Industrial Transformation Asia-Pacific 2021 leads the way for large-scale hybrid events

On the back of a collective public-private sector push, Singapore successfully concluded its largest in-person exhibition since the pandemic by late last year with the Industrial Transformation Asia-Pacific 2021 (ITAP) which ran from 22-24 November.

ITAP 2020 was a hybrid event with virtual formats for exhibitions and conferences. The on-site component at Singapore Expo required attendees to stay strictly within their allocated 20-pax per cohort so as to deter mixing with other attendees. Partnership ceremonies too had to be signed behind closed doors sans an audience.

One year on, ITAP 2021 was held with eased Covid-safe rules and served as a role model for Singapore’s ongoing pilot since July 2020 to test-bed newer Vaccination Differentiated Safe Management Measures (VDS+Test) at events. This meant ITAP 2021 delivered an experience that was easier for attendees to connect and facilitate business exchange, including quicker check-in processes and the freedom to mingle, as well as in-hall guided tours and off-site technical tours.

Face-to-Face engagements return safely to the show floor

Delegates arrived at the Singapore Expo & Max Atria as early as 1.5 hours ahead for mandatory pre-event testing (PET), after which clearly marked signage guided the next steps to the exhibition floor. Five lanes led delegates swiftly either to the registration desk, facial-recognition machines which printed out passes, or the VIP counter.

Thereafter, a thumb-sized dongle/token was assigned to each attendee for movement tracking and capacity control. Called the Safe Events Tool, the event technologies were developed by local companies Viatick and Trakomatic, both involved in previous trials of this technology at TravelRevive in November 2020 – the first international travel trade show in Asia Pacific – and Geo Connect Asia in March 2021.

At the opening ceremony, some 200 delegates sat one-metre apart and, together with Guest-of-Honour Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, witnessed a string of agreements to boost supply chain resilience.

Supported by organiser Constellar, delegates who could not join physically logged on to a digital platform, which ran the Industrial Transformation Forum, Future of Manufacturing Summit, the Standards Forum, digital sandboxes featuring product showcases, more than 500 business matchmaking sessions, and ‘live’ broadcasting of four on-site exhibition zones.

But for those who could, there was definitely a palpable sense of excitement in the air —since its 2020 event, the only physicalcomponent was the opening ceremony, and even then, it was with a cap of 100 attendees. Maximising attendee engagement for a large-scale hybrid event such as ITAP threw up challenges that required Constellar to balance safety management measures with the commercial outcomes of attendee interactions.

“We were fortunate to have the support of 143 exhibitors from 11 countries for ITAP 2021, largely due to the physical exhibition making a come-back. We were also heartened to learn from our exhibitors in a post-event survey that more than 85% were satisfied with their experience, with most of them expressing a desire to return in 2022,” said Constellar’s CEO Jean-François Quentin.

Tailored formats for varied attendee needs

Over three days on the exhibition floor, some 3,600 attendees freely mingled and explored the 109 booths representing eight countries. ITAP also led 160 participants over 14 curated guided tours on the exhibition floor, as well as five more guided tours hosting 100 participants for off-site technical tours.

The event was customised according to attendee needs, with sectors defined as: 1) an Experience Zone, led by Singapore Polytechnic which showcased Industry 4.0 enabling technology, learning programmes and success stories; 2) the Gateway to Industry 4.0 gallery showing the how-to for onboarding technologies; 3) eight national and industry-led pavilions.

To foster engagement and knowledge transfer opportunities on the event’s Industry 4.0 theme, individual companies such as Microsoft and SITA ran ‘mini theatre’ educational sessions hosting about six delegates each time, while it was also common to see small groups of under five gathered at the business-matching lounge and workstation zone.

Moving online to the Digital Sandbox, more than 300 participants joined the 25 complimentary sessions featuring practical and applied topics on Industry 4.0 adoption, case studies, innovations and regional initiatives. Some 20 C-suite participants also joined a roundtable session in collaboration with A*Star.

Overall, more than 11,000 participated at ITAP, with top source markets being Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Germany, Japan, US and Australia.