IICC Grand Opening COMING UP SOON
ES. The IICC Grand Opening is getting a lot of attention. What is the status of the project’s development and when can it be operational? What makes IICC a unique Multi-purpose Convention & Exhibition Centre and what facilities makes it so unique?
Phil Chung. Now IICC venue’s construction progress is 75% and the construction company’s expecting that when we reach about 95%, that will be the physical completion of IICC as about the rest 5% will be all about testing period. The exact dates for grand opening hasn’t been announced yet but the target year is next year, and we will keep the industry informed about that once it’s been officially confirmed and released soon by the government. The construction site looks magnificent and very promising even now but we think the impeccable completion of the venue is more important than anything else as IICC venue will be positioned as the iconic venue for India for a long time together with numerous nearby business tourism attractions and amazing national heritages.
One encouraging news is that IICC metro connecting IICC to international airport(IGI) and all other major areas of New Delhi has been 99% completed, and now is being successfully test-run and promoted through media numerous times. IICC Metro station is situated right in front of the Hall 3 of IICC venue. And the Dwarka Expressway connecting IICC to Gurgaon(central business hub for global companies), Urban Extension Road II to central Delhi(South) will be well prepared by the mid-part of 2023 that IICC venue can provide the totally different India transportation experiences to all incoming visitors from many parts of India as well as from many countries.
IICC’s first phase of development shall provide 2 very large & dividable tradeshow halls of about 60,000sqm and a well connected indoor convention centre of about 60,000sqm which will be a 7 story building that is internally connected to the exhibition centre. Exhibition centre’s featured by all integrated large halls with over 15m ceiling height. Exceptionally, all indoor exhibition halls will be connected to a long moving-walkway of the grand foyer just like in the airport, which means that there will be no inconvenience of going outside to identify and reach other halls under the hot weather. This also means that there will be no peak or off-peak season for exhibitions or conventions in New Delhi as we can run all the shows all year round inside of the well airconditioned halls regardless of the weather conditions.
You will see large rigging truss structure within all halls for all tradeshows, and the venue shall boast of the highest floor loading capacity of 5 Ton/square meter(uniform) as well as the biggest supply capabilities of electric power capability for all tradeshow halls providing about 2,000 KW per 10,000sqm on average, which will be quite exceptional in the region.
Our world-class convention centre will be the state of the art one also. When you visit most of the other exhibition centres in the world, you will notice that meeting facilities are being regarded as the support facilities to the large expo halls. However, it will be quite a different venue concept from others that IICC convention centre is an independent 7 story building with all world-class conference rooms and facilities equipped with cutting-edge audio-visual technologies. All convention planners can simple come and enjoy making the most of our in-house sound and visual systems like LED & LCD screens, top quality beam-projectors, conference audio and interpretation equipment all available within all sound-proof meeting rooms without carrying in their own A/V system equipment and re-build all again in the centre. You will see our convention equipment and technical arrangement are far better than the ones you can experience even in other high ranking convention hosting countries. IICC’s auditorium in the lower floors will seat people up to 6,000 and the grand ballroom in the 6th floor alone can accommodate more than 3,000 people. In between there are so many medium and large size break-out meeting and conference rooms available. In particular, for large con-current catering events during the show and conference periods, IICC has 2 large full fledged main kitchens in the basement of exhibition hall 1 as well as on the 5th floor of IICC convention centre. Organizers from in and out of India can enjoy diverse menus available on site and serve all types of Indian, western, pan-Asian meals to all visitors on site during their stays. Another unique point is that IICC is just a few kilometers aways from the New Delhi international airport(IGI), and the Aerocity complex which has been wonderfully developed as the hub of deluxe hotels, restaurants and shopping malls providing more than 3,500 rooms to all guests. IICC visitors will enjoy their times in numerous UECs(urban entertainment centres) located in Aerocity, Gurgaon and many other nearby New Delhi areas.
ES. As a Secretary General of New Delhi-NCR MICE Forum, initiated and formed by KINEXIN Management on July 4th, 2019, we would like to know with what vision and objective the forum was formed, and how this initiative is to be carried forward?
Phil Chung. New Delhi NCR MICE Forum is an invitation only forum opened to all energetic, full of go experts and organizers of many sectors who are enjoying the benefits of the world’s tradeshow and convention industry. This forum is basically about promoting the development opportunities of India MICE industry as well as IICC venue. I’m running this on/offline forum in India whenever myself and members have time to share, we discuss good tradeshow items, industry news, global market insights and investment opportunities of all kinds. This is basically a good long term voluntary communication platform where we can share our own free-flows of insights and expertise to promote India MICE together and to attract more international collaboration of many kinds together.
ES. What according to you will be the role of venues and the preparations they will need to thrive in the years to come?
Phil Chung. For India, we need to more aggressively promote India and its vast market & investment opportunities in earnest together to increase the entire MICE pool of India. IICC venue will make the same effort for the same end as long as our time and resources allow. And until India gets to have good government assistance programs for conventions, venues can help as proactive intermediary players for international organizers to the extent that they can enjoy hosting their international conventions without having too much cost and risk in the new market. Government of India has recently developed a good national initiative to enhance the roles of CVBs and create more local bureaus to attract more international conventions and tradeshows. Venues like IICC together with such initiatives can interact with the world MICE experts in all concerned areas to land more global business opportunities on the vast and promising India market.
ES. What do you say to the industry if you had one message and one piece of advice to give?
Phil Chung. Again, India needs to make much more proactive destination marketing and promotional efforts on a global scale to reach the next level. India will be a big focus market to every one of us for next coming decades. We’re welcoming all UFI global members to India and IICC venue. For many reasons, UFI’s next long term global focus should be on India where all global organizers can grow their international tradeshows in sizable scales with the nation’s ever-fastly growing economy. Like Mark Twain once mentioned, I would like to say to all UFI members “Dream, Discover and Explore in India!”
