The Incentive, Conference & Event Society Asia Pacific (ICESAP) has been in operation for three years. In that short time, this new organisation has created an Agency Accreditation Scheme, whereas long-established global and national bodies have failed to act in this regard.
Corporate governance and purchasing protocols these days require companies to deal only with professional intermediaries and end- supply partners. If MICE agencies fail to adopt an accreditation regime, then they only have themselves to blame if their corporate customers choose to shop elsewhere, either preferring to deal with an Accredited Agency or going down the “disintermediation route” and buying directly from the end suppliers.
MICE spend is increasingly coming from the marketing budgets of multinational corporations who have shifted the majority of their former advertising spend from conventional media channels to “below-the-line” campaigns. What is media’s loss is the MICE sector’s gain, and winning that spend has so far been relatively straightforward on purely economic, value-for-money and effectiveness grounds.
To keep that spend in the MICE space over time means MICE agencies have to outsmart the global advertising agencies, which are already starting to fight back. However, MICE agencies generally lack the resources to mount a good fight-back strategy, and this is worrying.
Equally worrying are recent signs that some other associations are jumping on the accreditation bandwagon. We need to work together to ensure there is a simple single accreditation scheme across Asia Pacific. Ours is a cross-border business, if we are to ensure that it continues to grow, we can’t have myriad schemes across different markets and MICE disciplines.
ICESAP worked through the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum to arrive at a single set of criteria for all Intermediary Agencies. Apec insisted we create a scheme that does not disadvantage small- to medium-sized enterprises. Ultimately ICESAP gained the Apec Tourism Working Group’s buy-in to the ICESAP scheme for a pan-Asia Pacific rollout in 2017.
To that end we welcome dialogue with all Industry bodies to ensure we act in a disciplined and coordinated fashion.
Nigel Gaunt (pictured above, third from left) is the inaugural president of ICESAP, the Incentive, Conference & Event Society Asia Pacific
ICESAP’s Agency Accreditation Scheme will be launched at its conference in Singapore from November 30 to December 2. Those interested in attending can contact Coey Lui at the ICESAP Hong Kong Secretariat.
What do you think? Do agencies have only themselves to blame if corporate clients opt for accredited firms? Leave your comments below…
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