Creating the future of business

In these extraordinary times, Singapore continues to stand as a premier business events destination. While COVID-19 has altered the events landscape, the fundamentals that have made Singapore successful – our vibrant business environment, outstanding infrastructure and future-ready workforce – remain unchanged, says Beverly Au Yong, Area Director, Middle East, Singapore Tourism Board.

Raising the bar for health and safety

As international business travel resumes, you can trust that Singapore will safeguard the well-being of visiting delegates and staff. We remain committed to upholding the highest standards of health and safety and to giving all our visitors peace of mind when they come to the Lion City. Hotels, restaurants, exhibition halls and other establishments have adopted new safe management measures, such as social distancing and heightened cleaning of premises to ensure reduced public health risk. Beyond these, the Singapore Government also launched SG Clean, a national mark of excellence for cleanliness, hygiene, and infection control.

Innovating for the future of business events

Singapore’s events industry is also implementing unique solutions to meet the emerging demands of a new era of business travel. Local companies are reinventing themselves – from enhancing digital offerings to developing forward-looking concepts for hybrid and virtual events. For example, in June 2020, homegrown event organiser Web in Travel (WiT) engaged more than 750 tourism business leaders to discuss the future of the industry in a global virtual summit. During the dinner break, WiT sent curated care packages to Singapore-based attendees and later even held a virtual dance party.

The recently concluded TravelRevive was Asia Pacific’s first international travel tradeshow that was held in Singapore. Leading the way with rigorous protocols and innovative solutions for the end-to-end visitor journey, TravelRevive was the first pilot tradeshow to trial the newly developed ‘hybrid event’ tradeshow prototype for safe business events, safe itineraries, and digital enablers in Singapore. This is part of a public-private collaboration under the Emerging Stronger Taskforce’s Singapore Together Alliance for Action (AfA) on enabling safe and innovative visitor experiences. With close to 1,000 attendees on-site, the pilot hybrid event brought to life Singapore’s vision for safe, trusted and innovative business events.

With this mindset of continuous innovation, it is no wonder that Singapore was recently named the world’s most competitive economy for the second consecutive year (IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, 2020). Singapore is where great minds converge, connect and create the future of business.