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DESTINATION MARKETING What Are Your Career Options In The Mice Industry? By Ben Asor T he career path of quite a number of senior MICE experts around the world tells of an interesting journey most of these industry heavy weights took to reach where they are today. Often times, aspiring conference/event managers ask ‘How do I get to be where you are?’ And my answer has always been that there is no single pre-determined path to scale new heights in the MICE industry as circumstances of each one of us are as different as day and night. Nevertheless, I am always quick to quote The Roman Philosopher, Seneca, that luck is what happens when preparations meet opportunity. Meaning, there is a lot one has to do as an individual including taking the unbeaten path to stand out from among the rest. To this end, it is, therefore, very strategic for any aspiring individual to appreciate what options the local, regional and international MICE industry has to offer in order to be best prepared and make the most strategic career move(s). In this regard, I will be reproducing sections of some of the presentation I made at The Technical University of Kenya, to the event management students whom I mentor, as part of giving back to the society. This, I believe, would be of some relevance and may be of great interest to those who are also considering to pursue a career in MICE management as well as those planning on career change mid-stream. As mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, most MICE experts today have interesting and varied career paths. This is partly because in the yesteryears, no university offered specific degrees in event or conference management. In fact quite a number of these professionals therefore, started off by studying mainly humanities as a first degree to get into the industry before going through a series of industry education, certifications and seminars to stay up to date on industry developments, trends and practices on a regular basis. To the contrary, the Y generation planning on pursuing a career in MICE have had an opportunity that their predecessors didn’t have in the sense that quite a It would therefore be of interest for aspiring event management professionals to keenly study the various options and carry out an assessment of what exactly they want to do in this broad industry called MICE. 56 MAL21/17 ISSUE number of Universities around the world today offer specific university degrees in Conference/Event Management. May I mention at this point that pursuing a degree in Conference/Event Management per see is not the only factor to determine your success – just like is the case and of course common knowledge even for other careers. What does MICE Industry/ Labor market expect of you? Sincerely speaking I don’t remember asking myself this question while in school but neither did the 8-4-4 education system train me to align my efforts towards preparing myself for a particular career path but to just pass exams … Maybe I could have been a better professional if I got to establish early in my school life what the labor market requirements for a career of my dreams would be, then work with that as a beacon. The big question then is how do I get prepared to make it to the shortlist and to eventually be invited for an interview and get the important phone call that you have been selected to join your dream organization? Again many options will work for different individuals but certain things remain common to everyone and no other industry expert could have summarized it better than Ms. Kellie White did in her article as listed below: