UFI’s Asia-Pacific Week Reunited the Industry

UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, successfully held its first-ever Asia-Pacific week!

With its continued commitment to bring together members and exhibition industry professionals in person, UFI created and launched UFI Asia-Pacific Week in place of the regular annual Asia-Pacific conference. This initiative allowed members as well as the wider community to gather face-to-face despite travel and gathering restrictions.

These were member-led activities across the region. The entire UFI team would like to thank all of the activity organisers – especially the UFI ambassadors who organised these events at the local level.

The UFI ambassadors in ten different markets organised activities in the last week of March. The following is a recap of what the members organised across the region:

• In Australia, a panel discussion named ‘The Bumpy Road to Recovery’ was organised by the Exhibition & Event Association of Australasia (EEAA) and the International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney). Click here;
• In Japan, an enjoyable networking and socialising gathering of industry friends and colleagues was organised by the Japan Exhibition Association (JEXA) in Tokyo. Click here;
• In Macau, an exciting afternoon of bungee jumping was organised by the Macau Fair & Trade Association (MFTA) on 1 April followed by a networking event. Click here;
• In Malaysia, a charity food donation drive was organised by Noor Ahmad Bin Hamid and his team the Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB). Click here;
• In Myanmar, April is the start of a new year. A joyful morning gathering took place on 1 April, organised by Myanmar Exhibition and Conference Association (MECA), allowing local industry participants to meet, networking and enjoy some traditional food. Click here;
• In Pakistan, a networking event was hosted by UFI Ambassador, Mr. Saleem Khan Tanoli who is CEO of FAKT Exhibitions. The gathering brought together many key players from the Pakistani exhibition industry in Lahore. Click here;
• In the Philippines, the Philippine MICE Academy organised multiple events including a nature walk, a fun race at a motorcycle exhibition and a gathering at a key exhibition venue in Manila! Click here;
• In Singapore, there was a waterfront walk around the iconic Marina Bay organised by SACEOS to help celebrate the reopening of the country and removal of most restrictions. Click here;
• In South Korea, UFI Ambassador Steven Kim helpfully organised a meeting of UFI members at COEX’s new studio159 to discuss and celebrate the future of Korea’s exhibition industry. Click here;
• In Thailand, the industry came out to enthusiastically support UFI Week in Asia-Pacific. There was a golf day, a meeting of the Thai Exhibition Association's (TEA’s) leadership, and a one-day seminar focused on the role of technology at events. Thanks to both UFI Diamond sponsor, TCEB and TEA for their strong support. Click here and here

Mark Cochrane, UFI’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director, remarked “In Asia, the pandemic is finally receding, so UFI wanted to bring our members together for a bit of fun and networking. The result was more than a dozen member-led gatherings across the region from Tokyo to Sydney to Singapore. This week, UFI members organised networking cocktails, one-day conferences, golf outings, waterfront walks, food donation drives and more. UFI Asia-Pacific Week in Asia was a great success – and all because of the energy and creativeness of our members. Once again, this demonstrates that one of the great strengths of UFI is our global community.”

Kai Hattendorf, UFI’s CEO & Managing Director added, “Keeping communities engaged and connected through the pandemic has been a challenge, for sure. But as the activities around UFI Asia-Pacific week show, we are coming out of this difficult time – eager to re-connect as colleagues, and now with our customers as shows across the region reopen!”