Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau (PCEB) announced that the Bureau is organising its second edition of the business events industry engagement conference “BE @ Penang”. The conference will take place on 7 & 8 December 2017 at the Setia SPICE Convention Centre Penang, Malaysia.
The first edition of the BE @ Penang industry conference was held on Dec 2016 at The Wembley, Penang. Over 120 delegates from the Penang business events industry attended the conference, along with those based in Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Singapore who were actively involved in hosting and organising business events in Penang.
BE @ Penang 2017’s theme of BE EMPOWERED follows last year’s theme of BE ENGAGED. During last year’s conference, the delegates stepped forward to the call to form Team Penang. This year, the conference aims to encourage the industry players to communicate, collaborate, and capture businesses for Penang. As members of Team Penang, PCEB wants them to be empowered in sourcing for leads, and collaborate on bidding and winning the bids for Penang.
“Being the first Penang homegrown business events industry conference, it is vital for BE @ Penang to be seen as the benchmark for organising meetings in Penang. The conference is designed in tandem with the meetings and conference trends world-wide, bringing in expert speakers from around the globe to Penang to share their knowledge,” said PCEB CEO Ashwin Gunasekeran.
Business events is a key component of Business Tourism, which sees the average business traveller spending an average of RM7000 (1’465 Euro) compared to RM2000 (420 Euro) spent by the leisure traveller. In an industry report released by PCEB in Jan 2017, Penang hosted 1,251 business events in 2016, with an estimated economic impact of RM808 million (169 million Euro).
“The progression of Penang as an important second tier destination in the Malaysian business events sector is taking place parallel with the development of infrastructure in the state,” said the Chief Minister of PenangLim Guan Eng. “With the completion of the RM350 million (73.2 million Euro) Setia SPICE Convention Centre together with the refurbished SPICE Arena and the slated RM450 million (94.2 million Euro) Penang Waterfront Convention Centre (estimated completion: 2021), Penang will be able to host Business Events of larger scales, and multiple events at one time.
At present Penang is able to host events of 10,000 delegates and above as seen in the 15,000-delegates conference that was held at SPICE in May this year,” he added. Headlining the conference is the Keynote Speaker Roy Sheppard, a specialist international conference facilitator/moderator. Roy Sheppard has a background as a BBC TV and radio journalist, reporter and presenter. Joining him are industry experts Gracie Geckie, CEO of Place Borneo, andFu Kei Cheong and Rahul Bharadwaj of Anderes Fourdy.
Among the topics that will be covered at BE @ Penang 2017are technology in business events, gearing for the future, effective bidding, attracting association meetings, marketing to Europe, and many more. “BE @ Penang 2017 welcomes meeting planners, destination management companies, professional conference organisers, suppliers, and MICE owners and buyers from anywhere in the world who are interested in doing business in Penang,” said Ashwin.
Registration for BE @ Penang 2017 can be done via the conference website, www.beatpenang.com.