Preliminary bookings and bid book preparations
It may surprise you that as of today , Kenya has won the bid to host a conference in September 2020 .
This was as far back as 2013 when a delegation from Kenya travelled to submit the bid and I recall some partner hotels who appreciate the benefits were there in hand to furnish the team with necessary input required then in order to meet the threshold for submission .
It follows naturally that by the time the conference would be hosted in 2020 these hotels would have an upper hand in hosting the delegates while the ‘ Johnnie come late ’ counterparts will be busy making phone calls to enquire if they could provide delegates attending “ the conference which was advertised in the Newspaper today ’’ The same applies to all the other conference support service providers who may have taken the initiative to submit necessary information to the team preparing the bids way back in 2013 .
The challenge here often times is the laxity when potential partners are invited to submit details outlined in the bid protocol for say a conference to be hosted in 3 years ’ time . This general lack of immediate incentive and drive by players to respond to such request for information , in the initial stages , is actually the point where the rains starts beating Kenya as a potential MICE destination !
The differentiator is actually the enthusiasm of industry partners . I recall some of the successful bids I was involved with during my days in Nairobi were largely because of unique partner participation including pre and post conference tour packages complete with rates to be charged when the conference is hosted in 3 years ’ time , for instance . Such differentiators really augment the value proposition of a bid any country presents .
Some conference protocols do request for subvention fees to be submitted at this stage . Again most professional associations in Kenya are not strong enough like their counterparts in the US for instance and paying subvention fees in advance has always been a challenge . Destinations have come up with innovative ways to go about this through partnerships .
Bid Submission to the secretariat
Once a bid has been prepared , in conjunction with partnerorganization positioning themselves to reap the benefits when the
‘‘ Hosting the conference is the stage familiar to most strategic partners in Kenya . In fact this is where most players get to know about the conferences which may have been in the pipeline for years . It goes without saying that most players do react to news coverage on local media at this stage . This is when they ‘ wake up ’ to make phone calls prospecting for business . Unfortunately at this stage it usually is too late to get a slice of the cake !’’ conference is eventually hosted , the bid document must be submitted in the prescribed way as outlined in the bid protocol .
In most cases this requires travel to the destination hosting the prior series of the conference where decision on the next host is made or a short list of bidding countries drawn .
At this stage a strategic airline partner could facilitate the bidding team travelling to present the bid for Kenya to host for instance . In Kenya , this had been difficult with the National carriers but am told things are looking up .
Other relevant partners could also strategically position themselves at this stage . An Industry colleague from South Africa told me recently that an advertising agency , which was key in preparation of bidding videos and collaterals was joining them on a trip to London to present a bid for a conference to be hosted in 2018 .
In my objective view , why should such a supportive partner not have a head start in subsequent PR roles when the conference is eventually hosted ? Unlike this South African example , the challenge in Kenya is that not many partners would want to make these kind of advance commitments and investments .
Inspection
After submission of the bids , shortlisted destinations are scheduled for inspection by the secretariat . The scope of the inspection may include the MICE infrastructure like the proposed meeting venues , partner hotels , ground handling , mass transportation options and at times state of the AV and exhibition equipment .
In this stage I see enormous opportunities again with air travel companies , the airlines , hotels and any other entities in the MICE
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