Log In
The future of the MICE industry is in good hands. For the past few weeks, teams of students from Singapore Institute of Technology participated in a case study competition to design an event that uses emerging practices for the post-pandemic world. PCMA’s Singapore team mentored the students and provided an industry perspective to ensure solutions are relevant to real-world issues. Utilising PCMA’s Convening Asia Pacific as a reference, students were given a project brief and 10 weeks to deliver and present their proposed plans.
Winners were competing for a scholarship to take the newly launched APAC version of PCMA’s Digital Events Strategist (DES) Certification and a USD 1,000 award. The DES is the most current and comprehensive course on how to plan, produce and measure digital and hybrid events from start to finish for the business events industry.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the shortlisted teams were announced virtually and subsequently invited to the Awards Ceremony for the announcement and to receive their DES scholarship.
Students were given a project brief and 10 weeks to deliver and present their proposed plans.
Envisioning a hybrid event with a live component in Shanghai, the winning team was chosen based on their strong understanding of audience needs, fortitude in going against the grain, and creative approach towards their event concept “Journey to New Horizons”. Well defined objectives, clear strategic direction, and innovative uses of technology such as Telepresence robots for audience engagement led them to inch ahead of the strong competition from the rest of the teams.
Members of the winning teams included:
– Benson Tan Soon Qiang, Kellyn Ng Hui Ning, Koh Qin Min, Cecilia Lim Shi Min
“There’s always a saying that technology is either a bane or a boon. 10 years from now, I hope to see that technology is no longer a bane and is just a boon, that helps us to break down the barriers that we are all currently facing.” – Benson Tan Soon Qiang
We were thrilled to see multiple examples on the use of event technology, gamification, and an emphasis on event sustainability. Here are just a few of the ideas that the teams came up with:
- Learning Journey Roadmaps
- Hosting Clubhouse sessions as an additional awareness channel
- Use of Intermission Activities between sessions such as mini quizzes, trivia and sponsored engagements
- Engaging the Start-up ecosystem by involving VCs in Business Hackathons and related problem solving for the business events industry
- “Cultural Nests” experiences that engages virtual attendees with the host destination’s culture