SOUTH KOREA - Meetings industry representatives gathered in Seoul earlier this month for the country’s largest meetings-industry event, the Korea MICE Forum 2010.
Panelists included Seoul Tourism Organisation CEO Samuel Koo, ICCA president Martin Sirk, Meetings Professionals International’s chief development officer Didier Scaillet, Business Events Sydney CEO John Hutchison, and Fast Future CEO Rohit Talwar.
Topics discussed included green initiatives and the role of the meetings industry in society, as well as how new technology will affect meetings in the future.
“Many companies have now invested in high-tech conference rooms and good broadband connectivity,” said Sirk. “Inevitably, this type of technology is going to replace small, routine meetings. However, once you get above 40 or 50 participants, it becomes far less efficient to do that. It’s also important to build a long-term relationship, and you can’t do that in the beginning through technology – that has to be done face-to-face.”
In regards to Seoul as a meetings destination, Sirk said the city is a dark horse on the Asian market.
“Competitors worry about Seoul because they see it is doing many innovative things,” he said. “In the last few years, Seoul has become one of the most aggressively marketed cities in the world. There isn’t anybody in the industry that is not aware of Seoul as a meetings destination and that it wants their business. In terms of profile, it has raised itself very, very high.”
The MICE Expo and Forum opened on-schedule despite recent aggression between the North and South Korean militaries.
