Events sector finally getting recognition it deserves – what's next?

The MICE industry was among business sectors that suffered some of the most devastating effects of the pandemic, but leaders also see plenty of silver linings as the crisis fades in the rearview mirror. 

At the recent UFI Asia-Pacific Conference 2023 in Kuala Lumpur, leaders in the Asia's events and exhibitions space shared about their effective advocacy strategies and learnings from the crisis during the two-day event. 

Here are the key takeaways: 

Recognition of business events as a major economic contributor

It took a pandemic for governments to realise the importance and major economic contribution of the business events sector. 

At the onset of the pandemic, many governments were initially quick to lump exhibitions into the "mass gatherings" category and prevented many of such business events from taking place on the basis of health concerns. 

Such blanket responses, common across many cities and destinations, also showed a lack of understanding and appreciation of the events and exhibitions sector among governments, said leaders. 

"Exhibitions are not just about the number of visitors or the amount of sales made on the floor. Exhibitions have a major impact on the national economy," said Francis Teo, president of Malaysian Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers (MACEOS). 

The glaring absence of exhibitions and resultant lack of economic contribution on the local/national economy was clearly felt beyond the MICE industry during the pandemic, said Teo, who spoke about how associations like MACEOS engaged with government stakeholders – three changes in the Malaysian government notwithstanding – to reopen business events safely. 

And a positive outcome of that? Governments around the world have come to appreciate the role of the business events industry. 

Michael Kruppe, general manager of Shanghai New International Expo Center, believes that a repeat of the pandemic-induced shutdown of business events and exhibitions is unlikely to happen in the future, including China. “The [Chinese] government finally understood that without exhibitions, there is no local economy. The government learnt a lesson,” he said.

Engaging the policymakers: 'Help them to help us'

Besides getting the governments to understand the economic weight of the exhibitions sector, association chiefs also spoke of the importance to present data and arguments to policymakers and help them make good public decisions that would also drive the events industry's growth.

Besides "building up and maintaining good long-term relationship" with the authorities, Stuart Bailey, chairman of Hong Kong Exhibition & Convention Industry Association sees it crucial that association leaders keep up their advocacy push with policymakers and connect the events sector's role in the city's growth vision. 

In Hong Kong's case, where the authorities are looking to grow the city as a fintech hub, Bailey remarked, "Hong Kong isn't going to be a fintech hub unless [the government] helps us in that big fintech event that they hail so much ... and the list goes on for wine, art, etc," he remarked. "Directly talking to things that are going to help them to help everybody else is good."

Hattendorf concurred, "We have to translate them into policy speak and show that we are a strategic asset for a government to fulfill its own strategy for a destination. It's translating what we do into the dialect that they speak." 

Combine forces to speak in a single voice

Not only did the pandemic opened up a lot more dialogue and engagement between MICE association leaders with governments, it also led the industry to break out of the siloed mentality and work towards common goals. 

Mark Temple-Smith, COO of Informa Markets, sees a growing collective voice in the business events industry as one of the positive changes from the pandemic. "I think going into the pandemic we view each other as competitors, but coming out of the of the pandemic we are much more collaborative on big issues.

"We have a dialogue on big issues such as net carbon zero, on how do we as an industry address out our own carbon footprint and insure ourselves into the future," he added. 

For Richard Ireland, president of Singapore Association of Convention & Exhibition Organisers & Suppliers (SACEOS), a key lesson from the crisis is "trust and collaboration", citing the launch of the MICE Sustainability Roadmap by SACEOS and the Singapore Tourism Board in November 2022 as an example.

"In Singapore, associations and government working together is not a new thing, but it was certainly a lot of trust and confidence that we could tackle a very difficult issue together. I'm not saying that was a direct correlation from the crisis, but this trust and collaboration help us deal with tough problems and set the bar very high [for the roadmap]. I think that was a direct correlation of the trust that has developed."

Events sector has a seat at the table – use it well

Having built up the relevance and influence of the business events industry to many economies through the pandemic, UFI's Hattendorf urged association heads, industry chiefs and all sector members to keep up visibility of the sector. 

"Global Exhibitions Day, the first Wednesday in June, is the day when we as an industry around the world show ourselves and we are being watched," he said. 

Another key learning, said Hattendorf, is for the events sector to apply the "collaboration in crisis" mentality to "collaboration on issues", which has been successfully translated into industry-wide initiatives like on sustainability and Net Carbon Zero Events.

"We have built with an 18-month collaboration of more than 500 businesses across the whole events sector to commit to the Paris Climate Accords targets. We are self regulating ourselves on the road to carbon neutrality before some government institution does that. And we're doing that together with the United Nations because we have a single voice and a single narrative."

"[The events sector] now has a seat at the table and we can talk to the airlines and the hospitality sector about what needs to move and who can take care of what," he added. "We have many opportunities to support our sector and drive ourselves forward."