2019 launched with a bang for the global incentive travel community with 375 people gathering in Bangkok, Thailand for the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) Global Conference, the association's first time back to Asia since New Delhi, 2016. Attendees were told they’d be bedazzled, beguiled and bewitched in beautiful Bangkok and they were. And so much more!
Over 3 intense days of connections, learnings and discoveries, participants were enveloped by a destination in an on-going process of repositioning, regeneration and renewal under a compelling new MICE campaign entitled “Thailand – redefine your business events”. Partnering with SITE, Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) created a destination experience that reinforced all the existing positive brand attributes of the Thai capital while showcasing a new emerging destination with an attractive art scene, a burgeoning start-up culture and a dynamic core of creativity.
Commenting on her #SITEGC experience, Aoife McCrum said "One of my favourite aspects of this conference was the deep destination immersion - we got outside the walls of the conference room! We visited local flower markets, creative event and co-working spaces and large outdoor venues like the one below, Nai Lert Heritage Park".
As the “I” in MICE, only SITE has the moral authority and entitlement to produce a “manifesto” for incentive travel, interrogating its true purpose and identifying its enduring value within the ever-changing business world today.
Assisted by Martin Sirk, former executive director of ICCA, SITE channelled the collective wisdom of our community over 3 deep dive sessions. The final 10 statements of the Bangkok Manifesto were then selected by crowdsourcing with the full conference assembly using Sli.do, the on-line, audience engagement platform. The Manifesto initiative was supported by Meet in Ireland.
Next year's conference will take place in Vancouver, Canada. More information on the Bangkok Global Conference can be found here.