and pursue a more targeted approach to bidding for events. Cities with high ‘harnessing ratios’ – those where there was a strong correlation between number of international meetings hosted and local leaders – included Prague (89.7%), Vancouver (74.1%), Dublin (70.4%), Montreal (68.7%) Berlin, (60.2%) and Lisbon (64.6%). A high ratio suggests convention bureaux in these cities might be better at engaging with local board members when bidding for events. London has a low ratio of just 16.6%and New York even lower at 7.6%. It could just be that the size of these cities makes identifying potential ambassadors too onerous a task. Singapore was the only top 20 city to have a high harnessing ration (47.3%).
THE CITY THAT’S RARING TO GO…
SINGAPORE, WHOSE response to the coronavirus pandemic has been widely praised, is now in the vanguard of e orts to kickstart international business events. e city-state will allow 750-delegate meetings from April 24. One of the few nations to implement an e ective contact tracing system, Singapore is turning to technology again to get people meeting face to face. Its most eye-catching initiative sees business travellers swerving quarantine by entering an elaborate ‘bubble’, involving dedicated airport transfers, oor-to-ceiling glass partitions, one-way doors, shopping apps, and ‘contactless gyms’. e pilot scheme at Singapore Expo – called Connect@Changi – is aimed at facilitating small meetings of senior leaders, legal negotiators, wealth managers, private bankers, and sales directors, who can ‘see’ their local hosts (through a glass divider), without breathing on them. Meanwhile ag-carrier Singapore Airlines signed up to trial the ‘ rst full deployment’
AMIMAGAZINE.GLOBAL APRIL 2021 7
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