CASE STUDY
THE BRIEF:
As part of the Asia Business Meet 2019 programme, SACEOS invited more than 50 international event organisers to Singapore for a complete destination experience.
As a leading convention & meeting destination, Singapore was relatively well-known to some of the invited organisers and a particular challenge therefore presented itself:
How do we design truly stand-out, memorable experiences that nobody in this group is likely to have tried?
THE STRATEGY:
Being well-travelled ourselves, we first acknowledged that our audience of long-haulers may experience some serious jetlag throughout their visit. With that in mind, we needed to make sure our approach to the entire experience was completely bespoke and realised the key may indeed lie in unique spaces that nobody knows about and in stories that have never been told.
Pacific World proved to be our perfect partner for this exercise. Leveraging their expertise in logistics and brilliant account management skills, BEAM was able to do what we do best: ideating and developing into reality some deeply immersive elements for these well-travelled guests.
THE EXECUTION:
While researching and curating the stories and experiences, the BEAM team, committed to a balanced approach to the programme design, meeting the sponsor’s expectations, while our feet remained firmly in the shoes of our visitors.
Some of our favourite highlights:
The priority of Mental Fitness
Familiarisation programmes can be exhausting, and our invited organisers also had to manage their workload whilst visiting Singapore. We balanced the programme with daily allocations for a “mandatory break” between 4pm to 6pm, so both hosts and guests had the opportunity to rest & reset. Optional programme elements were incorporated, with 6am for the early-risers.
Elevating experiences through the art of STORY-DOING
Working with Pacific World’s trusted partners, we ensured a different dimension was layered within each immersive experience. Some examples:
- Knowing we did not have time for our guests to see everything we wanted them to, we showcased 4 different areas of Singapore through 60-second motion-picture vignettes, using these as inspiration for the dinner menu design in collaboration with Grand Hyatt Singapore.
- In a pre-trip survey, our guests gave a strong indication that they were keen to ‘give back’ to the business events industry. Their beautiful intention inspired us to create a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style, idea-pitching session at Design Orchard for some of Singapore’s newest & brightest tourism entrepreneurs. Our experienced industry guests voted for the best ideas and provided insightful feedback on how these ideas could be potentially more successfully brought to life.
- Despite most having visited Singapore multiple times, our guests also indicated that they would like to learn more about the local culture. Creating something historically factual, impactful and surprising was paramount: where better to start than Singapore’s first housing estate, Tiong Bahru? We invited a local schoolteacher who – based on 30 years of her own teaching experience – shared what to her, made Singaporeans, Singaporeans.
“El is a delight to work with. His passion for what he does is second only to his vision and sense of direction. Whether it’s positioning work for a brand, design support or full strategy collaboration, El will not disappoint. Creative, energetic, and commercial - his ideas are always customer-centric and unique!”
KERRY HEALYChief Commercial Officer - SEA, Japan and South Korea| Accor
Accor was the principal partner of ABM 2019.
