To celebrate the Asian MICE Forum’s (AMF) 10th anniversary, Taiwan MICE Week, a Bureau of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Economic Affairs mandate to TAITRA, is taking place on an even larger scale from September 22 to 25, 2015. The event is themed “MEET TAIWAN – Reach a New High” and will cover in-depth MICE issue discussions and cross-industry brand marketing cases, along with a series of MICE activities. The week promises to infuse Taiwan’s MICE industry with new insight and stimulate MICE professionals to explore new frontiers.
A Decade’s Significant Progress Aimed at Sustainability and Innovation Leading to Evolved Vision and Global Connections :
The Ministry of Economic Affairs first launched a program to develop Taiwan’s MICE industry in 2005 and, after 10 years of effort, has garnered significant results concerning international exhibitions and conventions. According to ICCA statistics regarding the number of international conferences held, Taiwan ranked fourth in Asia for 2014, three places higher than the previous year.
As for international exhibitions, UFI’s report on the B2B trade fair industry in the Asia-Pacific region shows Taiwan with the highest growth rate in regards to the total exhibition space sold in 2013 and ranked second in 2014. In addition, Taiwan puts great effort into strengthening our relations and cooperation with international MICE industries, plus has begun to hold important positions like Asia-Pacific chapter chair and president of several major international MICE organizations including ICCA, UFI, and AFECA.
Technology and eco-friendliness are two key factors for strengthening the international competitiveness of Taiwan’s MICE industry. Thanks to Taiwan’s advanced hi-tech industries and innovative capabilities, the Taiwan MICE industry has always held a leading position in Asia when it comes to the utilization of technology and upgrading service quality and efficiency for MICE events.
Taiwan’s endeavors have been recognized by international organizations and several top prizes have been awarded including the 2012 ICCA Best Marketing Award and 2014 UFI Marketing Award. The importance of eco-friendliness (i.e. going green), green energy, and environmental protection awareness acknowledged and supported among international MICE organizations.
Taiwan demonstrates its drive to apply the theories and practices of Green MICE with the compilation of a “Taiwan Green MICE Guide” for the MEET TAIWAN project launched by the Bureau of Foreign Trade. Efforts to gain Green MICE-related certifications such as ISO 20121, carbon neutrality, and carbon footprint verification, along with holding MICE events at venues that meet Green MICE standards are also highly encouraged. Nowadays being equipped with venues and management services that meet green standards is already a globally important factor to win major international conferences and events. According to the Bureau of Foreign Trade, Taipei is the select host city for the 2021 Rotary International Convention (RIC) mainly due to its proposal including a sustainable green conference program.
MICE-related talent and expertise are key to the development of the MICE industry and MICE expertise certifications must be internationally compatible. To meet the demand, international MICE talent certification systems were introduced to Taiwan under the Taiwan MICE Training and Certification Project in 2012 and, to date, already more than 100 domestic professionals have received the CEM and/or CMP.
In regards to innovative events, numerous creative MEET TAIWAN events have taken place over the years. For example, the first ever Asia Super Team Competition was launched in the summer of 2014. Corporate travelers from selected countries throughout Asia were invited to experience an in-depth cultural journey involving team building activities and learning about Taiwan’s well-established exhibition and meeting venues.
The 2015 competition, currently in progress, aims to actively promote the concept of caring for the disadvantaged as well as carrying out corporate social responsibilities, as CSR activities dominate the itinerary. Very recently, MEET TAIWAN was proudly announced to be a gold winner of a Stevie Award, often nicknamed the “Oscar of the Business Community”, for its 2014 Asia Super Team Competition. Awarded the gold for the Communications and Public Relations Campaign in Marketing category, Taiwan’s MICE industry has achieved acclaim for its capability of organizing innovative events.
Taiwan MICE Week’s main activities include the AMF, MICE Destination Marketing Contest, Cross-Strait MICE Business Meeting, AMF Expo, Taiwan MICE Awards Ceremony, and the First Asian MICE Young Generation Forum. Global MICE leaders and top international event organizers have been invited to Taiwan to share their insights on the latest global trends such as green MICE, innovation and technology, and creative destination marketing. Once again, the topics covered by the 2015 AMF will most likely lead the direction of other Asian MICE forums to be held in Asia. The 2015 Asian MICE Forum is expected to arouse great attention and make Taiwan the focus for Asian countries that seek MICE business.
Offering Full-Dimension Services, a New Era for Taiwan’s MICE Industry:
The Bureau of Foreign Trade stated that in following the trends for globalization, digitalization, and big data, Taiwan will continue integrating resources between central and local governments as well as the MICE industry supply chain. Databases of global MICE event resources and Taiwan MICE companies will also be built, through which events with the potential to be brought to Taiwan will be selected.
The MEET TAIWAN program provides matchmaking services between event organizers and MICE companies, plus offers full-featured planning and counseling services to assist with bringing more international conventions and exhibitions to Taiwan. The task force under the program will continue to exploit advantages of Taiwan’s MICE industry and develop the model “in multi-axis radial form for exhibitions, and everywhere possible according to the characteristics for conferences” based on the MICE industry competitiveness analysis, local criteria for MICE development, and demand of industrial clusters.
With the opening of Taiwan MICE Week, Taiwan is ready to interact with MICE professionals all over the world and to provide trendy and abundant MICE resources. MICE experts from home and abroad will no doubt be attracted by Taiwan’s unique cultural and natural resources as well as the enthusiastic hospitality of the people. The event intends to form a new peak for Taiwan’s MICE Industry.
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