PUTRAJAYA – 23 SEPTEMBER 2021: Business & Major Events Academic Council (BMEAC) under the purview of Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) and Malaysian Association of Convention & Exhibition Organisers & Suppliers (MACEOS) has recently announced Team Eventgence from Taylor’s University and Team SUN-U Titans from Sunway University as the national champion for Business & International Sporting Events Challenge 2021, thus qualifying them to represent Malaysia for the finals at the AFECA Asia MICE Youth Challenge 2021.
The challenge, which was held virtually on 9 September 2021, is an annual competition and a national qualifying stage targeted to students who are majoring in Business & Major Events, Business Management, Hospitality and Tourism related fields aiming to provide the students with an opportunity to develop their creativity and to present fresh and unique ideas for the industry besides providing them with the fundamental of a bid process and its technical requirements to win a bid.
This year’s challenge attracted a total of 36 participants, with 9 teams from 5 local higher educational institutions including Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) and Kolej Universiti Islam Melaka (KUIM). The participating teams’ challenge were to conceptualise, business-test, and organise a business event or international sporting events during the new normal to showcase our country’s distinctive features and facilities to convince that the selected destination is the best to host their created event.
At the virtual stage presentation, these 9 teams pitched to judges from the Business Events and International Sporting Events industry on a real-world bidding criterion including hybrid concept proposal, budgeting, marketing and logistic. The two winning teams will now enter the AFECA Asia MICE Youth Challenge 2021, scheduled to be held virtually on 25 November 2021, with Thailand as the host country. The second place went to another team from Taylor’s University, Team FourtiFIRE and third place went to Team Tribal Bornean from Politeknik METrO Betong Sarawak, who was a first-timer for this challenge.
“The students have pitched great presentations and all the judges were impressed that the proposals were relevant to the current situation and those great ideas can be adopted by the industry. It was very inspiring to see that we have innovative future leaders who soon will be joining the industry force and will be able bring the industry to the next level,” says Ms. Tan Mei Phing, Co-chairperson of BMEAC, who is also the Director of Business Events of MyCEB.
“We would like to express our gratitude to the students and lecturers who have spent their precious time and showing great efforts in preparing for the worthy proposals and the best stage presentation. The outcome that the students gained from this competition is something that they will carry along their next journey,” added Jason Teh, Co-chairperson of BMEAC and the MACEOS Youth Chairman.
BMEAC has strived to consistently drive towards identifying areas of collaboration between the Business Events (meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions), International Sporting Events industry and the tertiary institutions for capacity building. In addition, the program is intended on elevating programme standards and raising awareness through engagement via various activities including Future Leaders Day, internships, orientation days, and international competitions. This challenge is one of the methods to explore innovative and creative ideas from the students to elevate Malaysia’s Business Events and International Sporting Events industry.
