The Vice-Mayor of the city of Xiamen and the Head of Xiamen CVB have announced the formation of a Xiamen Bidding Taskforce, immediately following an IAPCO Edge Seminar delivered in partnership with IME Consulting and attended by over 60 local and regional delegates.
Local government officials and leaders from the Xiamen CVB, a number of PCOs and venues, together with several local associations, gathered in Xiamen, China for the first IAPCO Edge Seminar in the city. The 2 ½ day Seminar with over 60 in attendance, learned about strategic bidding principles and practices, and related trends in marketing and meetings design from the IAPCO Education Faculty consisting of Jan Tonkin of The Conference Company and Johannes Muller-Diesing and Chloe Yang from K.I.T Group.
Martin Boyle, IAPCO CEO says: “IAPCO’s mission to raise quality standards in the global meetings industry through education and interaction between our members and other professionals is clearly evident in the outcome from our Xiamen Edge Seminar. Raising the profile and importance of professionalism across the global MICE industry through the IAPCO Edge Series of Seminars can be the catalyst to the development of city-wide strategies, as we have now seen in Xiamen. This is IAPCO’s new Outreach Strategy in action which we will continue to develop across key targeted regions around the world.”
IAPCO and IME Consulting have signed a 3 year agreement which will help to further develop the training and development of PCOs and MICE leaders in the region through further IAPCO Edge Seminars.
Alicia Yao Hong of IME Consulting noted that: “Chinese associations have decoupled from the Government and are in urgent need to transform themselves from the administrative to market, from experience to standardization, from extensive to refined，from amateur to professional, from traditional to Internet, from domestic to international. PCOs are the main players in the association meeting management and have the responsibility to nurture the development of our associations.
IAPCO established the Bidding taskforce for Xiamen with 63 professionals under the consultancy of IAPCO Education Faculties and received strong support from Xiamen vice mayor, convention bureau and ITG MICE group as well as all the trainees.
Xiamen Bidding Taskforce – a professional team will continue the research, study and practice in meeting management and work as a team for supporting Xiamen and other cities in China attracting international meetings.”
Following on from the success of the Seminar and formation of the taskforce, a delegation from the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Convention & Exhibition Affairs, along with Alicia Yao of IME Consulting, IAPCO’s Strategic Partner in China, will be attending IMEX Frankfurt to further develop their relationship with IAPCO and their understanding of international MICE opportunities.