With over 300 participants coming in from Singapore and beyond, the Singapore MICE Forum 2025 opened conversations on what's next in a changing world at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre today, 24th July.
MICE professionals and those from a diverse range of industries were encouraged to ponder the theme What's Next in the face of evolving technologies, sectoral innovation, and increasingly complicated geopolitical situations in Asia and beyond.
Richard Ireland, president of the Singapore Association of Convention & Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers (SACEOS) formally opened the event by addressing the assembly together with SMF co-chairs Adeline Lim and Dylan Sharma.
Lim said of the event: "Everything is new this year: new speakers, new formats, no coffee breaks. But you're not going to want to miss a single minute of this."
Sharma said: "You'll hear many different things. You'll hear people talking about things that you don't hear at a normal MICE conference. But the true value of your participation is through the value that you extract for yourself and for what's best and what's next for your organisations."
Going live for a third time
The 2025 event is SMF's third live edition in the post-pandemic era.
As such, the event has made the most of the Great Reset of 2023 even as the industry sought to return to normalcy.
If the 2024 event celebrated the moments of momentum that make the MICE sector, this year ponders the question of what comes next.
For the team behind SMF, answering that question calls for interaction not just within the MICE sector, but with professionals from other sectors and industries.
As Sharma puts it: "I think we've really positioned this as a business event for the MICE industry, as opposed to a MICE event. We're going to be talking about a very broad range of issues you typically will not hear at a MICE conference."
This was intentional as those from other sectors have a great deal to teach those in MICE and vice-versa.
With that in mind, it did not come as a surprise that iconic Singaporean hotelier and thought leader KP Ho, founder of the Banyan Group led in the discussions.
Ho set the pace for the day's discussions as he spoke of being open to change and innovation, as well of flexibility to adjust, thrive, and grow further, especially in such challenging times it what is rapidly being acknowledged as the Asian Century.
