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.
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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: