With the hospitality and convention industry hammered by the pandemic, a forward thinking strategy is needed if the sector is ever to be revived again. Even when borders open or these facilities are allowed to reopen, large scale activity involving large crowd will still be restricted or be frowned upon. Will there ever be exhibitions and trade fairs with Covid-19 still looming?
MyCEB or the Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau is working towards a secure future for the industry, the pandemic has thought many businesses to transform their business model with digitalisation which bodes well in preparation for the next phase. Last year IGEM organised their virtual exhibition and received much of the tangible results they got when it was done physically. There were also other online and hybrid events that took part all over the world succesfully in this form. In order to futureproof the meetings, incentives, convention and exhibitions MyCEB which is under the Malaysian Tourism purview is getting Malaysia through four major cities – Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu to join the Hybrid City Alliance – a grouping which offers international event organisers solutions when organising multiple city hub events.
The Hybrid City Alliance was launched in December of 2020 by the Hague Convention Bureau, Ottawa Tourism Business Events, Prague Convention Bureau, and Geneva Convention Bureau to support event organisers in formalising alliance to hold events in other cities or bring events to their cities.
Dato’ Sri Abdul Khani Daud, MyCEB CEO said the objective of joining the alliance is to create a value proposition to clients that supports them in the delivery of hybrid events regionally and internationally. By having an alliance of convention bureaus in place, the aim is to give event planners a professional way to connect relevant cities together as staging posts for their hybrid events.
Malaysia will join the network which is already established across six continents, by becoming a member of the alliance the four cities can promote its appeal in the area of business events and introduce local business events industry players to more international opportunities.
