THE new 323-key Shanghai Marriott Hotel Pudong East is celebrating its opening last week with several promotions, including a meeting offer.

Besides offering bonus points to Marriott Rewards members and free buffet breakfast for guests who book two consecutive nights’ stay, the hotel has made available a full-day meeting package from RMB488 (US$78.50) per pax, excluding a 15 per cent service charge.

Valid from now until August 31, the meeting package includes standard meeting amenities; use of a flipchart or white board, audiovisual system with two microphones, and an LCD projector and built-in screen; morning and afternoon refreshments; and a working lunch with free-flow of non-alcoholic beverages.

Located in the heart of Pudong, Shanghai Marriott Hotel Pudong East is equipped with a 655m² divisible and pillar-free grand ballroom, 10 function rooms, an executive lounge on the 21^st floor and a signature Chinese restaurant with several private dining rooms, among other facilities.

THE five-star One World Hotel in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia has started the New Year with a refreshed series of meeting deals.

Valid for the whole year, meeting packages with lunch are available at RM175++ (US$58) and RM165++ for full-day and half-day arrangements respectively. Meeting packages without lunch cost RM140++ for a full day and RM130++ for half a day.

Meeting planners will also enjoy standard meeting amenities, personalised stationery for delegates, complimentary Internet access for one user per day (eight hours) in the meeting room, and complimentary use of an LCD TV for signage, among other perks.

THE ICCA Forum for Young Professionals (FYP), to be held alongside AIME next month, will feature more industry speakers, additional case studies, as well as a chance for participants to compete for an attendance at the ICCA Congress 2013 in Shanghai.

Over February 25 and 26, some 18 speakers, including a record eight from overseas – up from four last year, will address participants who are under 30 years old and/or have been in the meetings industry for less than three years on a full-time basis.

The event aims to expose new meetings industry members to the latest trade issues and offer learning points from global experts.

Elizabeth Rich, manager of ICCA FYP at AIME 2013, told TTGmice e-Weekly that “this year seems to be an especially good one for securing overseas speakers”.

Rich added that FYP never had trouble sourcing for speakers. “I’ve always found meetings industry (practitioners) especially collegial in their approach, particularly generous in sharing their experiences to educate others.”

Meanwhile, MeetTaiwan’s Shake to Share event networking programme now joins other industry case studies which will be presented on February 25.

Rich expects ICCA FYP at AIME 2013 to draw the same number of participants as past editions.

She said: “We usually have 30 to 35 pax – most of them are from Australia and a handful from Asia. Last year we had 35 participants, of which 10 were from Asia. This year’s registrations are still streaming in, but already we have participants from South Africa, Malaysia, South Korea and Australia. It is generally a mix of staff from bureaus, centres, PCOs, hotels and occasionally some in-house meetings managers. Young employees of ICCA members predominate since it is a benefit of their membership.”

Rich recognises that staff retention is a problem, but has observed that “the young ones who (attend FYP) go away with a much heightened appreciation of the breadth of the industry…and are enthused with the potential of what they can achieve”.

When asked if FYP has helped the meetings industry to retain young professionals in its 13-year history, Rich said: “While I haven’t actually done any quantitative research of this, I have watched some of my ‘students’ go onto great success in their careers.”

FYP is organised twice a year by ICCA, and the next one will be held in conjunction with EIBTM in Barcelona.

COEX will launch a concurrent event, Packaging World, alongside its annual Automation World exhibition in Seoul this March, a move that is expected to boost trade buyers’ interest and show experience.

According to Susan Kim, Coex overseas marketing manager, the new event “allows visitors to experience the entire factory automation process, from production and machinery to packaging”.

Visitors to Automation World 2013 will gain free access to Packaging World, and vice versa.

“We hope this concurrent event will widen the reach of Automation World and attract further businesses interested in (various) aspects of the automation industry,” said Kim.

Coex said in a press statement that South Korea’s automation industry is valued at more than US$15 billion, making it the eighth largest automation market in the world, and that the opportunity to meet local buyers is consistently ranked as the leading reason companies from around the world choose to exhibit at Automation World every year.

An estimated US$29.4 million in business deals were arranged at Automation World 2012.

COEX expects the exhibition, which is slated for March 13-16 at the Coex Convention and Exhibition Center, to draw 30,000 visitors this year – a 25 per cent year-on-year increase. A stronger seller representation is expected too, with exhibiting companies projected to grow 10 per cent to reach 300, and the number of booths to rise 18 per cent to 900.

Kim hopes to grow European and American representation at the show which is now dominated by Asian sellers. Approximately 75 per cent of exhibitors in 2012 were from Asia.

YOKOHAMA Convention & Visitors Bureau has won bids for two major trade events – Goldschmidt Conference and 17th International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste ISOT – which will take place in 2016.

The bid for the Goldschmidt Conference, to be hosted by the Geochemical Society, European Association of Geochemistry and the Geochemical Society of Japan, was secured by the MICE bureau and venue PACIFICO Yokohama.

The conference is expected to draw 2,500 delegates.

Harue Masuda, head of the local council that leads the site selection, recognised the capability of PACIFICO Yokohama as an all-in-one venue that provides easy access from international and domestic cities and offers a wide variety of shops and restaurants nearby.

The Japanese city was also selected to host ISOT in June 2016, a chemosensory sciences event that is held once every four years. The last ISOT was held in Stockholm, Sweden in June 2012.

Yuzo Ninomiya, chair of the Japan Host Committee, said in a press statement that Yokohama would make an ideal site for ISOT, as the city was home to the first Japanese port that opened to the world, thus making the destination the birthplace of modern Japanese culture.