In the fourth episode, we dive into how post-pandemic trends are transforming the offer with Senthil Gopinath, CEO of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), headquartered in the Netherlands.
In our Backstage Leadership Conversations podcast series, in collaboration with Abu Dhabi's Culture and Tourism Department, we explore the post-pandemic trends in business travel, focusing on key areas such as technology, impact, sustainability and recovery. Learn how Abu Dhabi is helping the MICE sector to thrive.
For this series, we went backstage at Abu Dhabi Business Events Week and had engaging discussions with a range of interesting leaders from across the sector to understand more about the shifts and trends they have witnessed in their work. We heard a range of different perspectives and talked about how everybody can collectively come together to reinforce Abu Dhabi's very competitive positioning and continue to help the MICE sector thrive as a more competitive, exciting and innovative industry as we come out of the pandemic.
In the fourth episode, we dive into how post-pandemic trends are transforming the offer with Senthil Gopinath, CEO of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), headquartered in the Netherlands. The ICCA is the global community and knowledge hub for the international association meetings industry. The ICCA represents the main specialists in organising, transporting, and accommodating international meetings and events. It specialises in the international association and meeting sector, offering unrivalled data communications channels and business development opportunities.
Senthil has over 20 years of experience in the meetings, association and leisure industries. He's creative, adaptable and certainly very well-equipped to navigate these constantly changing environments with his key strengths. Over the past couple of years, the situation in which the MICE sector operates has changed significantly. Three years ago, Senthil was appointed as the Chief Executive of the ICCA, where he steered the organisation through what we can certainly describe as a challenging period. I decided to ask him about his perspective on trends and what he's been able to observe during this period, in this really unique position of guiding a globally significant organisation through major change.
When I took over at the ICCA, unlike any other CEO, within about four months we went through the pandemic. Something I really learned over the period and implemented a lot of changes within the organisation about adaptability. It's about how much you are agile in your organisation and what innovations you can bring. As a Chief Executive, those were the key elements in my day-to-day work and transforming the knowledge of the team because the member requirements have drastically changed. Members were looking at solutions and looking at what's the new way of working for the future. So my role was very exciting. I would call it quite a continuous engagement because when you are in a different time in a pre-pandemic unit, the function of a CEO is in a more structured manner. However, it was all about how do you adapt on a weekly or a daily basis. Having said that, I enjoyed that because we could service members across the world, give them solutions, introduce them to new technologies and innovative ideas as well as look at future ways of working and upgrading their solution. One of the key elements of my role was working at the grassroots level. I could speak to every member because there was some time available among all of us.
The reopening happened from 2021, with the industry recovering again. It's another completely different dimension where you go out there, meet the members, engage with them and talk to them about how to stay relevant and how to not forget what you learnt or what you want to implement. Don't go back to the basics of what you were doing pre-pandemic. Now, we repeatedly share this at various sessions, one-to-one dialogues and networking - particularly with government ministers and policymakers, telling them to recognise our industry. Our industry has been a great economic developer driver.
As an advocate of what the industry can bring to a destination, I wanted to explore some of the key shifts and changes that Senthil has seen amongst ICCA's members, in particular looking at those more prominent shifts and which ones he expects to continue as we look ahead.
For one of the key shifts, I'll give a very simple example. In cities, until we were becoming a vaccination centre, even some of the policymakers never knew there is a convention centre in the city or they knew there is a centre but not its purpose. So, it is a blessing in disguise that we got as an industry. We got highlighted through the pandemic that we are here with a purpose. Our industry can really kickstart or get into a fast track in supporting the local, national, international or regional economies. That was something really elevated during the Covid time.
Regarding the changes within the membership across the world, I keep seeing that innovation was key. We became very complacent. Predominantly, we kept on doing what we are doing over the last two or three decades. Yes, we evolved as an industry, but the business was booming so we took a step back and started repeating what we are doing. Now I see our members have gone into that innovation extensively. I'm not talking about technology. Even from a content point of view, if you're organising a conference, the content needs be experiential. What does a customer want?
Collaborative effort has become stronger between the association community and the industry. In the past you treated them more like a client and then you delivered what they want. Now, the members are engaged in structuring the programme and the event itself. That's here to stay because over a period the workforce within our membership has learned how to work on these models.
