Charting new grounds with one of STB’s largest outreach efforts
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has been using the annual Tourism Industry Conference (TIC) as a platform to engage its partners and stakeholders in the tourism and travel trade industry. Apart from new and upcoming initiatives led by both STB and industry players, attendees get to see, first-hand, market insights collected from Singapore and around the world. This information enables them to more effectively tackle growth opportunities in the sector.
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Storytelling and intuitive learning for attendees were at the centre of our commitment to deliver the most ambitious Tourism Industry Conference yet
As one of STB’s largest outreach efforts to its partners and stakeholders in the tourism and travel trade industry, TIC 2023 brought over 600 representatives together on 5 Apr 23. They were hosted both at Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre, where the main conference took place, and online, where the breakout sessions were being livestreamed from STB’s regional offices.
We were proud to lead the development and smooth execution of both segments. Let’s go behind the scenes to discover how we contributed to the success of TIC 2023.
We transformed the conference hall into an immersive tapestry of sights and sounds
We invited attendees to embark on a thematic journey through time
We optimised attendees' learning experience by redefining how content is showcased
We focused on delivering an inclusive livestream
We encouraged organic conversations during the breakout sessions
MAIN CONFERENCE
The main conference spanned two halls – or 3,890 sqm – at Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre. The generous space allowed us to house both a conference hall and a dedicated networking area.
There was definitely no shortage of talking points for attendees, especially with Minister of State for the Ministry of Trade & Industry and the Ministry of Culture, Community & Youth Alvin Tan opening the conference with an outlook on Singapore’s tourism sector and STB’s plans for it.
Attendees also got to hear from Keith Tan, Chief Executive of STB, and participate in a Q&A and a plenary discussion.
We reimagined the conference experience for attendees
At its heart, a conference is about making information accessible to attendees and the process of learning it interactive and fun. This is popularly achieved through gamification and other activities such as live polling and surveys and Q&A panels. From the outset, we wanted to build on those expectations to deliver a conference experience that truly excited attendees.
Turning our focus to storytelling, we set out to create an immersive tapestry of sights and sounds – brought to life with a futuristic depiction of the Singapore skyline on a 45m-long LED video wall, a clever orchestra of beam and spot lighting, and concert-grade speakers that filled the two halls evenly with a synthwave-inspired soundtrack.
For attendees, the conference resembled a bridge to the future. But their journeys were designed to start even before they took their seats.
We embraced interactive storytelling
Beyond the registration counters, which we also decked out with the futuristic depiction of the Singapore skyline, attendees were beckoned to embark on a tour through Singapore’s past.
To develop this part of the experience, we worked with the creative team from Suntec Singapore Conference & Exhibition Centre to draw from the iconography of 60’s Singapore. Ultimately, we decided on traditional push carts.
Stocked with heritage food and drinks supplied by the venue’s in-house catering team, they burst to life with hungry attendees during the networking session. It was a scene borrowed from the streets of 60s’ Singapore.
We made learning seamless for attendees
Another detail that separated TIC 2023 from other conferences was how its content, including slide decks, videos and live feeds, was presented to attendees. The sheer size of the LED video wall allowed us to showcase as many as five feeds in tandem. This flexibility resulted in a dynamic, multi-faceted conference that made it a cinch for attendees to pick out the information they needed at a glance.
When we undertook the task of staging TIC 2023, one of our priorities was finding out how we could meld the main conference with the breakout sessions. The latter, which were led by representatives from STB’s regional offices, would be livestreamed to virtual attendees.
From investing in a virtual event platform to securing unrestricted access to the livestream from STB’s offices in China to rigorously vetting each office’s broadcast capabilities, we created an ecosystem that supported the effortless production of the breakout sessions.
We ensured that the breakout sessions were inclusive
As a livestream inherently lacks the immediacy of an in-person conference, attendees of the breakout sessions risked being excluded from the experience we were striving hard to create at Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.
To mitigate this, we worked with our virtual event platform provider to activate custom spaces on the attendee dashboard for branding and critical session information. The results were twofold: virtual attendees got to feel that they were part of a larger experience, and they could readily access resources provided by each speaker.
We encouraged organic conversations during the breakout sessions
As much as we were trying to work around the limits of a livestream, we also saw a unique opportunity to play to its flair for facilitating organic conversations between speakers and attendees. Away from the expectations of showmanship at the main conference, speakers at the breakout sessions could control – from the offices that they were livestreaming – how they wanted to showcase their content and dictate the pace of their presentations.
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