Chengdu Meetings Industry is Moving towards Internationalism

 

CMIC 2012 Summer Summit, jointly hosted by China Convention & Exhibition Society, Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Exposition and Chengdu Municipal Tourism Administration, was successfully held at Chengdu, June 29-July 01, 2012. Distinguished guests attended the conference and delivered speeches, which includes Zhang Qin, Executive Secretary of China Association for Science and Technology (CAST); Sun Guangxiang, former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, PRC; Bai Gang, Member of the CPC Chengdu Municipal Committee and vice mayor; Yuan Zaiqing, Chairman of China Convention & Exhibition Society; Yao Wang, Executive Director of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA); Sun Weijia, Vice Chairman of Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development and Chairman of Site (Society of Incentive & Travel Executives) China Chapter; Chen Lin, Director of Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Exposition; Xu Feng, Deputy General Manager of China National Convention Center (CNCC); Jerad Bachar, Director of the Dubai Convention Bureau; as well as Garry Grimmer, CEO of GainingEdge Consulting the World’s Business Events Industry and former Director of Melbourne Convention Bureau. More than 300 guests and attendees engaged in the domestic and international meetings industry attended this summit.

The theme of this summit is “Developing International MICE Market & Building International Convention City Brand”, and it has the following characteristics.

 

Firstly, CMIC 2012 Summer Summit was of distinctive internationalization. To begin with, the theme of the conference was international. All participants made in-depth explorations into and shared opinions on problems with regard to the internationalization of China’s meetings industry. Besides, prestigious people in the international meetings industry were invited to join the “Seminar on the Building of Popular International Conference Destination for Chengdu” so as to make suggestions for the advancement of Chengdu’s meetings industry. In addition, guests present at this Summit were international. World renowned figures in the meetings industry such as Yao Wang, Executive Director of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), Sun Weijia, Vice Chairman of Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development and Chairman of Site China Chapter, Jerad Bachar, Director of the Dubai Convention Bureau and Chair of the Board of Directors for the BestCities Global Alliance, Garry Grimmer, CEO of GainingEdge Consulting the World’s Business Events Industry and former Director of Melbourne Convention Bureau all attended this meeting and gave their keynote speech respectively.

 

 

Secondly, CMIC 2012 Summer Summit was very practical. Chengdu Municipal People’s Government and Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Exposition contributed a lot for this summit. To begin with, advantages enjoyed by Chengdu for meetings industry have been integrated and publicized because of MeetingsChina magazine’s releasing of “Special Topics on Chengdu CMIC 2012 Summer Summit”, and the implementation of “Opening Ceremony of MeetingsChina Website Chengdu Channel”. Besides, over 60 conference programs at home and abroad unveiled during the meeting, of which a series of programs were finally decided to v=be convened in Chengdu, such as World Congress of Chinese Medicine and Chengdu 2013-Low Carbon Earth Summit.

 

 

Thirdly, CMIC 2012 Summer Summit offered a platform for Chengdu and elites of China’s meetings industry to network. Ten people in charge of ten famous meetings management firms were invited and hired by Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Exposition as “Strategic Counselors for Meetings Industry in Chengdu”, which would intellectually support Chengdu to develop into a famous convention city, thereby promoting its meetings industry to go international. During the “Seminar on the Building of Popular International Conference Destination for Chengdu & the First Session for Strategic Consultants for Chengdu Municipal Meetings Industry”, heads of Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Exposition and Chengdu Municipal Tourism Administration introduced to guests respectively the development of meetings industry, convention hotels and tourism resources in Chengdu. Besides, Yao Wang, Executive Director of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), Yuan Zaiqing, Chairman of China Convention & Exhibition Society, and the ten newly-appointed strategic counselors for meetings industry in Chengdu offered strategies and advice regarding the development of Chengdu’s meetings industry.