With the shared risk model, the risk has been shared within the industry and the meeting industry community. So it's a win-win for both. I think that part is here to stay. Even the business really grows. Like you have seen Nick, the demand has really surged in the last 10 months. But some of the fundamentals which were created during the pandemic are yet to stay. I see that the industry is giving more focus on that aspect and infrastructure development.
I also see that when our plans are done, thought processes are put in when you're building a convention centre or you are redeveloping your city, they are looking at "what if" scenarios for different future scenarios and how to support each other. These are the good signs.
It's clear that collaboration is a key theme that has run throughout our Backstage Leadership Conversations. I wanted to know what this means in terms of the kind of expertise that needs to be fostered within organisations. Did the skills, knowledge and understanding of the industries we're working across differ to how perhaps they looked before the pandemic?
There was very limited emphasis in terms of building expertise pre-pandemic within our industry. It's not something wrong that they did, but pre-pandemic they were so engrossed inward in the product delivery itself. Now I see that each entity or member globally is really focusing on their workforce expertise across all aspects. When you're a meeting planner, you not only know how to get your catering right, you also look at whether your resources or staff are ready to look at the experiential content and understand the discipline of the association. For example, if you're a diabetes association you see what these medical professionals want; their ambitions and objectives through the event, whether they are trying to retain their membership across the world and the diversity and inclusion elements they are trying to achieve.
The expertise within member resources has been really diversified and they're training their resources. When launching the ICCA Skill programme, we went to the members and asked them to create what was good for them for the future. Now the industry is going through that certification programme. Primarily, it's created for members by members. We see enormous interest from the industry to follow that kind of programme.
You want your resources to be experts in multiple areas. It's not about just organising meetings, even things like sustainability are important. We have a regenerative certificate programme with the Global Destination Sustainability Movement. There has been an enormous volume of interest from our member community because they see every RFP and bid document, which is a fundamental element. If your staff or expert team does not understand these, as a bureau it'll be very difficult for you to succeed in a bid.
I think our industry is evolving, but I'm very glad to say that it is evolving not from an academic side, but from an expertise growth side as well. That way, for the next generations, we'll have excellent resources in our industry. I've been in the industry for 20-plus years, That's what I always wanted. We are busy organising when we are developing business. You need to build your expertise so the younger generation would be ready to take over the business.
I then turned to competitiveness. I wanted to know from Senthil how he sees this looking 5, 10, or even 15 years into the future.
Innovation and learning are two fundamental things. I think our industry has been lacking innovation because we have been an industry that grew under the main umbrella of the business tourism segment. We have been contributing phenomenally to the economy, but we didn't really think that through innovation we can double that. Today, we talk about a $2.4 trillion contribution across the world in business. If you look at the data, I would say we are over $10 trillion. That gap will be bridged by using innovation, identifying the data, and most importantly, creating expertise and learning in our industry.
The MICE industry has been very slow compared to the finance and technology sectors. For example, look at the amount of learning in blockchain over the last decade. Our industry has been lacking in that, but now I'm glad to say that our industry is putting a lot of emphasis on this. Within organisations, training takes the centre stage rather than only doing business development and conducting business. I think these two elements of innovation and learning will drive our industry for the next couple of decades.
I wanted to get Senthil's view on the importance of Abu Dhabi Business Events Week in helping to drive the pace of change forward in the industry, in particular, how important it is for Abu Dhabi to keep investing in such activities to ensure that it's a thriving destination that plays on its strengths as one of the leading MICE destinations.
It's extremely important because even during the pandemic I've been advocating with our members that when you get the opportunity, if you can have 10 people across the table, you should do these events. At ICCA, we created the regional hubs during our congresses in 2020-21. The policymakers need to see who you are and what you're capable of. Industry stakeholders need to understand that only through this dialogue can you bring expertise from across the world and teach them about innovation and new best practices as well as how to work collaboratively.
Congratulations to Abu Dhabi Business Events Week that they keep continuously doing this event every year because the industry is evolving. If you see the resources that somebody is working on in January, they're not here in June. You need to constantly create these platforms to educate those stakeholders. The best answer across the world I've given to our members is to activate. These types of events activate your industry.
