KEEN on drawing more US meetings while also equipping Singapore’s associations with know-how, the Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau (SECB) teamed up with the US-based Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) to educate key industry members in an inaugural conference on Tuesday.
During the half-day Meeting Advisory Forum, PCMA’s key senior personnel delved into issues facing the industry such as association business models, sponsorship generation and technology adoption.
Neeta Lachmandas, assistant chief executive of business development, SECB, said: “The global meetings industry is a very competitive one. We need to continue building local association capability and keep abreast of global meeting trends and best practices.”
Explaining the choice of collaborator, she said: “PCMA is a very good partner to work with because it has a very strong education curriculum and also because it is one of the leading associations for meeting planners in the US; (it also has) a very big database for meeting planners that are looking to come to Asia (TTGmice e-Weekly, June 19, 2014).”
While yesterday’s session was the forum’s debut, Lachmandas said SECB has already been working closely with PCMA over the past two years. More collaborative projects between both parties are in the pipeline.
She said: “The US associations are looking to come to Asia today, and there are a lot of opportunities for these meetings to be held in Singapore.
“But this is a symbiotic relationship because it will not just be us who benefit but (US associations) will have a lot to gain from working with us as well,” she added.
However, as PCMA is largely US-centric, Lachmandas said the SECB is also expanding its efforts to reach out globally by working with the Union of International Associations (UIA).
For instance during TravelRave last year, the UIA held a two-day conference in Singapore on raising associations’ capability development.
Lachmandas said: “At the end of the day, we want to build the capabilities of our associations, and specifically their ability to bring events to Singapore, because that is in our interest.”
