Safety requirements, new metrics to shape post-pandemic events landscape

Singapore

WHEN business events resume in Singapore, the landscape for meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) will be reshaped by not just physical restrictions on attendance and other safety measures, but also the advent of the "hybrid" event where digital and physical versions of an event are conducted simultaneously.

Industry watchers note that many of these changes will increase costs while restricting revenue. Hybrid events, however, will become the norm to accommodate more participants virtually without driving up costs.

Two such events in August and September will be used to trial a risk management framework developed by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to guide the safe resumption of business-to-business events.

If the trial is successful, other events will be allowed to resume gradually, provided event organisers can implement safe management measures to achieve five key outcomes outlined in the framework. The organisers will need to have infection control measures for every stage of an attendee's journey including pre- and post-event, limit crowd density, limit close contacts between individuals, ensure a safe and clean environment, and be prepared for Covid-19-related emergencies.

James Walton, transportation, hospitality and services leader at Deloitte Singapore, expects health declarations and temperature screenings to become the norm at physical events, similar to how enhanced security checks were almost universally applied as a result of 9/11. Companies will also have to move away from cheap and manpower-light food and beverage options like self-service buffets, and spend more to rent larger spaces while admitting fewer people.

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Compounding matters further, attendees may hesitate to attend large events for some time yet.

"In the short to medium-term, we will see events less populated, because at this point of time, are people comfortable and willing to be in close proximity with people they don't know? It's doubtful," Mr Walton said.

Still, he thinks there could be savings in other areas. "There's definitely going to be a push towards virtual meetings. A lot of organisations are now looking at doing away with one-day travels, for example. This represents huge savings for a large organisation, as well as an opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint."

Teh Seng Leong, leader of Ernst & Young's global real estate, hospitality and construction M&A practice, said the industry's key priorities would be to instill consumer confidence and introduce national safety protocols for consumers and employees across the industry. Part of this will involve digitalising more aspects of the customer experience, with more use of signages, digital keys and mobile apps for directions, registration, authentication and communication.

"The changes in customer experiences driven by health and safety will necessitate a review of technologies," Mr Teh said.

"In the long run, virtual relationships cannot replace physical meetings, but in the short and medium term, event and MICE operators will still need to maintain brand presence in the virtual world and explore how they can bring their members and exhibitors together virtually."

Given the increased importance of digital events, demand for digital event management skills and new metrics for gauging the success of a digital or hybrid event will arise, said Veemal Gungadin, CEO of events technology provider GlobalSign.in.

"There's a whole chunk of event management that hasn't changed, be it for physical or digital events. That's where event managers have their years of experience to back them up," Mr Gungadin said. "But now they have to either get people who can fulfil the role (of a digital event manager) or upgrade themselves with that new skillset that we call digital event management."

GlobalSign.in's clients have been requesting relevant training resources, and the firm has responded by putting together a series of webinars, checklists and other information on digital event management topics. The resources can be accessed for free via the Digital Events Academy on its GEVME Live website, a dedicated platform it built recently to host digital and hybrid events.

Some of the skills needed for digital events are an understanding of the various platforms and technology available, services like live translation and post-event video on demand, and proper data management and cybersecurity measures.

Mr Gungadin noted that organisers will need to comply not just with Singapore's privacy laws, but international ones like the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation too, since they will likely be dealing with an international audience.

Attendance figures will no longer be the main gauge of an event's success, although the nature of a digital event makes it possible to draw an impressive and almost unlimited crowd, as long as the platform can support the numbers.

Instead, measuring engagement throughout the event and within various sessions, as well as the number of interactions recorded between attendees, exhibitors and sponsors, will become more important to prove that attendees did not merely join briefly and leave early out of disappointment.

While this may sound like a lot more work, the online nature of digital events makes it easier to collect data that can be leveraged for these and other insights, Mr Gungadin pointed out. Attendees can slip out of physical events at any time, unknown to the organisers, but online, they can be prompted to complete a survey about their experience when they leave a meeting. Even if they don't fill out the survey, the amount of time they spent in the session could be used to infer their interest or engagement with the speaker or content.

The shift to digital will help event organisers reach a more international audience - not just in terms of attendees, but also in terms of potential clients.

Since they no longer need to pick a physical event venue and work with organisers in the same country, companies will start looking further afield and picking partners based on their digital capabilities rather than geographical location. For instance, GlobalSign.in has already seen more clients coming from the US, the UK and China during the pandemic, whereas previously it served more clients in Singapore and South-east Asia.

The flip side is that competition in the events business will become more global than ever, and Singapore could find it harder to retain its title as the top meeting city in Asia-Pacific, which it was recently named for the 18th year in a row by the International Congress and Convention Association.

EY's Mr Teh does not expect Singapore to lose its crown easily. "As this is a global pandemic, we do not see the risk of international event organisers moving events away from Singapore to other locations."

But Mr Gungadin pointed out that Singapore's event venues have surely factored into decisions to hold events here, and the restrictions on physical events could reduce their importance going forward.

"It has been easy for large companies to say, 'Let's go to Singapore,' because in terms of venues, there are so many venues you could go to. For a venue owner, that business is pretty predictable," he said. "But now it's changing. The value proposition is changing. So there's a question mark."

Additional reporting by Deepanraj Ganesan

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