Sarawak embraces legacy as regional hub for upcoming ICCA Congress

The APAC hub will host a series of educational sessions alongside the main event in Kaohsiung, with a focus on legacy.

The Sarawak Asia Pacific Regional Hub is one of seven across the globe that will run 31 October to 5 November 2020.
The Sarawak Asia Pacific Regional Hub is one of seven across the globe that will run 31 October to 5 November 2020.

Sarawak has been selected as the Asia Pacific Regional Hub for the upcoming ICCA Congress 2020 in Kaohsiung, which has embraced a multi-hub format.

The regional hub is one of seven across the globe that will run simultaneously with the main event in Kaohsiung from 31 October to 5 November 2020.

The Sarawak Asia Pacific Regional Hub ICCA Congress 2020 will held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching with Business Events Sarawak as the local host and organiser. The regional hub will focus on the legacy impacts of MICE and, following from the 2016 ICCA Congress in Sarawak, will be themed ‘ICCA Tribe Legacy’.

Naturally, educational sessions will focus on legacy planning.

“Having a legacy vision, planning with purpose, an active implementation process followed by monitoring and measurement will illustrate the often-unrecognised, intangible benefits of hosting conventions,' said Amelia Roziman, Acting CEO of Business Events Sarawak.

“We want to amplify awareness and advocate the power of business events legacies through our educational sessions which will be led by Malaysian and international presenters.

While the upcoming hybrid congress marks another milestone for Sarawak, it will also pave the way for more robust regional and national collaboration.

The Malaysian state is also preparing a new programme, known as 'Tribe Legacy Sarawak', to assess both the economic and longer-term legacy impacts of business events.

Sarawak's Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture and Minister of Youth and Sports, Datuk Haji Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, said: "This will provide a ground-breaking take on evaluating the contributions of business events from a Malaysian perspective to promote a healthy balance between social inclusivity, environmental sustainability and economic prosperity.

“Legacy building is a 'win-win' for the local host organisations, professional sectors, government entities and the society at large. In short, everyone benefits from convention legacies.”

ICCA’s CEO Senthil Gopinath, added: “This year’s Congress is the first Global hybrid experience that ICCA will host and we’re excited to be able to offer delegates the opportunity to join from a regional hub.

"BESarawak, a long-standing member of ICCA, was selected as our Asia Pacific regional hub host because of their commitment and creativity, clearly evidenced when the destination hosted one of the memorable congresses of ICCA.”