SITE
The Bangkok
Manifesto
SITE CEO DIDIER SCAILLET EXPLAINS HOW THE SOCIETY
CROWDSOURCED ITS MANIFESTO FOR THE FUTURE
DIRECTION OF INCENTIVE TRAVEL
t the SITE annual
conference this year in
Bangkok we created The
Bangkok Manifesto. It’s our
10 statements on the nature, purpose and
direction of incentive travel for 2019. You
can find it on our website.
I say “we” advisedly. This was NOT
the work of a small elite group. It was a
genuine crowd-sourced initiative that
involved SITE and non-SITE members
all focused on identifying a road map for
incentive travel based on our aspirations
and the realities of the unfolding market.
Here’s how it came about:
A new SITE executive leadership
team took the reins last year and the
transition event was our Global
Conference in Rome in January 2018
where the new team was struck by the
star quality of the attendees – legends of
the global incentive travel industry. We
wondered how we could tap into that
knowledge, channel it for the benefit of
the entire industry, turn it into a vision
document, a big statement… a manifesto.
We engaged Martin Sirk of
Serendipity Consulting (former
Executive Director of ICCA) as
consultant/moderator and designed a
methodology with Martin aimed at
“crowdsourcing” the Manifesto with key
SITE audiences.
In advance of a series of face to face
workshops we distributed a briefing
document defining the term Manifesto,
giving examples of good ones and
sharing a range of stimulating reading
60 /
CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD
/
“This was NOT the work of a
small elite group. It was a genuine
crowd-sourced initiative that
involved SITE and non-SITE
members all focused on identifying
a road map for incentive travel
based on our aspirations and the
realities of the unfolding market.”
ISSUE 100
material to tease the thought buds.
The first workshop with SITE’s
International Board of Directors, SITE
Foundation’s Board of Trustees and the
title sponsors of the initiative, Meet in
Ireland worked for two hours
together and produced 50
statements about the nature
and purpose of incentive travel.
A voting system then reduced
the list to 30 statements
which became the focus for
another workshop. This
group of 50 individuals
including non-members of
SITE, then added to and
subtracted from the 30
statements to achieve 15
for presenting to the entire
assembly during the closing
session of the Global
Conference.
Using audience engagement
platform Sli.do, the 10 statements that
you’ll find in the publication were then
selected electronically by the assembly
voting.
Views come from the entire incentive
spectrum - DMC and DMO sectors,
hospitality sector, third party planners
and corporate end-users and you can
pick up a copy of
the Bangkok
Manifesto at the
SITE Booth at
IMEX in
Frankfurt next
month.