SANDS CHINA brought Macao’s new approach to luxury business events to Singapore with a three-day promotional event and forum at the resort giant’s sister property.
The in-person MICE & Luxury Forum took place at the main venue in Sands Expo & Convention Centre of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, which was simultaneously transmitted to The Londoner Macao, the sub-venue for the hybrid format.
Attendees at the hybrid format in Macao included students from local colleges. The forum was also part of an initiative to help nurture the growth of the MICE industry as a career option for young people in the Greater Bay Area under the Sands MICE Academy – a project which was formed in March this year under the Sands Academy.
At the Singapore event, leading executives and thought leaders from business events shared their views across five sessions covering new trends and developments. Two of the sessions focused on luxury:
- Luxury Hospitality: The New Playbook for Building Guest Experiences
- Technology in Events: How to Navigate the Journey Ahead?
- Meetings & Events in a Post Pandemic World: Status Quo or A New Game?
- Marketing a Destination: What Makes a World Class Meetings & Events Locale?
- Luxury Retail: Setting a New Pace
Speakers from international conference and event groups included Dan Rivlin, exec chair and key vision officer, The Kenes Group; Maureen Rogers, director, global meetings and events, Baker & McKenzie, and Sherrif Karamat, president and CEO of PCMA.
Hotel representatives included Michael Malik, Marriott International; Christian Westbeld, Raffles Singapore, and Rainer Stampfer, Four Season Hotels and Resorts.
Speaking on technology in events were Glenn Gore, data specialists Affinidi Group; Ian Roberts, Informa Markets Asia; Jason Ho, Beyond International Technology Innovation Expo, and Rebecca Hallett, of Jack Morton Worldwide, Asia.
At the virtual part of the event, students from the University of Macau, Macao Polytechnic University, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao Institute for Tourism Studies and City University of Macau as well as MICE association members viewed the forum via Smart Stage, Macao’s first hybrid meetings space and‘Extended Reality (XR) studio.
Live-streaming and hologram functionality also enabled the Macao audience to interact in real-time with panellists and attendees in Singapore.
More… Sands Resorts Macao hosts 6,000-strong conference
A spokesman for Sands China said the hybrid MICE & Luxury Forum would further the company’s cooperation with colleges and industry associations to help provide much-needed talent for large-scale meetings and conferences to be hosted in Macao.
To support the Macao Government Tourism Office’s ‘tourism + MICE’ initiative, the spokesman said Sands MICE Academy was aimed also at enhancing the overall competitiveness of the Greater Bay Area as a preferred international MICE destination by utilising the company’s resources.
Main picture: Attendees at The Londoner Macao watch a live transmission of the forum taking place at Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
