MICE leaders gather in Subic Bay

This is Mark Cochrane here jumping into Paul's blog space...

I just returned from the annual Philippine MICE Conference. This year more than 300 delegates attended the event in Subic Bay. The conference featured leaders from all corners of Asia's MICE industry. MICE China's managing director, David Zhong, charted the growth of China's outbound meetings market which started from close zero just ten years ago. David noted that favourite destinations of mainland groups such as Singapore and Thailand have taken notice as the average group size has risen now to 300 persons with an average per head budget of RMB10,000.

Catherine McNabb, formerly of the Singapore Tourism Board, explained Singapore's knack for winning mega events. (It is a laser-focus on events that match its strengths and the alignment of all government departments like only Singapore can manage. "Nothing is done in isolation in Singapore.")

Social media was top of mind and featured prominently in the plenary sessions. Morris Sim, CEO of Circos, a brand analytics consultancy, urged event organisers to use Twitter as an "in conference tool" to open two-way communications and to use it after the event to steer participants back to the event website.