PENANG’S reputation as one of the region’s best holiday destinations is indisputable, but the island has set its sights on becoming one of the country’s top draws for hosting business events.

To achieve this, industry players say the state government and private corporations must work together to overhaul Penang’s image, from that of an idyllic tourist spot to a vibrant, booming business environment attractive to investors.

International events specialist CAT Publications’ managing director, Martin Lewis, said the state government could start by hosting familiarisation tours for major convention organisers to give them a taste of what Penang had to offer.

“Invite them to your city, and create the kinds of knowledge clusters that will attract talent and investors, open up start-up companies and create jobs,” said Lewis at the BE @ Penang 2017 conference at the Setia SPICE Convention Centre yesterday.

This method also works in the MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) context, as business travellers – whether entrepreneurs, investors, students or others – can get a low-cost taste of the city and the chance to check out future opportunities while in town.

Lewis cited London as an example, saying when the city wanted to enter the technology business, it introduced the London Tech Week, and last year hosted 63 conferences over the seven days.

“London’s convention bureau sponsors and gives incentives to organisers to move their events to the city for Tech Week, and to companies to attend them.

“So, those thinking of setting up a tech company view London as the place to be for anything that has to do with technology,” he said in his talk, titled “Attracting the European Market – Associations and Corporate Sectors”.

Taking a slice of the pie

International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) Asia-Pacific regional director Noor Ahmad Hamid said while Penang had “a long way to go” before it could cement itself as a business and convention destination, it held tremendous potential.

He said the state must first focus on national events and meets before reaching out to regional ones, and then, targeting international events.

“Penang has a long way to go. It’s important to chart the way. What’s your strategic direction? You need to have a think tank to answer this question,” he said yesterday.

“If Penang can take half of national meetings out of Kuala Lumpur, the hotel rooms here will be full.”

Fu Kei Cheong, co-founder of one of Malaysia’s leading professional conference organisers, Anderes Fourdy, agreed with Noor Ahmad that the state government would do well by starting off with the “low-hanging fruits” in the industry.

He said these included events in the technology, art and food sectors – areas that Penang is already well known for.

Last year, Penang recorded 1,251 events, with the bulk comprising national corporate meetings (771), national congresses (257), and international corporate events (137). The rest were international congresses and incentive meetings.

Human intellectual capital

Lewis said there were good opportunities for potential business from Europe, as European associations were moving to the East, with some setting up offices in Dubai to enter the Asian market to sell their products and services, and increase their memberships in the region, among others.

Malaysia, he said, was attractive because it offered value for money, and had the infrastructure, connectivity, right location, English speakers, safety, a multicultural society, technology and hotels.

However, none of these was a unique selling point, said the managing editor of Meetings & Incentive Travel magazine in the UK.

Destinations that could provide local experts as speakers for conferences had an advantage, as associations could spare the cost of flying in speakers from overseas, he said.

“Having knowledge hubs and ambassadors are also as important as having meeting infrastructure. Human intellectual capital is the currency of growth now.

“If Penang can attract talent, it can attract growth,” Lewis said, adding that stakeholders should collaborate with academia, which could drive business.

Noor Ahmad said Penang must be more aggressive in networking with regional and international associations to promote the state’s offerings, adding that ICCA had 220,000 meeting profiles and tracked more than 20,000 rotating meetings worldwide.

“There are potential businesses for Penang. But, they won’t come here if Penang does not go out there to bid for events.”

He said Kuching, which was now behind Penang, could beat the latter at any time in the industry because the Sarawak city had convention facilities coming and a bigger airport.

“When you have a convention centre planned, you need to work five years ahead to promote your destination. A lot of time was wasted (in Penang).”

BE @ Penang 2017 ends this evening. – December 8, 2017.