MICE World: Singapore’s best meetings and event venues

Like Bangkok, Singapore is one APAC’s best locations for hosting meetings and events, boasting umpteen hotels and dedicated conference centres, all vying for your attention and business. So, as a part of my series on the pick of SE Asia’s best MICE venues, I present my choice of the island’s prime locations.

Park Royal on Pickering

When it comes to unique selling points, Park Royal on Pickering (main picture) really packs a wallop. Why? Because it’s a hotel inside a garden. Along with the usual hotel experience, Park Royal can also casually throw in waterfalls and water features, planter terraces and 15,329 sq metres of gardens.

Which aside from being a pleasant backdrop to any event, also has the uncanny ability to reinvigorate and re-energise tired minds after a long day of meetings or conferencing.

The six different meeting rooms including two ballrooms can be customised for any event, from a small meeting or workshop to large diners or award ceremonies.

Supported by well-drilled event planners – who have seen it all and done it when it comes to MICE operation – it makes everything super easy. All you need do is pick a venue and they will do the rest. Complimented by the latest in audio-visual displays and high speed wifi, the individual appeal of the Park Royal on Pickering has made it a MICE star in Lion City.

Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre

If there is one building or landmark that sums up modern Singapore, it is the three-legged, heaven scraping colossus Marina Bay Sands. Packed to the rafters with a museum, two theatres, “celebrity chef” restaurants, art exhibits, and two floating Crystal Pavilions.

Not to mention the planet’s largest atrium casino home to 1,600 slot machines and 500 gaming tables, it also has a dedicated convention centre. And guess what? It’s the biggest MICE facility in SG and home to the “biggest ballroom” in Southeast Asia. Bigging up the size of one’s ballrooms is standard MICE practice, but with the capacity to host 11,000 people, the Grand Ballroom’s claim for supremacy stands up to further scrutiny.

If that is not enough of a stat for you, the venue spans five floors of exhibition and convention space, with nearly 2,000 exhibition booths and 250 meeting rooms that can a hold a total 45,000 guests. Planning is made easy with “One-stop Event and Exhibition Solution Provider” which takes care of any audio-visual equipment, stage set-up and logistical requirements, as well the expert advice needed to ensure stress-free planning – well, stress-free-ish.

Resorts World Sentosa

Speaking of ballrooms (as I guess we always are), Resorts World Sentosa has one of Southeast Asia’s largest pillarless ballrooms (above); the 6,000 square metre, 11-metre tall Resorts World Ballroom easily accommodates 6,500 people seated guests.

The Resorts World Ballroom can be divided into three smaller ballrooms, or nine “mega halls’, as well as VIP and other holding rooms. Coupled with numerous event spaces, conference areas and virtually endless permutations of their ‘flexible-seating’ system, means Resorts World Sentosa can handle 35,000 people at any one time. All expertly corralled, helped and organised by the centre’s Event Specialists, who are available around the clock to make sure everything runs like clockwork.

Shangri-La Hotel Singapore

The Shangri-La’s name is as synonymous with luxury living as it is with enlightenment and the natural world. And, the Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore, with its 15 acres of cultivated gardens, artfully designed lawns encapsulated inside a ring of landscaped jungle flora, does its best to embody both concepts. Which makes it a stunning spot for any meeting or conference.

With a 1,357 square metre ballroom, the Shangri-La may not threaten the Sands for sheer size but when it comes to beauty and charm this MICE venue really stands out. I have attended numerous functions here and I have never failed to be impressed by how accomplished the events staff are.

So, even though I have not put on an event here, I have such a good impression that I am certain that with the ubiquitous high-speed internet connection, intelligent lighting of the Island Ballroom, satellite and teleconferencing facilities and high spec audio-visuals, the Shangri-La Hotel would be able to cope with almost anything asked of them with aplomb.