Convention Cities Forum: Promotion and Marketing of China’s Convention Cities

The sub-forum Convention Cities Forum was launched on Nov. 29th, 2012 at China National Convention Center (CNCC). This forum was themed Promotion and Marketing of China’s Convention Cities, drawing attention of people responsible for departments of meetings and incentives, conference centers and PR companies of cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Qingdao, Hebei, Yunnan, Dubai and such like. Mr. Liu Dake, Director of Conference and Exhibition Research Center of Beijing International Studies University, hosted this forum. Apart from time for speeches, this forum also set aside time for dialogues. And the whole forum was bathed in heated atmosphere.

 
Mr. Liu Haiying, General Manager of China National Convention Center, gave a keynote speech on Brand Establishment and Market Promotion of Conference Cities. He pointed out that the first and foremost thing for a city to do before setting up its convention destination brand is to pinpoint the situation it’s facing. The building of a convention city should begin with the pinpointing of the brand, market promotion, resource integration, city marketing and the like. In the meantime, high-quality meetings industrial activities should be initiated and the celebrity effect built. While in the long haul of brand building of a city and marketing all through, people in charge ought to be well prepared.

 
Chen Bin, Director of Tourism Image Promotion Center of Hangzhou Municipal Commission of Tourism, shared his successful experience in building Hangzhou into a MICE destination city from the transition of traditional tourism marketing to meetings & incentives marketing. He went on explaining in the following aspects the differences between traditional tourism and MICE: people who we serve, industrial chain, motives, benefits, among other factors, and he also explained the change of modes in tourism marketing with his experience in the construction of Hangzhou as support, which benefits all attendees hugely.

 
In addition, Guo Lei, President of Trends, and Karina Lance, Head of Sales and Convention Services of Dubai Convention Bureau, delivered a speech respectively. They took turns to share with others on Roles of Conference Cities in Brand Establishment & Marketing Promotion and Strategies for Conference Cities in International Marketing.

 
During the forum, the topic of Marketing Strategies for Conference Cities were discussed heatedly among city leaders from government organizations like Hebei Provincial Convention and Exhibition Industry Development Office, Nanjing Convention and Exhibition Industry Development Office, Qingdao Convention and Exhibition Industry Development Office and such like voiced out their individual opinions, causing great consonance among attendees.