INTRODUCTION TO MICE INDUSTRY

1 Events Management By Weru J N

Introduction To Mice Industry
Throughout history, events have been an
important feature of peoples lives. The first
Olympic games were held in Ancient Greece in
777 BC and countless religious events and
festivals have been held throughout the ages.
One can only speculate what procedures,
problems and techniques event organizers of
the time might have faced and used.
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Today, events are central to our culture as
perhaps never before. Increases in leisure time
and unrestricted spending have led to a
proliferation of public events, cerebrations and
entertainment.
Govts now support and promote events as part
of their strategies for economic dvpt, nation
building and destination management.

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Corporations and businesses embrace events as
key elements in their marketing strategies and
image promotion.
The enthusiasm of community groups and
individuals for their interests and passions
gives rise to a marvelous array of events on
almost every subject and theme imaginable.

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The event sector of the tourism industry is
young, dynamic, and growing and maturing at
a rapid rate. The benefits event management
and event tourism are increasingly being
realized in many developing countries.
Events are becoming established as an integral
and major part of tourism development and
marketing strategies.
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Event tourism can be defined as systematic
development, planning, marketing and holding
of events as tourist attractions.
The goals of event tourism are;
To create a favorable image of the destination
To expand the domestic touristic season
To spread tourist demand more evenly through
an area
To attract foreign and domestic visitors
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Definition of Event
No one clear, all-embracing definition of
events. According to APEX an event is an
organized occasion such as a meeting,
convention, exhibition, special event etc
According to Getz(2005:16), a principle
applying to all events is that they are temporary
and every event is unique due to the blend of
management, program, setting and people.
Events are either cultural, sporting, political or
business events
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Cultural Events
They are class of events which have historical
themes or which celebrate some dimension of a
communitys or cultural groups heritage.
Cultural or heritage events can be viewed as
tools for interpreting community life by
bringing people into direct contact with
historical facts, objects or ways of life, thereby
increasing knowledge and appreciation of
traditions.
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Sporting Events
Most types of sport today are organized and
competitive, although some games are still
played purely for recreation.
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Arts Events
Are universal, and display considerable
diversity in the forms and types of art featured.
Art events include; performing events such as
music, dance and drama and visual events such
as painting, sculpture and handcraft.
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Business or Trade events
Business event relates to MICE events. They
include conferences, exhibitions, incentive
travel and other meetings.
Exhibitions(expositions). These are designed to
bring together suppliers of products, equipment
and services in an environment where they can
demonstrate their products or services to invited
audiences with objecting of obtaining a sale or
informing the visitor
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Trade shows are exhibitions run exclusively for
a particular trade or industry and provide
forums for exchange of information between
companies and their potential clients-unlike
exhibitions, trade shows are only open to
members of the particular trade or industry and
attendance is by invitation.

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Meetings: A meeting is defined as a get
together of a group of people with similar
interests to accomplish some predetermined
goal or purposes.
They include conferences, conventions,
seminars, workshops and symposia.
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When meeting are focused on education the
terms seminar or workshops are used.
Conference describes a group of people small
enough to facilitate interaction meeting for the
purpose of discussion, fact-finding, problem
solving and consultation.
Conventions are large assembles of people
from associations, political parties or religious
groups.
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Symposium or forum is a meeting at which
speakers or delegates present papers.
Incentive meetings and travel are meeting used
as rewards for productivity achieved, or as
motivational tools for employees to improve
performance or encourage executives to reach
certain goal.
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The impacts of Mice Events
Events do not take place in a vacuum-they
touch almost every aspect of our lives, whether
the social, cultural, economic, environmental or
political aspects.
The benefits arising from such positive
connections are a large part of the reason for
the popularity and support of events.
However, events can also have unintended
consequences that can lead them to have
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public prominence and media attention for
wrong reasons. The cost of event failure can be
disastrous , turning positive benefits into
negative publicity, political embarrassment and
costly lawsuits.
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Economic Impacts

Business and professional people travel
throughout the year to attend meetings,
conferences and exhibitions. The economic
impact of these events is a major significance
for the tourism and hospitality industry.
For example, most conference participants
meet, eat and sleep under one roof-the venue.
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However, the direct economic impact does not
Stop with the venue or suppliers such as local
restaurants, cultural and sporting activities,
sightseeing venues/tours, tourist attractions, local
shops and transport facilities which either provide
service or sell products to convention delegates.
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The direct and indirect effects of the delegate
expenditure is felt throughout the economy of
the community, with flow-on expenditure to
other firms such as food and beverage
suppliers, printers, stationers and so on, from
whom the delegate may items.
This can create an increased level of business
and as a result provide additional employment.
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Economic Benefits can be
summarized as;
It contributes to employment and income both
nationally and regionally.
It increases a countrys foreign exchange
earnings.
Helps to generate investment in tourism and
recreation infrastructure, thereby increasing the
number of available attractions in an area for
both local people and visitors.
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It brings together leading national and internal
specialists and practitioners in their fields at
conventions and meetings. The drawings
together of leaders in science, medicine,
business and technology can strengthen a
countrys professional expertise in that
discipline.
It provides a facility for continuing education
and training and forum for developing and
maintaining professional contacts.
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Political Initiatives
Due to the valuable contributions of the MICE
industry to a countrys economy governments
have undertaken a range of actions to promote
the industry. These may include;
Providing sufficient level of infrastructure and
accommodation to allow the growth of
industry.
Attract investments in facilities such as
purpose-built convention and exhibition
centre's and hotels.
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Providing efficient and competitive transport
services.
Facilitate visa arrangements for international
MICE visitors.
Examine the effects of the taxation system on
the MICE industry.
Increasing professionalism and service
standards and support industry cohesiveness.
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Environmental Impacts
The trend internationally is to use
environmentally friendly practices with the
events industry.
Programs have been put into place to manage
the effect on the environment, including waste
recycling, reducing the consumption of water,
electricity and heat, water recycling and
rationalization of air-conditioning and lighting.
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Traditionally the conventions and meeting
industry ha s been a large consumer of paper
and paper products in the form of printed
conference materials, non-reusable convention
and exhibition materials, disposable cups and
plates, and so on.
Concerted efforts are being taken globally to
adopt environmentally-responsible polices
whereby such collateral materials are made
with recyclable materials.
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Technological Impacts
The industry has gladly accepted and embraced
new technology, and the impact has been felt
not only in the area of the equipment used to
present conference data and information, but
also in the provision of different styles of
conferences through the use of video
conferencing facilities.

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At operational level, the use of technology is
evident in the office management system of
conference organizers, at convention and
exhibition registration and within venue
convention sales and service offices.
The days of the conference diary and
traditional filing and paper trail systems have
been replaced by industry specific and relevant
on-line systems.

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