Senthil has the privilege of being able to see the industry from all of the perspectives that exist all over the world, brought about by the huge diversity that exists in their membership. I asked him if he'd seen a lot of different approaches to both the event sector, but also how the blend of that sector with the wider destination experience really delivers something truly exceptional. How does Abu Dhabi fair in this respect?
I've been working in the region prior to my role as a Chief Executive as the Regional Director. Abu Dhabi has been growing in a very structured manner in the last decade. It has a very cautious approach in terms of marketing the destination and the USPs within the destination because we know that across the world we have so many destinations that come across in bidding for larger meetings.
Abu Dhabi has always been very competitive because the approach has focused on the uniqueness of the product. It's not another destination in the pipeline bidding for a congress. They're very selective. Abu Dhabi also looks at the macro sectors under the strategic plan of the leadership, e.g. banks, finance, energy or environmental. They really select those five or six pillars and work on the bidding based on those sectors. That's a very sustainable approach.
I keep telling every destination that first you need to understand what are your core sectors in your organisation. If you're going to bid for a non-relevant sector, your chances of winning that business are low. It's going to be very long-term and you're going to invest a lot of effort and money, but if you understand your sector and local ambassadors, your local association becomes very active in getting you that event. Abu Dhabi has got that structure really well in a sustainable approach. I think that's a good example in the last couple of years, winning all big events coming to this part of the world. They are very competitive.
From my conversation with Senthil, I was certainly able to better grasp the changes that the MICE industry has observed over the last couple of years as well as an overview of the challenges that destinations have been focused on in this sector. I also took some valuable takeaways about collaboration and competitiveness in the MICE sector which I truly believe will be insightful and thought-provoking for industry leaders.
With the changing climate of the working environment, the ability to adapt is essential. In terms of the MICE industry, it's important to not revert to pre-pandemic habits but to recognise the industry as a great driver of economic development.
Here are some key takeaways from the conversation:
The post-pandemic MICE sector is undergoing a period of rapid transformation. The industry is becoming more innovative, collaborative, and sustainable. These trends are essential for the future of the MICE sector and will help it to continue to grow and thrive.
In our Backstage Leadership Conversations podcast series, in collaboration with Abu Dhabi's Culture and Tourism Department, we explore the post-pandemic trends in business travel, focusing on key areas such as technology, impact, sustainability and recovery. Learn how Abu Dhabi is helping the MICE sector to thrive.
For this series, we went backstage at Abu Dhabi Business Events Week and had engaging discussions with a range of interesting leaders from across the sector to understand more about the shifts and trends they have witnessed in their work. We heard a range of different perspectives and talked about how everybody can collectively come together to reinforce Abu Dhabi's very competitive positioning and continue to help the MICE sector thrive as a more competitive, exciting and innovative industry as we come out of the pandemic.
In the fourth episode, we dive into how post-pandemic trends are transforming the offer with Senthil Gopinath, CEO of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), headquartered in the Netherlands. The ICCA is the global community and knowledge hub for the international association meetings industry. The ICCA represents the main specialists in organising, transporting, and accommodating international meetings and events. It specialises in the international association and meeting sector, offering unrivalled data communications channels and business development opportunities.
Senthil has over 20 years of experience in the meetings, association and leisure industries. He's creative, adaptable and certainly very well-equipped to navigate these constantly changing environments with his key strengths. Over the past couple of years, the situation in which the MICE sector operates has changed significantly. Three years ago, Senthil was appointed as the Chief Executive of the ICCA, where he steered the organisation through what we can certainly describe as a challenging period. I decided to ask him about his perspective on trends and what he's been able to observe during this period, in this really unique position of guiding a globally significant organisation through major change.
When I took over at the ICCA, unlike any other CEO, within about four months we went through the pandemic. Something I really learned over the period and implemented a lot of changes within the organisation about adaptability. It's about how much you are agile in your organisation and what innovations you can bring. As a Chief Executive, those were the key elements in my day-to-day work and transforming the knowledge of the team because the member requirements have drastically changed. Members were looking at solutions and looking at what's the new way of working for the future. So my role was very exciting. I would call it quite a continuous engagement because when you are in a different time in a pre-pandemic unit, the function of a CEO is in a more structured manner. However, it was all about how do you adapt on a weekly or a daily basis. Having said that, I enjoyed that because we could service members across the world, give them solutions, introduce them to new technologies and innovative ideas as well as look at future ways of working and upgrading their solution. One of the key elements of my role was working at the grassroots level. I could speak to every member because there was some time available among all of us.
