Home REPORTS Kongres telescope German Skills, Asian Thrills

German Skills, Asian Thrills

Feb 3, 2016

“Indonesia offers the ideal prerequisites for expanding our tradeshow business”

A press briefing given at IT&CMA 2015 in the Thai capital Bangkok announced the opening of Indonesia’s first major convention facility, the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) in Tangerang, just outside the metropolis of Jakarta on the island of Java. Whilst the opening of yet another major convention facility in Asia may not be much news in such a dynamic MICE region, the information that it was being operated by Deutsche Messe of Hannover, Germany, was indeed news and a signal of the potential of synergies of expertise in the MICE industry that can be created not only across borders or within regions such as South East Europe, but right across continents.

Alongside being a strategic base for Deutsche Messe, ICE is also a brand new and state of the art facility comprising ten exhibition halls of 50,000m2 and a further 50,000m2 of outdoor exhibition space, a 4,000m2 Convention Hall divisible into four rooms, a 12,000m2 pre-function lobby and more than 30 separate meeting rooms.

Hendrik Engelking, Head of International Sales for ICE explained:

“With 247 million inhabitants, Indonesia has the fourth largest population in the world and is Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, and apart from the BRIC nations Indonesia is also one of the world’s leading growth markets. A key objective of our foreign strategy is to grow our expertise as an operator of exhibition facilities abroad and Indonesia offers the ideal prerequisites for expanding our tradeshow business: the economy there continues to grow, the international industry is actively involved and the investment climate remains stable.”
“We are delighted to have gained such competent partners for our entry as a tradeshow operator into the Indonesian market,” he continued. “Our stake in the Indonesia Convention Exhibition Centre will provide us with a strategic base for staging future trade fairs.”

ICE was opened on 4 August 2015 by the President of Republic Indonesia, Joko Widodo,” said Engelking. “We are proud that the Indonesian government has fully supported us through the Tourism minister and we also work closely with MICE associations either in Indonesia or internationally, as well as participate actively in MICE forums around the world, such as the UFI congress. ICE is currently a new venue and we need to build its awareness in the market. However, as it’s the biggest venue, it’s also not so hard to penetrate the market.”

“We target every scope, but stress more on exhibitions and conferences, and also concerts.We have now many big exhibitions who have moved to ICE (previously scheduled for another venue), as ICE offers bigger spaces equipped with international services and facilities.”

Mark Schloesser, President Director of Deutsche Messe Venue Operation

“ICE is the most exciting convention and exhibition venue in South East Asia and Deutsche Messe is committed to adding sustainable value to ICE and to leverage the MICE industry in Indonesia by making ICE the preferred destination for convention and exhibition in the region.”

Post Views: 1,346

There will undoubtedly be challenges ahead for Deutsche Messe and for Indonesia in getting the new centre established. Issues of pollution and traffic are just some of them, and Indonesia is also not yet established as an international destination for the industry in the way that Thailand or Singapore have already been for decades. The catch up will involve hard work, but the new facility offers Indonesia, with the input of Deutsche Messe, the chance to put itself on the MICE map. It will be interesting to see how this collaboration works out and if any other such synergies in the region come to blossom. In terms of getting the new centre off the ground and running, efforts are being made to market it into every sector, but with a focus on conventions and exhibitions.