PRESSURED event budgets and funding for medical society events, along with stricter requirements on compliance with pharmaceutical codes that impact meetings, are some of the key challenges facing healthcare event owners and planners today, found a quick poll conducted with attendees of the Healthcare Meetings Forum Asia last Friday.

In such a climate, venues will fare well if they “spoke the language” of healthcare event clients, said Mark Handforth, founding director of UK-based Compliant Venues, which assesses venues to support them in meeting the needs of healthcare meetings and provides skills-based training to help venues be “appropriate and truthful”.

“Marketing of venues is quite linear, covering many sectors and event types. However, the healthcare sector is very specific and sometimes the marketing messages may be misleading for this market. We help venues and their staff understand that, which will in turn give them greater confidence in interacting with domestic and international healthcare event clients,” Handforth said.

Explaining the meaning of “appropriate language”, Handforth said: “A hotel or venue’s operation personnel or salesperson will not just be talking to healthcare event clients about F&B, they will have to be ready to discuss their capability to support transparency reporting and event compliance (to pharmaceutical codes).”

“Many hotels and convention centres want a piece of the (healthcare events business), but if the director of sales, for example, lacks the right language of this sector, he or she can very quickly be pushed aside by a client who needs to work with an educated partner.”

Compliant Venues publishes online independent reviews of venues that are worded with healthcare event clients in mind. Clients may then use the information to “speed up their venue decision-making process”.

Currently the company only reviews venues in Europe, although there are plans to expand its reach to Asia.

While Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre does not yet carry such accreditation, its CEO, Arun Madhok, said the venue is already seeing much success with medical and healthcare meetings and events.

Suntec Singapore has a dedicated sales team familiar with regulations affecting such business functions, a specialisation that Madhok believes has benefited the venue.

Madhok said: “Today, although medical and healthcare events represent 30 per cent of the key events we’ve hosted, we still see significant growth opportunities in this area. We are regarded as the venue of choice in Singapore for medical and healthcare events and they form a key part of our business strategy.”

Understanding the legal and budget constraints faced by medical and healthcare associations and companies is important, opined Madhok, who said his team “not only comprehends a large portion of the pharmaceutical codes but also offers solutions to help reduce event costs for healthcare event clients”.

Examples of options include flexible function spaces that allow clients to hire less space and bento lunch boxes which are convenient for “time-strapped doctors who often need to eat while watching a presentation”.

Madhok favours the idea of being accredited as a healthcare event compliant venue by “preferred third-party partners”.

Meanwhile, Handforth is also keen to support education programmes in Asia to improve awareness and understanding of pharmaceutical codes that impact events, among corporate event planners, venue owners and event agencies.

MEET TAIWAN has kicked off the inaugural Super Team in Asia campaign in its bid to promote Taiwan as a top-of-mind destination for incentive travel in Asia.

This marks Taiwan External Trade Development Council’s (TAITRA) first-ever multi-national campaign held across Taiwan’s top five source markets, namely – Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

In the first stage of the competition, participants create their dream incentive travel itineraries in Taiwan through the campaign website.

Participants are required to share their itineraries through social media platforms and call for votes, which comprises 70 per cent of the judging criteria. The other 30 per cent will be judged by the panel, who will be looking at factors like team spirit and culture in the proposed itinerary.

Thereafter, one winner from each of the five countries will be selected to take part in the second stage, consisting of an all-expenses-paid 5D4N competition tour to Taiwan for five members of each finalist team.

Through this competition, participants will also act as ambassadors to promote incentive travel to Taiwan. The final winner will walk away with an incentive travel package to Taiwan for up to 20 people worth more than US$50,000.

According to TAITRA, each participating team has to belong to a legally registered company in any of the five countries, and the company must have 20 or more employees.

Registration for the competition is available at www.asiasuperteam.com and closes on August 24.

SUNTEC Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre kicked off the first of several in-depth industry forums, the inaugural Healthcare Meetings Forum Asia, last Friday as part of its move to connect with decision-makers from various industries and to better understand meetings-related issues impacting these clients.

Speaking to TTGmice e-Weekly on the sidelines of the full-day event, Suntec Singapore’s CEO, Arun Madhok, said each forum would be dedicated to a specific industry and is free for all attendees.

“The next few forums will likely follow the same approach taken with the Healthcare Meetings Forum Asia. While Suntec Singapore took the lead in pulling the conference together, it was done in cooperation with various partners, such as Zibrant and Compliant Venues, and sponsors,” said Madhok.

“Just like Healthcare Meetings Forum Asia, future forums will feature highly interactive sessions that encourage a deep exchange of knowledge. We will continue to keep these forums intimate; an audience of 80 to 100 pax is just right for good dialogue.”

Some 80 top-level representatives from medical and healthcare societies and companies, as well as meeting planners who specialise in this sector, attended The Healthcare Meetings Forum Asia, which was oversubscribed.

“We want to engage our event clients in a fresh way that goes beyond just a site inspection,” said Madhok. “When they come here for an industry forum, they gain first-hand experience of our hardware and service. More importantly, though, is that these forums will help us (the Suntec Singapore team) gain more insights to the event needs of specific industries.”

“I had a number of my own staff attending the healthcare forum to learn how pharmaceutical codes will impact healthcare meetings business, and see how Suntec Singapore as a venue sits in this picture.”

LESS than two years since it first opened its doors, Setia City Convention Centre is expanding its focus from the domestic market to regional business.

Convention centre head, Francis Teo, said the convention centre is working with DMCs, PCOs, and event management companies to attract more regional business. “We’re targeting regional meeting organisers who are looking for a venue away from the traffic and distractions in the capital city, and yet, providing easy access to the city with good roads and highways.”

Its location, just off the New Klang Valley Expressway in Shah Alam, means the townships of Subang Jaya, Shah Alam, and Klang are all within a 15-minute drive. Setia is also within a 45-minute drive to Kuala Lumpur City Centre.

The two-storey convention centre was launched in 2012 but opened to public bookings only last year, with an inventory consisting of a pillar-less ballroom for 180 tables that can be divided into three parts, eight meeting rooms including two that can accommodate up to 200 pax in theatre-style, three VIP rooms, and three AV rooms that can double up as interpretation booths.

The convention centre will also appeal to environmentally conscious companies, boasting green element such as rainwater harvesting, solar panelling to generate electricity, and 21 parking bays with chargers for electric cars.

Said Teo: “We provide a venue option for companies wishing to minimise their impact on the environment and their carbon footprint.”

Setia City Convention Centre has so far confirmed three regional meetings, of which two will be held in September, namely the 1,500-pax AIA Regional Life Planners Congress, and 500-pax GD Express regional conference.

The third meeting, an annual convention by Reapfield, will be in March for 500 delegates from across South-east Asia.