Constellar bets on digital transformation to win back business travellers

THOUGH Singapore has lifted most of its Covid-19 curbs, it will take a few months before businesses are confident enough for a significant resumption of Mice (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) events, said Jean-Francois Quentin, group chief executive officer of local Mice company Constellar.

But when demand does return, Constellar fully intends to capture it. As he told The Business Times in a recent interview, his vision is for Constellar to become one of the top 20 companies in the industry in the next 3 to 5 years, and to be a leader in the South-east Asia and Asia market: “I want Constellar to be viewed as the partner of choice in Singapore and in the region."

To achieve this, Constellar is looking out for acquisition opportunities, he added: "Our ambition is to be acquisitive in the coming years. And we're working on this to find the right opportunities in the right countries."

As to exactly when Singapore's Mice industry might recover, he is taking a wait-and-see approach. While businesses are certainly eager to reconnect in person after 2 years of virtual and hybrid events, many are holding out to see if there will be roadblocks to the Republic's reopening plans before making any big commitments, he said.

“I’m generally optimistic, but experience has shown since the beginning of the pandemic that we have always been overly optimistic,” Quentin quipped.

“Companies will come back, without any doubt. But in order to commit, you need to have a bit of visibility... I don't think companies will say, okay, Singapore has decided to reopen, then let’s go. I don't think it will work this way.”

The next few months will be crucial, as businesses watch the trajectory of Singapore's reopening very closely: “It comes back to making sure that the industry fully reopens in the next 3 to 6 months. If we go like: stop and go, and stop and go, it’ll be very difficult, because you don't create the level of confidence that companies need to commit budgets to travel and to engage with event companies."

Regardless of when a full recovery might be achieved, Constellar is ready to recapture the pent-up demand for business travel. Its pipeline of events for the year already includes Industrial Transformation Asia-Pacific, which will take place in October, and the Singapore FinTech Festival, which will be held in November.

Furthermore, having developed digital capabilities during the pandemic, Constellar intends to offer clients more personalised “omni-channel” solutions tailored to their needs and priorities.

This could mean holding digital events in conjunction with physical ones, such as having pre- or post-event online sessions, so that companies can engage their attendees more regularly and meaningfully.

Small- and medium-sized firms with budget constraints can also use digital tools for more creative and cost effective solutions, he added.

For its own part, Constellar plans to use data analytics to understand customer requirements in greater detail. Said Quentin: “It can't be as it was before... Our communities want more engagement, and they are expecting us to bring more value for them in return.”

He noted that businesses' priorities have also been shifting as they rethink their travel budgets. Many companies are now looking at quality over quantity, and have therefore become more selective of the events they will attend.

“In the end, our customers – whether they are visitors or exhibitors or sponsors – are looking at their return on investment. I see that as an opportunity for us to enter and offer other services as well,” said Quentin.

With 20 years of experience under his belt, Quentin is no stranger to the Mice industry, having previously held senior leadership positions at RX France (Reed Exhibitions), UBM Brazil and easyFairs before joining Constellar as group CEO and arriving in Singapore last October.

Previously known as SingEx-Sphere Holdings, Constellar had been formed in February 2021 through the merger of Temasek's SingEx Holdings and Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) Sphere Exhibits. Temasek owns 60 per cent of the merged entity while SPH holds the remaining 40 per cent.

Asked why he decided to take up the role in Singapore, Quentin replied that firstly, he wanted to dig his heels into a new, dynamic region in Asia – one of the fastest growing regions in the Mice industry.

Secondly, the project that he was tasked to lead – setting out Constellar’s long-term strategy – was appealing to him.

“The decision-making for the trade show industry, for big companies, is sometimes about short-term profits. But here, it's not about short-term profits, it's about building up a company long-term,” he said.

“That doesn't mean we are not looking at short-term profits, but it means that we're looking at creating long-term value for shareholders. And in order to do that, you need to have a bit of time and a bit of a vision of where you want to go.”