The development of our country’s meetings industry has entered a transition period. The successful holding of CMIC 2012 Summer Summit signals that a new phrase has come for the international development of China’s conference industry. As the highest-level information exchange platform for China’s meetings industry, China Meetings Industry Convention has formed strong alliance with Chengdu City, one that are capable of leading the meetings industry, thereby vigorously speeding up the building of popular international conference destination for Chengdu and establishing a new wind vane for the development of China’s meetings industry. And this combination will also serve as a milestone in the history of the development of China’s conference industry.

 

Speeches Delivered by Important Guests

 

Zhangqin, Executive Secretary of China Association for Science and Technology (CAST)

As an academic body, the academic association to which China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) is attached is the pioneer in holding international conferences across China, which has made great contributions to the development of China’s meetings industry. With the industrialization increasingly gaining pace, conferences, essential instrument for information exchange among human beings, will become more efficient and more influential. For a long time, main convention cities throughout China have been important partners of CAST to held academic activities. Chengdu is one of the cities witnessing the fastest development in meetings industry, and Chengdu Municipal People’s Government and Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Exposition have done a large quantity of positive and efficient work to facilitate international conferences held by CAST in Chengdu. China’s meetings industry is booming, which is the greatest encouragement for convention planners, including CAST. And the marketing of international MICE market and the brand establishment of international convention cities will push forward China’s meetings industry to develop towards internationalization.

 

Sun Guangxiang, former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation

The meetings industry is an integral part of meetings and exhibition industry, which matches the spirit embodied by the “Twelfth Five-year Plan” that “Accelerate the development of service sector by upgrading and optimizing the industrial mix, with strategic importance placed on driving forward the fast development of the service sector and by exploring market management system suitable for the development of new services, so as to create policy and systematic environment favorable to promote the service industry.” The meetings industry is young in the service sector, which will play an important role in moving forward China’s socio-economic development.

Chengdu is among the cities enjoying the fastest development of meetings industry throughout China, giving birth to the “Chengdu Mode” in China’s meetings and exhibition industry, which is characterized by outstanding service. While studying the development law of the meetings industry and learn advanced experience from developed countries, we need to take into account the traits of China’s meetings industry to build conference destination cities in conformity with China’s development.

 

Yuan Zaiqing, Chairman of China Convention & Exhibition Society
China Meetings Industry Conference (CMIC) offers an ideal platform through which hot issues can be diagnosed to figure out inherent laws, and broaden horizons to pursue innovations so as to discern opportunities for development, by making full use of the collective intelligence of all participants. As an international convention and exhibition destination city, Chengdu has reached universally-recognized achievements. Through discussions and networking among experts and colleagues within the meetings industry, Chengdu is able to find out the development law of international meetings industry, and therefore formulates strategies for the advancement of its meetings industry, with a view to realizing the goal of becoming a conference destination.

 

Bai Gang, Member of the CPC Chengdu Municipal Committee and Vice Mayor
Chengdu has been attaching importance to the meetings and exhibition industry, especially the development of meetings industry. With the meetings industry growing quickly in recent years, Chengdu is accelerating the building of a convention destination city domestically and globally. CMIC 2012 Summer Summit is the largest and most influential annual conference within China’s meetings industry, and is also an essential platform for domestic and international conference industry to share experience and network. In fact, this summit has vigorously promoted the sound development of the meetings industry. Meanwhile, it has strengthened the understanding and knowing of Chengdu’s environment for the meetings industry, thereby exerting positive influence on promoting project cooperation in Chengdu.

 

Yao Wang, Executive Director of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA)
As the meetings industry develops, we should pay special attention to reinforcing the building of conference brand names, i.e. self-owned brands. For instance, important meetings like the Boao Forum for Asia are our self-owned brands. To do so, we need to be actively engaged in “going global” and “bringing in”, and build cooperation brands. The “Summer Davos Forum”, for example, has been successfully introduced to facilitate the development our nation’s meetings industry. Besides, a great number of brands have been introduced. Currently, it’s a popular phenomenon internationally that many large-scale international meetings have been imported into and will be held in China. This happens not only because of the attraction arising from China’s vast market, but also because of China’s sound development over the past years, as well as the shifting eastwards of world center. In the meantime, as we build self-owned brands, we need to enthusiastically rely on both government guidance and market operation. In the past, though more work were done by governments, the important guiding roles played by them cannot be denied, because the meetings industry still needs governmental guidance & support and primary market operation so as to develop.

