Text by: ROBERT COTTER
First dates, as we all know, can be truly daunting – am I choosing the right place to go? Am I wearing the right clothes? Am I ready to say all the right things?
Luckily, there is more often than not the chance to learn from the experience of our first date and make any changes we need to for the second date. After the meeting industry’s very own first date with the Indian beauty that is IT&CM India, the second date is now scheduled to take place from August 20-22, and it appears that the organisers have made some changes from their first encounter to guarantee the second date will be a rousing success.
After the maiden event’s presence at Delhi’s India Expo Centre & Mart, a venue a little removed from the downtown area, organisers have brought the venue into central Delhi and to the city’s newest landmark hotel, the Kempinski Ambience. With a banquet hall holding up to 6000 guests, making it India’s largest, it promises to offer a resounding second date impression.
This new capacious venue for 2013 offers IT&CM India the chance to blossom from the first outing, which was noted by Mr. Darren Ng, Managing Director of TTG Asia Media, as “small, with a focus on quality” and with “exhibitors in an enviable position of being able to make up to a hundred appointments over the two business days.”
Exhibitors who could take full advantage of the intimacy of the 2012 event – benefitting from more than 800 participants involved in more than 5,000 business appointments in a healthy buyer/seller ratio – can this year look forward to even more business taking place.
As with its maiden outing, IT&CM India 2013 will also maintain its strong focus on education alongside the business activity. “Education is a key factor in a market that is growing as rapidly as India’s MICE and luxury travel market,” noted Ng. “Through India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB)’s Conventions India Conclave (CIC), and our long standing partnerships with GBTA, AuSAE and CSAE, we are confident of creating an event that is as valuable as it is relevant.”
The value of the 2013 event is showing especial interest and support from three key international destinations on the exhibitor list: Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. Carrying on the elements that made a real impression on the first date, the event will again this year offer delegates access to the ICPB’s CIC in its 8th outing. In addition to this delegates can also upskill themselves by participating in GBTA’s Fundamentals of Business Travel Management – Associate Level course as well as other partnering events, making the second date a richer experience. Further insurance that it will be properly luxurious too, IT&CM India will once again incorporate luxury travel in addition to MICE brands, offering buyers the topend of the Indian market.
All in all, it looks like this fledgling relationship is set to go places. And with such an Indian beauty as its reward, it’s most certainly worth all the effort.
