S’pore Allowing Some Events With Up to 250 Attendees as a Trial; Soon, It Could be in the Thousands

The world can’t stay closed forever due to COVID-19, and we can’t avoid going to KTV forever.

And so, the world must gradually ease back to normalcy. But KTV will remain closed…while from October, some exhibitions and conferences with up to 250 participants are set to return to Singapore.

But why?

Firstly, you need to know about MICE.

MICE Industry, an Industry You Probably Didn’t Know About

Here’s something you probably didn’t know about: there’s an industry known as the MICE industry, and it has nothing to do with Mickey Mouse. Instead, MICE stands for “Meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions”, and according to Wikipedia, it’s “a type of tourism in which large groups, usually planned well in advance, are brought together.”

Still sound too chim?

Just think of it as…a food festival lah, but there are many events that not for individuals like us, but for businesses all over the world to attend. For example, you’ve developed a new bubble tea flavour, but you’d like to turn your bubble tea hobby into a multi-national bubble tea empire.

And a company sets up an event in Suntec City convention hall, bringing in bubble tea chain owners from all over the world to meet up with people like you who run a business coming out with new bubble tea favours.

You went for the event and secured ten deals; in one day, you managed to get your salted egg bubble tea flavour to Spain, South Korea, Malaysia, Denmark, Norway, the US, Japan, Mexico, Thailand and even North Korea.

For that to happen, people all across the world has to go to one country, and it’s no surprise that Singapore has a rather bigly MICE industry. According to Singapore Tourism Board’s website, Singapore is ideal because we’re “easily accessible from anywhere around the world, making it an ideal place for your business event.”

Of course, these conventions also include events catered for individuals, like the popular IT shows or food festivals.

Suffice to say, COVID-19 put a halt to all events even before Circuit Break hit, and it’s bad for Singapore.

This industry alone used to support more than 34,000 jobs and contributed to nearly 1% of Singapore’s gross domestic product.

So…

S’pore Allowing Some Events With Up to 250 Attendees; Soon, It Will be in the Thousands

Getai and Jay Chou’s concerts are still not allowed, but from 1 October 2020, organisers will be able to apply to pilot such Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (Mice) events.

But this is just a trial.

And if this works well, it might scale to thousands of attendees. For all you know, Joe Biden might even hold the United States presidential inauguration in Singapore Expo.

Trump: Fake news!

Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said, “We are working with overseas partners, including overseas event organisers… to see how we can learn from the experience of other countries, scaling this up from the hundreds to the thousands in a safe and sustainable manner.”

Currently, the limit is 50 people and let’s face it: that’s not even enough to hold Joe Biden’s Secret Service staff.

One interesting thing (and challenge) to note about the MICE industry in Singapore is that we attract people from other countries for the events. In most MICE industry in other countries, they merely attract people from other states.

Which is why Minister Chan added, “The way we are going to revamp the industry, we have to take into consideration how we bring international travellers into Singapore, conduct the meeting safely, and then even provide them the assurance (of safety after they depart Singapore).”

In fact, STB said that a travel insurance product for travellers to cover critical Covid-19 related expenses is also in the works, and it’ll be available by the fourth quarter of this year.

And organisers need to send a proposal and get approval before they can start the event.

For example, if Donald Trump decides to hold a summit (a meeting) to discuss the fate of bubble tea with world leaders from Asia, his team would need to demonstrate ability to implement safe-management measures, which include limiting overall density of attendees and having infection control measures before and after the event.

Reader Bao: That’s going to be tough for Presi—

One of the events that’s taking place as a pilot event is the Singapore International Energy Week Conference, which is scheduled to be held in a hybrid format at Marina Bay Sands from 26 October to 30 October.

According to the Singapore International Energy Week website, which is called siew.gov.sg, there’s also an exhibition “for businesses to showcase their latest clean energy technologies and solutions as well as connect with regional buyers, customers and investors.”

Now my example of bubble tea makes sense le, right?

Here’s Minister Chan’s Facebook post on this news:

With this, I bet all my boss’ assets that as you read this now, many civil servants are now in discussion with many countries for a green lane.