Associations are considering Asian destinations as host cities for their meetings because they are global, or are aspiring to be global and want to develop their Asian communities.
Those that aren’t global sometimes want to connect with Asia to see what’s going on here. That would usually be because their members want to learn about science or medicine in Asia, or how Asians are advancing practices in any given field.
Most of the Asian countries and most of the large cities have woken up and figured out that hosting international association meetings is important for global engagement – economic and intellectual.
The biggest boom story in terms of infrastructure, other than Dubai, would be Macau. Singapore has done some reinvention with the Marina Bay and Sentosa developments. Kuala Lumpur has a strong facility package, strong government support and the development of the Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau. Beijing and Shanghai are benefiting from the world’s interest in China. Seoul and Taipei have done well.
However, Singapore has always understood the importance of associations and conventions. Singapore’s only natural resource is its people and has had to build an entire nation on trade and innovation. And the global association community was a key element of its economic strategy.
What associations should keep in mind when looking at Asian destinations are the challenges and how to overcome them. If they try to do it themselves, they may have difficulties because of cultural issues. Examples include how business is done, governmental issues and capable suppliers.
Local knowledge usually means a good convention bureau, and a good PCO is key. A lot of destinations in Asia don’t have experienced bureaus and some don’t even have PCOs. My advice is to work with the ones that do.
Gary Grimmer is CEO of the consultancy GainingEdge gary@garygrimmer.com