Davao City girds for influx of top MICE executives

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — This city of bloom and boom from islands to highlands is briskly preparing for the massive influx of big corporate players from the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions/events (MICE) industry, including experts from all over the world.

This was announced by the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) as it confirmed the staging of the MICE Conference 2013 in Davao City’s newly opened SMX Convention Center on March 6-9, 2013.

TPB chief operating officer Domingo Ramon Enerio III said this city emerged as 2013’s MICECON venue because of its growing number of MICE facilities led by the SMX Convention Center in Lanang.

“MICECON will bring together delegates from the Philippines and foreign MICE industry comprising meeting/event planners, destination management companies, incentive tour operators, hotels and resorts, airlines, convention and exhibition centers, local tourism offices, and association executives, among many others,” Enerio said.

International experts, who include several top Filipino corporate moguls, will talk about global meeting trends, branding, technovations, and other topics on business and travel during the conference, said Stanie Soriano, officer-in-charge of the TPB MICE and Business Development Unit.

“With the theme “iMICE2013. iGNITE. iNNOVATE. iNSPIRE. iNFUSE,” MICECON 2013 will discuss such topics as Imagining the Future of Travel; Tips, Tricks and Techniques for an Extraordinary Event Experience; Brand Strategy on a Tight Budget; Rise of Asian Brands; The War for Talent – Secret to Attracting, Motivating and Retaining the Best; MICE Technovations: Tomorrow’s Hottest Technologies Today; and Let’s Kill Murphy! Bullet-Proofing Meetings from Disasters and other Event Terrorists,” Soriano said.

Held annually, MICECON is a marketing and educational program designed to upgrade the standards and capability of the Philippine MICE sector and the rest of its supply chain.

In addition to the conference, other major activities during MICECON are the MICE Marketplace and the MICE Mart, the former showcasing industry products and services and the latter being a one-day business-to-business (B2B) event for selected local sellers and international buyers.

MICECON 2013 is organized by the TPB, with the full support of the Davao City government, Davao Tourism Association, Davao Region Tourism Council, Association of Davao Event Organizers and Suppliers, Small Hotels Association of Davao, Davao Travel Agencies Association, Philippine Association of Convention/Exhibition Organizers and Suppliers (PACEOS), and Meetings, Incentive Travel, Events/Exhibitions (MITE) Philippines Inc.

For more information on MICECON 2013, contact the Philippine M.I.C.E. Conference Organizing Committee at 525-6110 or 525-6635, fax at 521-6165, e-mail at miceregn@yahoo.com or cit.unit@gmail.com, go to Facebook at MICECON 2013 Davao or visit www.micecon.net.