UFI has kicked off its Open Seminar in Asia at Suntec Singapore with event brand WIT’s founder Siew Hoon Yeoh addressing delegates.
Managing director of Business Strategies Group (BSG) Mark Cochrane introduced the opening seminar of the event, which runs on 23-24 February, comparing the evolution of the exhibition industry to the evolution of the bicycle – a passion of his.
UFI managing director Kai Hattendorf and UFI president Andreas Gruchow then took to the stage to thank Suntec for hosting the event.
Touching on the challenges of organising events, Hoon Yeoh said: “It’s hard to change cultures from within, but sometimes you just need to give yourself a blank canvas when creating an event. To make sure people took our event seriously, we signed with the Singapore Tourism Board for three years. It was a real partnership, and it was scary at first. Somehow the first event we held worked. We did it all in house with no marketing budget. We were passionate amateurs but we made sure our content shone. Crucially, our speakers were thought provoking and we had two rules: No sales pitches and everything must be done on time.”
She left with one message: “Re-imagine yourself and business.”
