Today International Conference and Conventions have become an indispensable feature. Increasing interdependence among Nations, Progress in Science and Technology, medicine, communication and World travel have all made their meeting and exchange of ideas imperative. The most significant dimension of the Meeting Industry is that Conferences and Conventions together with Exhibitions provide opportunities to exchange views and ideas on diverse subjects from Medicine to movies, from Export to Education. In the independent World, Meetings and exhibitions are fast gaining ground and is essential for many of our people to acquire greater knowledge of advance techniques and better knowhow.
ICPB is pleased to announce its Flagship Event: 12th Conventions India Conclave from 29 – 31 August 2019 at Grand Hyatt Kochi. The Theme of the Conclave is ‘MAPPING THE SUSTAINABLE MICE FUTURE OF INDIA’ which goes with the importance of MICE and its Economic and Social impact.
India recently climbed to the 22nd position in the recent list of global meeting market published by ICCA rankings Worldwide and 7th position in the Asia Pacific region following 132 global business events. There is a huge jump in the rankings for India from 31st position in 2016 to 22nd position in 2017 (Worldwide) and from 9th to 7th position in Asia Pacific Region. If we were to analyze this data in the Indian context, given its emergence as a key economic hotspot along with other countries in Asia, the enormous opportunities that lie within this segment, India has a clear competitive advantage to be one of the top ten Countries as a host destination for International Scientific, Technical and Medical conferences. India has all the pre-requisites of being one of the top destinations in the World having more than 350 medical colleges, 400 agriculture universities and a number of IIT’s and IIM’s. We must take advantage as most of these organizations have a provision to underwrite bid support and financial assistance for conferences which come under the technical domain. We in the convention industry strongly believe that MICE is not an Industry, it is an economic activity which has significant economic and social impact.
Having said that, we need to figure out what we need to do next – what is the direction State Govt. and the industry needs to take and how ICPB can partner to achieve the goal.
- Market creation: We need to prioritize the source market and the same should be developed in the form of an annual Marketing calendar – for that two major areas we need to focus on are Roadshows across India and creating City Bureaus.
- We also have been deliberating and sharing our concern at different forums that unless we have assessment of the market – the size of the Industry and know and share the Industry and the Govt. both at State and Central level , we won’t be able to identify the facilities and infrastructure requirement and move forward – Research – Develop infrastructure for MICE through PPP Model .
Let me conclude by saying there is a huge potential in the Country for Convention and Exhibition business to take off in the coming future. India’s boosting economy and proactive policies of the Govt. of India augur well for future of the Convention Industry.
Chander Mansharamani
Vice Chairman – India convention Promotion Bureau
