differentiate the city from other destinations. But for this strategy to work, expressions of support from the trade and corporate or association organisers are not enough.
They must back it up in practice, run top-notch events and provide quality facilities and service, thus entering the contest. Their events, products and services will surely be scrutinised, but if they wish to win glory or at least share the global stage as credible finalists, then this is a necessary risk.