Message from Ong Wee Min, Vice President of Sales and MICE, Marina Bay Sands
Reflections from Ong Wee Min, Vice President of Sales and MICE at Marina Bay Sands on how Sands Expo continues to raise the bar to deliver service excellence
2022 was a year of two halves for the MICE industry – the first half of the year was characterised by uncertainty and fragile consumer confidence while the second half witnessed a rapid ramp-up of MICE activities as clients moved swiftly to engage their respective communities.
The challenges presented to us during the pandemic had made us even stronger, as a venue and also collectively as an industry. As Sands Expo transitions from the traditional service model to delivering service excellence, we have evolved our business and engagement models, refined our operating SOPs and team structure while continuing to upskill the team. All these changes are made with a central focus in mind – our clients.
Organising events in the pandemic era has further evolved. It is no longer about being able to deliver a mass product to delegates at an event but leveraging the collective ability and tools available to conceptualise, design and deliver outstanding event experiences. Our CX (Customer Experience) team, comprising professionals from three different event planning teams, was formed specifically to drive the customer centricity and service excellence culture. As the overall event architect, the CX team will work hand-in-glove with the clients at each step, deep diving with clients, identifying key touch points and charting out the entire delegate journey to deliver a highly successful event.
The team’s can-do spirit allowed us to ramp up our services quickly to cater to the surge in events towards the second half of 2022. Marina Bay Sands is proud to have pulled off 2,164 events in the last year and welcomed close to 70 new shows.
Marina Bay Sands kick started 2023 on a strong note, having hosted the highly anticipated ART SG, an anchor show of Singapore Art Week. We shone the spotlight on Singapore’s vibrant arts and culture scene and curated a 10-day art-themed celebration. In the months to come, we are set to host numerous marquee and new-to-Singapore shows such as International Trade Mark Association (INTA) and Vinexpo Asia in May, and Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) Global Conference in August among others.
We also look forward to welcoming back our long-time clients including Tax Free World Association (TFWA), Geo Connect Asia, ITB Asia and ILTM Asia Pacific, as we work together to elevate their event experiences. Visitors and delegates can also look forward to an exciting line-up of activities organised around key marquee events happening on property in the months to come.
Marina Bay Sands will further push the envelope by bringing together other hospitality players, attractions, service providers, entertainment venues and malls to actualise the concept of a vibrant Marina Bay Precinct.
2023 will be the year where the team continues to calibrate, recalibrate and repeat, while staying laser focused on further strengthening our key pillars – sustainability, training and development – as well as enhancing our suite of digital offerings.
Effective sustainability programming is a collective effort – a collaborative partnership between the organiser, venue and delegates. By offering the various industry accreditations, we are able to ensure that our clients’ meetings are held within a venue that’s fully committed to sustainability. Empowering all our client-facing Sales and MICE Team Members with the Events Industry Council’s Sustainable Event Professional Certificate (SEPC) accreditation will enable us to amplify our sustainability efforts to our clients and the communities that they serve.
There’s much to look forward to in the years ahead as the team continues to reimagine and redefine our offerings to better serve the delegates of tomorrow.