 

Garry Grimmer, Former Director of Melbourne Convention Bureau

When it comes to the meetings industry, Chinese cities are classified into three tiers, namely first-tier cities, second-tier cities and third-tier cities. This is because that in terms of the international convention industry, China is a relatively new face since its development of the meetings industry only dates back to several years ago, which makes us place importance mainly on China’s first-tier cities. Nevertheless, China is presently engaged in resolving conference market problems through strategies, that is to say that many cities, be they first-tier or second-tier, will become leading cities in Asia and even throughout the world. And that also means lots of cities can leap over the demarcation imposed on them to become really excellent cities in terms of convention and exhibition.

Several important factors have constantly been influencing the development of the meetings industry. First and foremost is the internationalization of meetings. Nowadays, meetings held in Asia are increasing, since many organizations have found out that Asian market is truly huge, which can be reflected that they form partnerships in Asia, pay close attention to Asia, build self-owned brands there, and further promote meetings to be held in China. In fact, China’s brand effect is already huge enough, so much so that at the very mention of Asian market, the first comes to mind is China. As a result, those organizations want to cooperate with Chinese counterparts so as to further facilitate more meetings to be held in China.
Secondly, the supply value is extremely important. Since organizing conferences is very stressful, price becomes an important factor accordingly. Meanwhile, transparency is also very essential, which means we must make pricing process transparent as we are in the commercial activities. In addition, we need to weigh up our own results.

Thirdly, the execution of decisions counts. The majority of participants present at the conference are Europeans and Americans who hope that the commercial modes are familiar to them, which requires that all co-ordinations be simple and convenient. Normally, they prefer to co-operate with CVBs to gain access to co-operations.

 

Sun Weijia, Vice Chairman of Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development

More and more international conferences are held in China, which in turn has promoted China to be recognized globally in terms of its capacity of organizing meetings. For the part of many Chinese cities, it is a new field to develop the meetings industry and to build convention cities, since it needs us to probe into work philosophy and methods suitable for a certain city’s traits and positioning. In his respect, Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development has conducted the following pilot programs over the past years. And we, having spent several years meditating, have figured out some fundamental understanding of how to utilize opportunities and challenges facing the meetings industry so as to build the brand as a convention city.

Firstly, we need to have a comprehensive understanding of our own advantages in the meetings industry, especially a full knowledge of and strong confidence in our nation’s culture. China’s unparallel cultural resources are the fountain of the upgrade of industrial connotation, and the establishment of city profile as well as brand. If our convention cities want to have a seat in the world, for one thing they should learn management and services from western countries, for another they should attach more importance to excavating our nation’s profound culture.

Secondly, we need to grasp and service the grand trend of world economy. As the market boasting the greatest and brightest prospects for development globally, core understanding of market advantages should also be fully recognized and utilized. As for the reasons for why more and more international organizations choose to hold meetings in China are China’s fascinating culture and market opportunities. China’s mode of economic development is under transformation, meaning that it’s also inevitable to push forward the conference and exhibition tourism industry.

Thirdly, we need to change way of thinking completely so as to develop a global view and improve thinking ability. International conferences exert high requirements on cities regarding operations management, services, innovation ability, S&T strengths, human resources, and the like. For example, it is very important to have an international view in marketing, which requires us to learn to make good use of media resources, of which international media for instance should be utilized well to expand diffusion effect. Focus should be placed on global communication in disseminating and promoting a city’s profile and tourism. Consequently, in order to win over International leading media to report, we need to organize international activities of innovation, with emphasis concentrating on themes and perspectives. Apart from creativity, considerable and satisfying services are essential to attract the involvement of global media.

