SHANGHAI Over 3,000 business events professionals were estimated to have attended today's (April 17) opening of IT&CM Shanghai, the sector's leading conference and networking event on the Mainland.
The gathering, taking place in Shanghai, is part of the city's Business Events Week (SBEW) which is now in its third year. IT&CM is just one of nine different business forums, networking events and conferences taking place during the five-day city-wide festival. Alongside are Techniques for Producing Great Conference Programmes, GBTA China Conference, Association Professionals Competencies Briefing, Fundamentals of Business Travel Management Course, Associate Level, ICCA Association Database Workshop, IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum, TTG Travel Awards, and the China (Shanghai) International Meetings & Conferences Forum.
At yesterday's China (Shanghai) International Meetings & Conferences Forum, ICCA CEO, Martin Sirk participated in a round-table discussion on the importance of the China MICE cities alliance. The group consists of Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Kunming, Shanghai, Sanya, Tianjin and Xian. Also among the discussion participants was James Zheng, vice director, Shanghai International Conference Management Organization (SICMO), Kathryn Smits, vice president international tourism, LA tourism and convention board and Frankie Gao of MCI China.
The discussion, titled "Marketing Strategy and Practice of MICE Cities", included a presentation by Sirk, highlighting the value of business travel and its relationship with tourism. He said that in recent years Chinese cities had grown to appreciate the industry, but that he expected even more positive outcomes in the coming years. The forum concludes today.
For more about IT&CM, visit www.itcmchina.com
Graeme Park