The reopening happened from 2021, with the industry recovering again. It's another completely different dimension where you go out there, meet the members, engage with them and talk to them about how to stay relevant and how to not forget what you learnt or what you want to implement. Don't go back to the basics of what you were doing pre-pandemic. Now, we repeatedly share this at various sessions, one-to-one dialogues and networking - particularly with government ministers and policymakers, telling them to recognise our industry. Our industry has been a great economic developer driver.
As an advocate of what the industry can bring to a destination, I wanted to explore some of the key shifts and changes that Senthil has seen amongst ICCA's members, in particular looking at those more prominent shifts and which ones he expects to continue as we look ahead.
For one of the key shifts, I'll give a very simple example. In cities, until we were becoming a vaccination centre, even some of the policymakers never knew there is a convention centre in the city or they knew there is a centre but not its purpose. So, it is a blessing in disguise that we got as an industry. We got highlighted through the pandemic that we are here with a purpose. Our industry can really kickstart or get into a fast track in supporting the local, national, international or regional economies. That was something really elevated during the Covid time.
Regarding the changes within the membership across the world, I keep seeing that innovation was key. We became very complacent. Predominantly, we kept on doing what we are doing over the last two or three decades. Yes, we evolved as an industry, but the business was booming so we took a step back and started repeating what we are doing. Now I see our members have gone into that innovation extensively. I'm not talking about technology. Even from a content point of view, if you're organising a conference, the content needs be experiential. What does a customer want?
Collaborative effort has become stronger between the association community and the industry. In the past you treated them more like a client and then you delivered what they want. Now, the members are engaged in structuring the programme and the event itself. That's here to stay because over a period the workforce within our membership has learned how to work on these models.
With the shared risk model, the risk has been shared within the industry and the meeting industry community. So it's a win-win for both. I think that part is here to stay. Even the business really grows. Like you have seen Nick, the demand has really surged in the last 10 months. But some of the fundamentals which were created during the pandemic are yet to stay. I see that the industry is giving more focus on that aspect and infrastructure development.
I also see that when our plans are done, thought processes are put in when you're building a convention centre or you are redeveloping your city, they are looking at "what if" scenarios for different future scenarios and how to support each other. These are the good signs.
It's clear that collaboration is a key theme that has run throughout our Backstage Leadership Conversations. I wanted to know what this means in terms of the kind of expertise that needs to be fostered within organisations. Did the skills, knowledge and understanding of the industries we're working across differ to how perhaps they looked before the pandemic?
There was very limited emphasis in terms of building expertise pre-pandemic within our industry. It's not something wrong that they did, but pre-pandemic they were so engrossed inward in the product delivery itself. Now I see that each entity or member globally is really focusing on their workforce expertise across all aspects. When you're a meeting planner, you not only know how to get your catering right, you also look at whether your resources or staff are ready to look at the experiential content and understand the discipline of the association. For example, if you're a diabetes association you see what these medical professionals want; their ambitions and objectives through the event, whether they are trying to retain their membership across the world and the diversity and inclusion elements they are trying to achieve.
The expertise within member resources has been really diversified and they're training their resources. When launching the ICCA Skill programme, we went to the members and asked them to create what was good for them for the future. Now the industry is going through that certification programme. Primarily, it's created for members by members. We see enormous interest from the industry to follow that kind of programme.
You want your resources to be experts in multiple areas. It's not about just organising meetings, even things like sustainability are important. We have a regenerative certificate programme with the Global Destination Sustainability Movement. There has been an enormous volume of interest from our member community because they see every RFP and bid document, which is a fundamental element. If your staff or expert team does not understand these, as a bureau it'll be very difficult for you to succeed in a bid.
