Eventsasia 2010… The best event conference in Asia

Eventsasia 2010… Been meaning to tell you about it and this report is long over due, apologies but been flat out busy since then (not complaining just bragging a little)

AnnaLiza Laxamana of Next Step Events and her team put on an amazing event. The quality of the speakers was great (if I say so myself, after all I was one of them) and the evening parties were and entertainment were spectacular. Best of all it was all in the beautiful island of Boracay in the Philippines.

Last time I was in Boracay was 10 years ago and oh my has it grown… No longer is it a quite idyllic beach with a few tourist. It has exploded. It is still beautiful but now heaving with tourist from all over the world, jet skis, para-gliders, sun worshipers and party people all decending on this idyllic paradise island.

Eventsasia 2010 was held in the recently built Boracay Eco Village and Convention Center . Interesting place with great potential. It is a little tricky to get to as you need to first fly to Manilla then to Caticlain then small boat to Boracay then van to the Centre but once on Boracay it is worth it.

The conference took on the feel of a Broadway production under the artistic direction of Alen Velez of Events Pool Philippines . The speakers were introduced in creative ways including raising Steven Hacker, the keynote speaker, president of IAEE (International Association of Exhibitions and Events) up through the center of the stage on a hydraulic lift coming up out of the smoke to the sound of pounding drums.

Lara McCulloch-Carter, ex ISES Toronto president and Social Media expert for Ready 2 Spark was carried in by a special chair for queens by a couple boys with cute butts (sorry by men in traditional Philippine garments).

The quality of the lectures was great. In the opening keynote by Mr. Hacker, he managed to tie in all the topics to be covered by the upcoming speakers and pointing out the importance of each topic to the industry. Mr. Mark Cochrane, of  Business Strategy Group and the new UFI representative for Asia spoke on the future of the exhibition industry.

Ms. Lara McCulloch the ex president of ISES Toronto gave us some excellent insight into the power of social media.

Mr. Eduardo Braniff the creative director for Imagination flew in from LA to deliver two lectures one on “retailment” and another very interesting insightful case study on Ford and brand activation.  Mr. Brian Slawin from Busy Event showed off their new toy called the “Belinker” which has promise to become a great new tool for expos and meetings.  Mr. Mark Sonders, CSEP delivered his lecture via the web as he had problems with flights.

My new friend, Mr. Jeffrey Soh from Thailand (well Malaysia but working in Bangkok) talked about how to run events on a budget.

 ISESHK’s own  Mr. Steve Tait delivered a very popular lecture on Safety and Risk Management. Ms. Susan de Cardenas talked about sustainability and how venues can partner with planners to move forward on green events. Mr. Jojo Ajero expounded on the Philippine event scene and how the event landscape was changing and becoming more professional. I was privileged to be counted among  these great speakers and delivered two different lectures one,  “Greening Your Events” and what planners can do now to lesson the overall impact, and the second was the final talk of the conference “10 Things to Wow Your Events”. One of the best lectures I have done in a while and pretty easy too… Basically showed other peoples work and said “That’s Cool” “Here’s something I like” … (well I showed my own stuff too).

This amazing conference was then followed by an even more amazing gala night on a private beach…

I look forward to the next Eventsasia, and congratulate Annaliza on doing a wonderful job.