Those who plan on behalf of their corporation, association and public sector entities have called for the opportunity to provide inputs on a range of planning issues. These are the salaried planners who are required to prudently spend on behalf of their employer in ensuring their experiences – at the coal face – are collated to form a pattern of event improvement. Procurement departments take cognisance of various on-site as well as competence observations, hence the MICE Buyer Circle has become a
serious requirement.
With this in mind, the MICE Buyer Circle will be a sign-up process for salaried buyers to provide their inputs, both online or at gatherings, in order to reach consensus. In turn, it is intended that the collated inputs will be shared with the travel and MICE trade sectors for the purposes of consideration to improve MICE effectiveness and bottom-line improvements.
The first two topics put forward for 2017 are:
Supplier service delivery
Several buyers have commented on the lack of MICE-requirement knowledge inherent within the supplier community. A number of venue personnel, in particular, continue to be trained purely on the prime income-generating aspects of catering and accommodation, without sufficient thought that without the MICE gathering, the wide range of hospitality income generators would not take place.
Safety and security compliance
It should be a standard procedure for suppliers and services to put forward their compliance certification if an emergency occurrence should take place. This could be as simple as paramedic accessibility to gathering assembly points. Public liability adherence may seem of limited importance yet the number of MICE suppliers and services not conforming is far from acceptable. The Tourism Grading Council should be provided with as much input as possible, especially from the organisations that constantly investigate and book a wide range of suppliers and services on a regular basis.
We should not lose sight of the number of buyers that suppliers and services have challenges with in terms of conforming to the rules of use. In this regard, the MICE Buyer Circle will welcome comments from the MICE and travel trades.