I think our industry is evolving, but I'm very glad to say that it is evolving not from an academic side, but from an expertise growth side as well. That way, for the next generations, we'll have excellent resources in our industry. I've been in the industry for 20-plus years, That's what I always wanted. We are busy organising when we are developing business. You need to build your expertise so the younger generation would be ready to take over the business.
I then turned to competitiveness. I wanted to know from Senthil how he sees this looking 5, 10, or even 15 years into the future.
Innovation and learning are two fundamental things. I think our industry has been lacking innovation because we have been an industry that grew under the main umbrella of the business tourism segment. We have been contributing phenomenally to the economy, but we didn't really think that through innovation we can double that. Today, we talk about a $2.4 trillion contribution across the world in business. If you look at the data, I would say we are over $10 trillion. That gap will be bridged by using innovation, identifying the data, and most importantly, creating expertise and learning in our industry.
The MICE industry has been very slow compared to the finance and technology sectors. For example, look at the amount of learning in blockchain over the last decade. Our industry has been lacking in that, but now I'm glad to say that our industry is putting a lot of emphasis on this. Within organisations, training takes the centre stage rather than only doing business development and conducting business. I think these two elements of innovation and learning will drive our industry for the next couple of decades.
I wanted to get Senthil's view on the importance of Abu Dhabi Business Events Week in helping to drive the pace of change forward in the industry, in particular, how important it is for Abu Dhabi to keep investing in such activities to ensure that it's a thriving destination that plays on its strengths as one of the leading MICE destinations.
It's extremely important because even during the pandemic I've been advocating with our members that when you get the opportunity, if you can have 10 people across the table, you should do these events. At ICCA, we created the regional hubs during our congresses in 2020-21. The policymakers need to see who you are and what you're capable of. Industry stakeholders need to understand that only through this dialogue can you bring expertise from across the world and teach them about innovation and new best practices as well as how to work collaboratively.
Congratulations to Abu Dhabi Business Events Week that they keep continuously doing this event every year because the industry is evolving. If you see the resources that somebody is working on in January, they're not here in June. You need to constantly create these platforms to educate those stakeholders. The best answer across the world I've given to our members is to activate. These types of events activate your industry.
Senthil has the privilege of being able to see the industry from all of the perspectives that exist all over the world, brought about by the huge diversity that exists in their membership. I asked him if he'd seen a lot of different approaches to both the event sector, but also how the blend of that sector with the wider destination experience really delivers something truly exceptional. How does Abu Dhabi fair in this respect?
I've been working in the region prior to my role as a Chief Executive as the Regional Director. Abu Dhabi has been growing in a very structured manner in the last decade. It has a very cautious approach in terms of marketing the destination and the USPs within the destination because we know that across the world we have so many destinations that come across in bidding for larger meetings.
Abu Dhabi has always been very competitive because the approach has focused on the uniqueness of the product. It's not another destination in the pipeline bidding for a congress. They're very selective. Abu Dhabi also looks at the macro sectors under the strategic plan of the leadership, e.g. banks, finance, energy or environmental. They really select those five or six pillars and work on the bidding based on those sectors. That's a very sustainable approach.
I keep telling every destination that first you need to understand what are your core sectors in your organisation. If you're going to bid for a non-relevant sector, your chances of winning that business are low. It's going to be very long-term and you're going to invest a lot of effort and money, but if you understand your sector and local ambassadors, your local association becomes very active in getting you that event. Abu Dhabi has got that structure really well in a sustainable approach. I think that's a good example in the last couple of years, winning all big events coming to this part of the world. They are very competitive.
From my conversation with Senthil, I was certainly able to better grasp the changes that the MICE industry has observed over the last couple of years as well as an overview of the challenges that destinations have been focused on in this sector. I also took some valuable takeaways about collaboration and competitiveness in the MICE sector which I truly believe will be insightful and thought-provoking for industry leaders.
With the changing climate of the working environment, the ability to adapt is essential. In terms of the MICE industry, it's important to not revert to pre-pandemic habits but to recognise the industry as a great driver of economic development.
Here are some key takeaways from the conversation:
The post-pandemic MICE sector is undergoing a period of rapid transformation. The industry is becoming more innovative, collaborative, and sustainable. These trends are essential for the future of the MICE sector and will help it to continue to grow and thrive.
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