Singapore EXPO & Max Atria, Singapore's largest MICE venue, unveiled a suite of two new offerings at the EXPO 2.0 Launch Festival, 16 January.
The new offerings are designed to capture new and hybrid business events and to spur growth of future-ready enterprises and jobs.
The event also showcased a brand refresh that comes on the back of SingEx Venues’ successful tender bid in November 2018 to continue operating Singapore’s largest MICE venue for a further 10 years.
Themed ‘Your Community EXPOrience’, the event was attended by 1,000 guests from the MICE sector as well as many other industries and communities, with Singapore Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education, Mr Chee Hong Tat, as the guest of honour.
Guests were shown a launch video highlighting the capabilities of the new suite, which includes FleX, a modular meeting village and ApeX, a plug-and-play high-tech plenary hall.
Singapore EXPO & MAX Atria also showcased its Xpert product, an in-house event planning service which has already been used by organisers of the Singapore Health & Biomedical Congress 2019, ESTRO meets Asia 2019, public events for former US president Barack Obama and former first lady of the US Michelle Obama, and the upcoming Alzheimer’s Disease International Conference 2020.
With the growing trend for hybrid events where organisers aspire to hold meetings alongside exhibitions, these new facilities and services are designed to allow customers increased flexibility to exercise their creativity.
Attendees at the gala evening were also given a virtual walkthrough of Singapore EXPO & MAX Atria’s updated food and beverage offerings, which consist of Kinetic Kitchen, the central production kitchen with research and development (R&D) capabilities.
The Kinetic Kitchen has the capability to cater food for over a thousand guests concurrently. Also unveiled were K2, a private dining room where special guests can partake in bespoke meals; and one77°, a bistro café showcasing fusion Singaporean cuisine. All three concepts are tied together by a cooking philosophy which sees the convergence of culinary arts and technology.
In view of the upcoming Lunar New Year, attendees at the gala were also treated to a sustainable ‘lo-hei’ (‘prosperity toss’ popular at Chinese New Year), made entirely from ingredients sourced from local farms and suppliers.
CMW’s editor was among media guests given a preview opportunity to experience modular breakout room solution FleX first-hand.
Made up of smart, sustainable and acoustically treated ‘building block’ spaces,FleX is able to suit meeting spaces of all sizes. The plenary hall ApeX’scustomisable audio-visual and digital elements, telescopic seating and its grand stage and 54m screen were all on show, too.
Aloysius Arlando (pictured left), Chief Executive Officer, SingEx Holdings Private Limited, welcomed guests and said: “Your Community EXPOrience is the brand philosophy that we have set in place for the new Singapore EXPO & MAX Atria. This is built on our conviction that we are community enablers. The launch of these new offerings at the venue will be pivotal in our journey to facilitating, nurturing and growing the communities that we serve, as well as strengthening our position at the intersection of industries to bring about convergence and value creation, leading to new discoveries. This philosophy is also applied to how we develop talent not just within the SingEx organisation, but also the wider MICE community. People are at the heart of our business.
"Singapore EXPO & MAX Atria can play an active role in drawing out enterprises and entrepreneurs, helping them to realise their commercial potential by providing an environment of experimentation."
“We believe that Singapore EXPO & MAX Atria has the potential to be a nexus of innovation for Singapore’s Eastern precinct. With its location being in close proximity to other innovation hubs such as Changi General Hospital for healthcare, Changi Airport for aerospace and aviation, the Singapore University of Technology and Design and ITE College East for education, and fintech in Changi Business Park, Singapore EXPO & MAX Atria can play an active role in drawing out enterprises and entrepreneurs, helping them to realise their commercial potential by providing an environment of experimentation and cross-industry collaboration using the event platform.
“On top of bringing Singapore EXPO & MAX Atria to new heights, this refreshed version of the venue is going to profile Singapore as a truly leading, progressive MICE destination.”
Singapore’s Minister for Trade & Industry and Education, Mr Chee Hong Tat, also addressed the audience of the joint Expo 2.0 SACEOS40 gala: “In 2018, the MICE industry generated approximately SNG$3.8bn in value added or 0.8% of Singapore’s GDP. Aside from the value add to the Singapore economy, MICE benefits Singapore’s economy in many other ways. Through MICE, we have strengthened our position as a global business hub and key node within Asia, allowing us to attract more investment opportunities and building thought leadership to complement our key industry clusters. In 2018, Singapore welcomed close to 3 million BT-MICE visitors, an increase of about 12% from 2017. Last October, I announced that we had anchored ITB Asia, Asia’s leading travel tradeshow, in Singapore for another three years. Besides ITB Asia, we can look forward to other major trade shows, association congresses and inaugural business events taking place in Singapore this year.”
Today the venue complex has 123,000sqm of outdoor and indoor space, including 10 exhibition halls and 32 meetings rooms.
Singapore EXPO & MAX Atria claims to have empowered over a billion human connections in the past two decades and hosts 600 events and welcomes six million visitors a year.
Upcoming headliners to be hosted at Singapore EXPO & MAX Atria include: Singapore FinTech Festival 2020; World Aquaculture 2020; Microsoft Ignite The Tour; FHA-HoReCa and FHA-Food & Beverage; ITI World Symposium 2020; Industrial Transformation ASIA-PACIFIC 2020; and 34th International Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International 2020.
