ES. With the completion of “Foodism Show”2022 IMPACT completed its show organising calendar. How do you summarize the year 2022 for IMPACT?
Loy Joon How. After three years hiatus, our show organising teams came back strongly by successfully completing our 2022 show organising calendar that comprised a portfolio of 10 shows covering topics ranging from medical, construction, education, pets, food to digital economy, etc. As a venue, IMPACT saw the much awaited return of activities and footfalls as we facilitated the return of in-person events. Some of these major guest events that have returned included Thaifex-Anuga, Thailand’s biggest F&B exhibition with a well- attended audience of over 1,600 exhibitors and 52,000 trade visitors. Another big show that concluded was the Motor Expo which drew in over 1.3 million attendees, and generated some 51 billion Thai baht in revenue for the auto industry. Factors driving this comeback included lifting of travel restrictions and penned-up demands for show participants to resume their business activities in a face-to-face market settingAll in all, 2022 has been a rather busy but much welcomed year for us as compared to 2021. We are expecting the numbers of event activities at our venue to increase further in 2023 and beyond.
ES. How do you plan to provide seamless experience to the show organizers at IMPACT in 2023? What are some major shows in the pipeline.
Loy Joon How. IMPACT positions ourselves as a customer-led venue. This entails designing our entire business operations around our customers’ needs. On top of this, our teams strive to live our brand attributes where our customers see us as a proficient partner, passionate professional, and provider of a progressive venue platform with personalized solutions. Adding on to events already happening in 2022, a number of 2023 major shows in the pipeline at our venue will include VIV Asia 2023. We are all set to receive Asia’s biggest livestock exhibition together with its 1,200 exhibitors and global gathering of market leaders to its new and bigger home this March. In April, we will welcome back the return of Thailand’s biggest architecture and building material show. Architect’23 will take up some 60,000 sq.meters of exhibition space at our venue. Within the same month, another one of our major annual automotive events, the Bangkok International Motor Show 2023 is set to move in to occupy over 60,000 sq. meters in our venue. We are also looking forward to the return of our partner’s international medical event, Medlab Asia and Asia Health 2023 in August, which will double in size and scale as compared to its previous edition.
These are just some snapshots of major shows in the pipeline at our venue for 2023.
ES. Please share IMPACT’s key offerings, its versatile facilities and services. What makes IMPACT one of the preferred destinations in Thailand for the events?
Loy Joon How. Our company’s “Partnership for Success” culture is based on delivery high value to our partners and customers through mutual trust, cooperation, partnerships and
customized solutions. We offer our flexibility, size and integration of our facilities and services to deliver one stop solutions for our customers. This include an array of professional and valued added services ranging from space consultations, event management, operations, F&B catering, logistics to even sales and marketing. Our customers see us as a trusted partner that works closely with them to ensure the success of their events.
This is what make us one of the most preferred event destinations in Thailand as our value proposition is IMPACT = Value of Place + People.
ES. Can you give us a brief overview of revival of exhibition industry in Thailand?
Loy Joon How. UFI Global Exhibition Barometer Survey indicated that the global exhibition market is expected to reach over 70% of its pre-pandemic revenues by end 2022, and in 2023, revenues are expected to attain 87% of its pre-pandemic level. The global MICE market trends is projecting that the numbers of MICE events would return to two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels by end 2023 and beyond. We are expecting similar if not better recovery trends here in Thailand as we continue our progressive comeback trail to pre-pandemic levels. In the coming quarters, we are expecting to see an increase in the numbers of in-person events as demands for business and face-to-face exchange activities continue to spur. However, like in all recovering markets, Thailand’s exhibition industry is also encountering higher operating costs brought on by inflations, higher energy and labour costs. The impact of digital disruptions are also being felt, which is further compounded by labor shortages. These are just some headwinds that we are facing as we push on with the revival of our industry, set against a backdrop of potential global economic downturn.
ES. What are your comments on sustainability in our industry and steps needed to move towards it?
Loy Joon How. As our industry continues on its comeback trail to pre-pandemic levels, we will see a renewed focus on sustainability to reduce our carbon footprints and environmental impacts. Already, much progress has been make with increasingly numbers of our industry players committed to adopting sustainable and green best practices. Nevertheless, I think more can be done to educate, advocate and share best practices amongst our industry, and to adopt sustainability as an integrated part of our business operations. For example, IMPACT as a venue with its own in-house catering service, has invested in organic farms to start supplying us with locally grown organic produce for our F&B operations. IMPACT has also been developing and implementing numerous sustainability projects, with our latest achievement in 2022 with the Thailand Sustainable Event Management Standard (TSEMS) certification awarded by Thailand Exhibition and Convention Bureau. In addition, we also need to support and push for the adoption of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) to play our part in promoting fair treatment and full participation of all stakeholders (internal and external) regardless of background, identity or disability.
ES. What are your comments on UFI Asia-Pacific Conference 2023?
Loy Joon How. UFI Asia Pacific Conference is a great platform for all us in this part of the world to catch up in person, renew and forge new acquaintances, exchange and share lessons learned from this crisis and more importantly how can we meet the challenges ahead as we move forward as an industry.
ES. What is your message to the industry?
Loy Joon How. Much has been said about our industry facing new and unprecedented challenges, including a rapid changing operating environment brought about by digital disruptions. In order for us to stay relevant, our industry must embrace the notion of life-long learning. We need to be able to adapt, change, learn, re-skill and up-skill ourselves in this age of digital transformations. Taking lessons learned from COVID-19, companies that make quicker turnaround once the dust settled are ones that incorporate life-long learning as part of their business continuity plans.
