KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) and Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) recently hosted the virtual three-day IAPCO Edge Malaysia seminar.
The seminar is designed to help Malaysian business events professionals enhance their skillset and elevate their overall business knowledge and expertise.
The long-term objective of this upskilling is to make the country a more attractive destination for high-profile international and regional business events, which will benefit Malaysia's economy.
With support from the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers (IAPCO), the seminar is designed for meetings and events professionals to learn best practices to match the industry's international requirements and standards through knowledge transfer and skills development.
"We are grateful to have collaborated with MyCEB and IAPCO to successfully deliver the programme, which was the culmination of a three-year strategic partnership initiated by KLCC.
"It has been a very successful tripartite partnership, producing over 20 graduates from the WebEDGE programme. In addition, two of Malaysia's professional conference organisers (PCO) have applied for global membership of IAPCO as a result of the exposure and learnings gained," KLCC general manager Alan Pryor said in a statement today.
The seminar featured international business events industry leaders with real-life experiences and case studies to share, the seminar provided valuable industry insights for business event players, including PCOs, meeting planners, associations, event organisers, and destination management companies.
A wide range of topics was discussed, such as current trends and the state of the industry, conference marketing in a changing world, successful project management, finance and budgeting and many more.
MyCEB chief executive officer Datuk Sri Abdul Khani said in its continued partnership with IAPCO and KLCC, MyCEB recognise the need to continuously expand the industry's competencies and professionalism for Malaysia-based PCOs.
"This seminar is in line with MyCEB's Malaysia Business Events Strategic Marketing Plan 2021 – 2030, which reinforces our commitment to raising the bar of Malaysia's strengths to deliver quality and successful events that contribute towards enrichment and satisfaction among stakeholders of the industry," he said in a statement today.
"We recognise the importance of continuously expanding the capacity and capabilities of Malaysia's business events players, and the seminar provided an excellent educational platform to connect with and elevate the local industry supply chain," Alan said.
"Through experiences like this, we hope to help local meeting and event professionals become more competitive when bidding for international events.
"This will help increase bid wins and attract a higher number of delegates to Malaysia, generating more economic impact and knowledge transfer to the country," Alan said further.
Pico International (M) Sdn Bhd managing director Jason Teh, a participant of the IAPCO Edge Malaysia seminar, said the recent event was very well designed with an impressive line-up of international speakers.
"The knowledge, industry insights and global perspectives shared are beneficial content for industry players, as well as topical and relevant to the current situation.
"The interactive workshop session was also a great platform for us to apply the new knowledge gained in a practical environment, which was very helpful," he said.
Abdul Khani said to reemphasise, the IAPCO Edge Malaysia seminar offered excellent opportunities to network and exchange ideas and looks forward to adding more successful events in the future.
Alan thanked all the speakers for sharing their expertise with the attendees.
"We were highly impressed with the programme and interesting topics discussed.
"We hope all the participants acquired a wealth of new knowledge and valuable tips from the experts, which can be used to enhance Malaysia's attractive business events proposition and more international events to the country once borders reopen," he said.
The IAPCO Edge Malaysia seminar is the culmination of the tri-partite collaboration between MyCEB, KLCC and IAPCO.
This follows the IAPCO Continued Professional Development programme, as part of Malaysia Business Events Week (MBEW) in August 2020 and the unique online education platform, IAPCO WebEDGE, in May 2020.