To get a sense of how Singapore is reimagining the future of meetings and events, you need only look to the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) and its newly launched hybrid event broadcast studio at Sands Expo and Convention Centre.
Designed to accommodate a live studio audience with a maximum capacity of 50, the hybrid broadcast studio offers broadcast-quality, live-streaming capabilities and hologram functionalities.
Ong Wee Min, vice president of conventions and exhibitions, MICE, Marina Bay Sands, says: "We firmly believe that live events will return, but every successful live event in the future will have to include a virtual element to allow planners to engage a wider audience."
The studio has virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR) and holographic telepresence embedded, meaning that if a keynote speaker can't travel to Singapore they can be beamed in as a hologram alongside on-site speakers.
In October, Singapore began piloting events of up to 250 attendees, with organisers forced to demonstrate their ability to implement Safe Management Measures to meet a set of health and safety outcomes. And the city-state has also introduced a pilot scheme of pre-event testing designed to identify the best model for implementing to enable large-scale events to resume safely.
TravelRevive, taking place in November at Sands Expo & Convention Centre at Marina Bay Sands, was the first pilot hybrid tradeshow to trial the newly developed prototype for safe business events, safe itineraries and digital enablers in Singapore. It brought international delegates and businesses together to exchange ideas, bridge knowledge gaps, and reimagine what the future of travel will look like.
Sands Expo CentreAnd it’s not just MBS making the change. All over Singapore, event professionals are embracing the new norm by reinventing their businesses in order to emerge stronger from Covid-19. Many are being certified under SG Clean, a mark of excellence for tourism businesses that adhere to heightened standards of cleanliness and sanitisation. Already, more than 22,000 individual premises have been certified islandwide.
“Public health and safety remain our utmost priority, and we have worked closely with the industry, in Singapore, to create strict protocols and develop new ways of organising events,” says Jason Chan of the Singapore Tourist Board. “These events and solutions will help Singapore lead the way as the region’s leading destination for safe, trusted and innovative business events.”
Singapore has specific interests including aerospace and logistics, advanced manufacturing, applied health sciences, design, financial services, innovation, and media and digital content. Furthermore, it is a regional centre for technological research, underpinned by a vibrant business environment, world-class infrastructure and industry-ready talent and is poised to become the world’s first Smart Nation.
Known for its accessibility, Singapore’s Changi Airport is serviced by more than 120 airlines that fly to almost 420 cities in 100 countries. There are few visa requirements and with English one of its national languages, communicating is easy.
Singapore Association of Convention & Exhibition Organisers & Suppliers (SACEOS), with the support of Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Enterprise Singapore (ESG) have also developed an Event Industry Resilience Roadmap (IRR), which will help the local events industry establish best-in-class standards for event safety and hygiene, and adopt agile business models with a focus on the hybridisation of events.
“This roadmap will be a valuable guide to our industry during this period, to help them build new capabilities and emerge stronger,” says STB deputy chief executive. Chin Siang Yap. “We look forward to working closely with our industry partners to rebuild and recover, and set Singapore apart as the world’s leading destination for safe, trusted and innovative business events.”
Safe cruises are being piloted from this month with enhanced safety protocols. STB has developed a mandatory CruiseSafe certification programme, which sets out stringent hygiene and safety measures throughout the passenger journey.
The pilot cruises will be round-trips with no ports of call, sailing at a reduced capacity of up to 50 per cent and only open to Singapore residents – but they demonstrate the determination to get the sector moving again.
Looking ahead, 2021 will also see the opening of a new hotel that will be a showcase of environmental sustainability in Singapore. Pan Pacific Orchard is the group’s first zero-waste hotel with four levels of sky gardens, 350 eco-friendly rooms, a rainwater harvesting system, a recyclable water system, and a compactor that turns food waste into compost – which will then be channelled into fertiliser for its sky gardens.
With an eye on the future, it’s clear that MICE stakeholders in Singapore are ready, willing and able to welcome international groups in a safe environment once borders reopen.
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
