Seoul has had a solid year for business events despite the global economic downturn. Recently it was voted as the world’s ninth most-popular meetings city by the Union of International Associations (UIA), which ranks cities based on a strict criteria of hosting international association meetings. It is also worth noting that Seoul was the second most-popular city in Asia in the rankings.
Later this year the city will host a group of 2,000 people from AIA Thailand while IDA China will bring 5,000 delegates.
Star Brands
Korea Tourism Organization has begun promoting its Star Brand Conventions, the first of which will be the Meeting of the Society of Gastrointestinal Intervention on October 8-9 in Seoul.
The Star Brand concept identifies leading conferences in Korea with international reach and provides funding assistance to attract foreign delegates. The aim is to develop conventions that have a good chance of international recognition with an opportunity to grow it into an internationally recognised event.
“KTO has committed three years to this project until the year 2012 and will fully commit resources to ensure its success,” says Linda Womack, KTO’s international marketing manager.
“The Star Brand Convention project’s goal is to nurture the country’s MICE industry as part of supporting programmes for the ‘Visit Korea Year’ campaign scheduled for 2010-2012,” she says.
Hotel update
InterContinental Coex is renovating all meeting facilities include new lighting systems. It recently completed work to its facilities on the 30th floor. It will also begin improvements on its lobby lounge and club floor. Later in the third quarter of 2010 it will begin work on other rooms. The renovations are expected to finish in almost two years.
InterContinental Grand finished its upgrades three years ago but will now undergo a complete refit of its five largest suites. Coex Seoul has also just opened Room 300, a modern meeting facility within the convention centre that can seat 100 people.
New venue
One of the city’s newest off-site venues is
Seoul Partners House (
www.seoulpartnershouse.com), which is specifically designed for small to medium enterprises to host events. Seoul Partners House has a conference space for 100 people, a boardroom for 20 people and an outdoor terrace that can host up to 10 people.