Digital innovation holds the key for MICE industry revival
Exhibitions in Asia show a stronger appetite for digital or hybrid events; Asians are more than twice as likely to have participated in digital events than respondents from other regions
image for illustrative purpose
Data from the upcoming "Global Recovery Insights Report" by UFI, Explori and Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO) show that exhibitions in Asia show a stronger appetite for digital or hybrid events from respondents in Asia – they are more than twice as likely to have participated in such events than respondents from other regions.
Said Kai Hattendorf, CEO of UFI (The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry), "Just as there was a big rush to digital only, there is now a big rush to physical only – and we are seeing this in Europe, US and China. I think it will be interesting to watch Asia because in our survey, we find APAC audiences most open to digital innovation. And I foresee in two years' time, we will see the co-mingling of online and onsite – where online provides the pre-show, post-show, omni-channel year-long engagement to the tentpole onsite events, and could account for up to 15 per cent of total revenues."
PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association Dashboard) APAC Survey reflects similar findings. A greater proportion of planners in Asia Pacific (38 per cent) were planning to simultaneously stream their in-person events to virtual audiences, compared to their North American counterparts (17 per cent). Of the APAC respondents planning a hybrid 2021 event, nearly 80 per cent planned for their in-person and virtual audiences to interact, compared with 27 per cent of North American planners.
Karen Bolinger, managing director APAC for PCMA, said, "We see similar trends as UFI – where APAC is most open to digital adoption and embracing virtual and hybrid. Possibly, it's both cultural and generational – Singapore and Australia are island nations and we have to travel overseas, so virtual/hybrid will remain a big part of conferences."
Veemal Gungadin, founder and CEO of GEVME, an event tech platform, said, "We've been talking about virtual for a long time. The biggest change is now people have started seeing value in it. Virtual is now a given and there was a study that showed the NPS score for an event was the same, whether it's physical or virtual. So virtual has arrived and people see value, and will work to extract more value from it."
Andrew Phua, executive director, exhibitions and conferences of Singapore Tourism Board (STB), observing how physical trade shows and conferences are back in other markets, said Singapore was taking a calibrated and sustained approach. It piloted a total of 90 events last year. The key lesson, he said, "is to be agile, nimble and take a modular approach."
Currently, the Singapore travel and business events sector is waiting in anticipation for borders to reopen so that they can restart their engines. The government has signalled that the pandemic has moved to a new phase – that it is endemic and society will have to learn with it – and its goal is to fully vaccinate 75 per cent of the population by National Day, August 9.
The MICE sector is one it cannot afford to lose. In 2017, the sector supported more than 34,000 direct and indirect jobs, with a value-add of S$3.8 billion, or close to one per cent of Singapore's GDP. Globally, the business events industry supported nearly 26 million jobs and contributed US$1.5 trillion to global GDP in 2017, which would rank it as the 13th largest economy globally. The good news is, it is clawing its way back.
PCMA's Covid-19 Recovery Dashboard survey (January 2021) showed that 25 per cent of planners and 31 per cent of suppliers were willing to travel any distance necessary if the programme was worth it. And for those who attended a recent physical event, 63 per cent of planners and 77 per cent of suppliers said it was worth all the additional precautions and safety measures and would do so again.
More planners and suppliers are feeling hopeful – 69 per cent of planners and 64 per cent of suppliers shared this sentiment in June 2021, compared to 48 per cent and 47 per cent respectively in January 2021.
Revenues have also started to pick up in the exhibitions sector, which is expected to grow globally by 106 per cent this year compared to 2020.
What this means is that when the events sector returns, in whatever shapes and forms, venues, hotels and other suppliers in Asia Pacific will have to continue to evolve their digital offerings – from studios and broadcast venues to live streaming, production capabilities and new tech tools and working with clients to offer a superior omni-channel experience that embraces both online and onsite.
Hattendorf believes it would be an opportunity squandered if the industry, caught up in the current euphoria of a return to physical, just went back to its old ways instead of taking the best of digital to enable events to become 365-day year-round engagement.
