(Left to right) Nigel Gaunt, President, ICESAP, shakes hands with Sherrif Karamat, CEO, PCMA, while Claire Smith, Chair, PCMA Board of Directors, sits in the middle. They are joined by (standing) Philip Pang, Marketing & Membership Manager, ICESAP, and Michelle Crowley, PCMA’s Senior Director of Global Strategy.
PCMA-ICESAP (Professional Convention Management Association - ICESAP The Incentive Conference & Event Society Asia-Pacific) announced a series of initiatives to support the business events community in Asia-Pacific at AIME in Melbourne, Australia on February 20.
New regional vice presidents
A year after announcing the appointment of three regional vice presidents, the organisation has since doubled this number to six.
They comprise: Aileen London, senior manager, global meeting services JAPAC, Oracle Global Procurement (Australasia/Pacific); Erica Hegarty, head of sales Asia-Pacific, Pacific World (Southeast Asia); Vishal Dhale, head - sales rewards & recognition, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance, India (South Asia); Alicia Yao, managing director, IME Consulting, Beijing (China); Darren Chuckry, managing director, Uniplan, Hong Kong (Hong Kong/Macau/Taiwan); and Shogo Kaneda, event planner, Japan Management Association, Tokyo (Japan/South Korea).
Commenting on the appointments, president of PCMA-ICESAP, Nigel Gaunt said, "Our Regional Vice Presidents will be instrumental in collaborating not only on events but all our enhanced member benefits and services. To ensure they have the capacity to take on the scope of the role, they are recruiting Regional Panel Members from local PCMA-ICESAP members in each of the six regions to support their local initiatives."
PCMA also announced it has merged the ICESAP and PCMA's regional advisory boards, creating one board for PCMA APAC. The 2018 regional board will be led by Oscar Cerezales, COO Asia Pacific, MCI Group.
Membership changes
ICESAP members now receive the same full benefits enjoyed by PCMA members. This includes private community access, member discount for PCMA events and 100+ OnDemand education session, as well as exclusive digital content.
In addition to the increased benefits, the PCMA-ICESAP agency accreditation now sees more than 10 agencies accredited. The strong accreditation programme, along with the relaunch of the IC&E distance-learning program, gives members increased benefits for engaging with PCMA ICESAP.
2018 Annual Conference
PCMA-ICESAP also announced the location of its 2018 annual conference in Bangkok, Thailand, in partnership with Accor Hotels and Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau. The conference will take place November 7 to 9, 2018 at the Sofitel.
PCMA Education Foundation
The PCMA Education Foundation supports the future of the business events industry by awarding grants and scholarships. The latest developments in the APAC region, as announced by Karen Bolinger CEO of the Melbourne Convention Bureau [MCB] at AIME focuses on funding a research study to investigate the future trends and emerging business models for the business events sector in APAC market.