Some guests at the MICE event
A gathering of events planning professionals, who are all part of the tourism ecosystem, last Friday April 21, attended the maiden MICE Expert Show, a mini trade exhibition with face time conferencing, specifically designed to ignite “community, conversations and conversions” to fully impact the local business tourism industry.
The ‘MICE Expert Show’ sought to put the spotlight on the activities of Ghana’s MICE community, the product and supplier offerings of business events, which is also known as business tourism or MICE – an acronym for Meetings, Incentive (travel), Conferences and Exhibitions or Events, and created a great atmosphere for attendees to build networks and meet new people working in the segment.
Hosted by IbyService: Destination Management Consultants, the flagship event had a crack line up of exciting speakers who made presentations on subjects ranging from mental health issues to work/life balance to tax education to legal matters relevant to small businesses which most MICE business presently find themselves.
With the theme being on ‘Ethical Culture’, some of the topics treated at the expo included “Green Meetings and Sustainability”, “Digital Technology and Innovations Transforming the MICE Industry”, “Legal Matters – Contracting”, “Onsite Life and Insurance Matters”, “Personal Assistants Club World” to “Winning with Incentive Travels for Top Clients and Employees.”
Focus was placed on the “I”in MICE, which is all about “Incentive travel” – a term describing the compensation that workers, sales partners, or staff receives for their productivity and sales output or any other type of growth outcome, in the form of a trip, hotel stay, excursion, or tour package. A reward system that provides great satisfaction and memories to motivate and incentivise employees or top clients.
The globalisation of the MICE industry has led to an increase in the number of business meetings.
Not only did the day bring together MICE event professionals, corporate event planners and the like, but also it started conversations on the industry’s newest trends and development, succeeding in achieving its main purpose of creating a unique opportunity for networking.