Client demand & marketplace advantage to drive agency accreditation–but concerns abound says Gaunt

SINGAPORE - Nov. 9, 2016 - PRLog -- The dual forces of client demand and marketplace advantage will be the key drivers for agency accreditation and Incentive Conference & Event Society Asia Pacific (ICESAP) President Nigel Gaunt is confident ICESAP's Agency Accreditation Program to be launched at the upcoming conference in Singapore November 30 to December 2 will be enthusiastically received.

The ICESAP Agency Accreditation Program has been a key objective of ICESAP since its foundation three years ago as long established global and national bodies have failed to address this said Gaunt.  "Accreditation is vital for the MICE sector if it is to grow and prosper in the modern commercial environment".

"Corporate governance and purchasing protocols require companies to only deal with professional intermediaries and end supply partners.  MICE agencies that fail to adopt a formally recognised agency accreditation regime will only have themselves to blame if they lose important corporate customers to accredited companies or they prefer to buy directly from the end suppliers".

More and more of the MICE spend is coming from the marketing budgets of multi-national corporations as they shift the majority of their former advertising spend 'below the line'.  "Media's loss is MICE's gain", says Gaunt.

Gaunt added that winning this spend, on MICE projects has been relatively straight forward on purely economic value for money and effectiveness grounds.  However, in order to maintain this advantage and retaining this spend in the MICE space requires MICE agencies to stay 'ahead of the curve' as global advertising agencies are already starting to fight back.

Unfortunately MICE agencies lack the resources to mount a good fight back strategy, and this is worrying affirmed Gaunt

A disturbing recent trend is other associations jumping on the accreditation 'band-wagon', says Gaunt.  "We need to work together to ensure there is a simple single accreditation scheme across Asia Pacific.  MICE is a cross-border business and can't afford a myriad of schemes across different markets or different industry disciplines.

"ICESAP worked through APEC over an 18-month period to arrive at a single set of criteria for all intermediary agencies.

"In addition, APEC insisted the accreditation program does not disadvantage small to medium enterprises and our efforts were rewarded when ICESAP gained the APEC Tourism Working Group's buy-in to the ICESAP scheme for a pan Asia Pacific roll-out in 2017".

Gaunt concluded by saying ICESAP welcomed dialogue with all industry bodies to ensure a disciplined and coordinated regime is adopted by the MICE sector that will underpin client confidence and long-term agency commercial success.

Notes to the editor:  ICESAP will formally launch their Agency Accreditation Program at the upcoming ICESAP Conference to be held in Singapore 30th November to 2nd December.

Conference information, registration, program details, speaker profiles and sponsorship opportunities are available from the website    conference.icesap.org

ENDS

Issued by:          Incentive, Conference and Event Society Asia Pacific (ICESAP)          www.icesap.org

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