Finally, we should make joint efforts to build top-level conference & tourism destinations. In recent years, apart from Beijing, both number and influence of conferences held in such cities as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xi’an, and Chengdu have been constantly growing. However, in light of the fact that China as a whole is more important than a single city in the meetings industry market, I propose that we can discuss in great detail some modes of co-operation and development. For instance, we can establish a China City Convention Service Organization, i.e. an alliance, so as to facilitate the meetings industry to grow through networking, resource integration, and information sharing between cities and regions.

 

Chen Lin, Director of Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Exposition
Practices done and strategies adopted by Chengdu in an effort to build a convention destination city domestically and globally are as follows:
Firstly, Chengdu owns excellent infrastructure. It is designated by the State Council as three centers of science & technology, commerce, and finance, and two hubs of transportation and communications in the middle and western regions. In 2011, Chengdu’s GDP arrived at RMB 680 billion, maintaining a growth rate of 15.2%, and ranked top 10 in this respect for the first time. Besides, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CDIA) was promoted to be China’s aviation hub for its handling of nearly 30 million passengers in 2011, ranking Chengdu the 4th largest aviation city in mainland. In addition, so far, the number of Fortune 500 enterprises having invested in Chengdu has reached 212. Moreover, 9 countries have established consulates in Chengdu, including the US, France, Germany and so on, with India, Australia, and Israel planning to establish embassies there this year and next year.
Secondly, Chengdu has become a city of choice in the western region for the important layout of domestic and international meetings. In recent years, as planners of domestic and international conferences have developed in-depth understanding of Chengdu’s meetings industry, Chengdu has witnessed increasing attraction. For example, Chengdu has held a series of activities, including the 7th Cross-Strait Economic, Trade and Culture Forum, small and medium-sized enterprise division, Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Agriculture and Agrarian Development, Fortune 500 Summit Press Conference, China IT Fortune (CEO) & China Chief Information Officer (CIO) (collectively known as the CCW CEO and CIO Summit), among other meetings.
Thirdly, Chengdu has adopted strategies and measures to reach innovations. In April this year, Chengdu Municipal Government also introduced a “Twelfth Five-year Plan” for the development of the meetings industry, which is also for the very first time that Chengdu’s convention industry has been incorporated into the outline of key industries formulated by the Government. And this outline explicitly provides strategies and measures to build Chengdu into an important convention destination domestically and internationally. As for the main contents of the outline, they are as follows: learning the experience of the development of international and domestic meetings industries; improving the system of conference services, facilities, and market subjects; actively introducing market meetings; increasingly improving Chengdu’s global influence and reputation; and promoting Chengdu to be the first to reach modernization and internationalization in the middle and western cities.
Fourthly, Chengdu has extended the industry chain, by developing industrial annual convention and convention & exhibition tourism. According to a recent survey, Chengdu has been chosen as one of main cities nationwide as a convention destination in three consecutive years. Accordingly, we will take advantage of Chengdu’s edge of owning China’s fourth largest airport so as to vigorously develop industrial annual conference and convention & exhibition tourism that are in close relation to tourism. And by placing emphasis on association tourism and convention & exhibition tourism, Chengdu will attract Fortune 500 enterprises to hold conferences here.
Fifthly, first-rate meetings facilities should be established so as to provide excellent hardware support.

Jerad Bachar, Director of the Dubai Convention Bureau (DCB)

An excellent international convention destination provides many services to meetings planners which are non-profit organizations. These organizations, together with governments are important part of the meetings and exhibition industry. In the international community, they focus on which industry has the highest ROI, whether they have a large number of clients, and a lot of ROIs. Besides, they also choose different destinations out of the following reasons such as whether they have a large quantity of clients, whether they have key regions of concerns, whether they are emerging markets served by institutions, to name a few.