44 TTG TRAVEL AWARDS 2018 SPECIAL EDITION
BT-MICE Awards
Best Convention &
Exhibition Centre
Sands Expo and
Convention Centre at
Marina Bay Sands Best Meetings &
Conventions Hotel
Centara Grand &
Bangkok Convention
Centre at CentralWorld Best Convention &
Exhibition Bureau
Macao Trade and
Investment Promotion
Institute (IPIM)
Ailynn Seah
Vice president of MIC and association sales,
Sands Expo and Convention Centre at Marina Bay Sands Thirayuth Chirathivat
CEO, Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre
at CentralWorld Irene Va Kuan Lau
Executive director, IPIM
What does this award mean to you? What does this award mean to you? What does this award mean to you?
For Sands Expo and Convention Centre to be
named Best Convention & Exhibition Centre for
the second consecutive year is a great validation
of the work we do. It is also motivating and excit-
ing for the team as they are being recognised and
rewarded for their hard work.
It is an honour to share this prestigious
recognition with our clients and we thank them
for the support and trust that they have in us
all these years. To be voted by our peers and
clients is really an important way of benching-
marking our work against some of the best in
the industry. This accolade we have received for the sixth time
is a testament to our strong commitment to ex-
cellence in serving this vital market segment. The
MICE sector is not only important to Centara;
we think it is essential to commerce. Much of the
personal networking and exchange of ideas in
our world happens at meetings, conferences and
exhibitions. We want to make such events more
productive and enriching. Winning this award means a lot to IPIM and
Macao and we are humbled by this great honour.
Being a very young convention bureau, we
have been striving to position ourselves as a one-
stop shop for the MICE industry to make it easy
for meeting and event planners to organise their
events in Macao. The competition, particularly
within the Asia-Pacific region, is tough as there
are so many bureaus that have been in the game
much longer than us that provide high levels of
service to their clientele. We strive to emulate
industry best practices and this award provides
us some acknowledgement that we are on the
right path.
How will you continue to outshine your competitors
in the marketplace next year and beyond?
The MICE industry is a ‘people business’ where
personalisation and face-to-face engagements are
important in this highly competitive indus-
try. When clients host their events at Marina
Bay Sands, they are part of a bigger ecosystem.
Clients can leverage on the integrated resort’s
diverse offerings to meet their business objectives
and customise the experiences in a setting that is
both engaging and memorable.
At Marina Bay Sands, we see our clients as
partners and aim to be the enablers to drive
innovation and their success. – Mike Lee, vice
president of sales, Marina Bay Sands
How will you continue to outshine your competitors
in the marketplace next year and beyond?
We have actually done a lot of thinking about
this. There is more to it than selling our proper-
ties to event planners. A successful event is a
combination of creative ideas, smart planning,
effective use of technology and an attractive,
comfortable environment.
Many destinations offer a businesslike event
in a dull environment, or a beautiful environ-
ment without professional resources. We aim
to provide both. Our latest programme is New
Agenda: Meetings Redesigned. It shows what you
can do when you combine a spectacular tropical
setting with creative planners, logistical experts
and technology resources. The result is an event
that people talk about and remember.
What would you like to say to the travel agents who
voted you as the best in your category?
I would credit a team effort. I mean that in
two ways. First, there are many Centara people
who have contributed to our success. Second,
we could not do it without our customers. A
successful meeting or event is the product of ef-
fective collaboration between our team and their
client partners. We come up with ideas together.
We work out the details and make the event hap-
pen together. We succeed together, and we learn
together so we can do even better next time.
How will you continue to outshine your competitors
in the marketplace next year and beyond?
We are still going through a period of growth.
IPIM has been increasing the number of MICE
team members which will allow us to provide
higher levels of service in the future. There is still
much to learn and strive for.
Our ultimate goal is to create a seamless plat-
form for meeting and event planners to organise
events in Macao and to help them achieve their
event objectives. As long as we stay focused on
this goal, listen to client feedback and work
closely with our industry partners to continually
improve our product and service delivery, we
are confident that we can strengthen our com-
petitive position.
What would you like to say to the travel agents who
voted you as the best in your category?
IPIM would like to provide a BIG thank you to
everyone who voted for us. This has meant so
much to us and we very much appreciate their
support and recognition. We look forward to
future dialogue with the industry. Industry feed-
back is highly valued by IPIM and motivates us
to set our goals higher.