TTGassociations Publications January 2019 | Page 5

By Karen Yue
The International Society for Profes-
sional Innovation Management (ISPIM)
has chosen to apply a challenge-based
approach to its content creation for
upcoming conferences in Asia-Pacific,
in order to emphasise the legacy po-
tential of its events and to attract more
attendees.
The new approach debuted with
ISPIM Connects in Fukuoka,
Japan, which was held from
December 2 to 5 last year.
In the lead up to this, the
ISPIM team, led by executive
director Iain Bitran, met with
Fukuoka city government
officers to identify
major challenges
facing the city and
its people.
“They gave us
seven or eight
hottest chal-
Bitran: building a
more fulfilling content
lenges they have at the moment, and we
picked three that our innovation commu-
nity could best help with. The challenges
we chose were population aging, energy
transition and building a conducive start-
up eco-system,” said Bitran.
“We found that when there is a
challenge-based conference content, the
local community become rather passion-
ate and want to be involved. That’s be-
cause the challenges are issues they can
identify with, and would want to know
or discuss solutions,” he added.
“Having a challenge-based content
also allows us to facilitate connections
between people and communities that
wouldn’t usually think of connecting. For
example, researchers of population aging
and energy transition who presented at
our conference got to meet with innova-
tion experts – people outside of their
field – who share the same passion.”
However, Bitran said that for this
approach to work, there must be a
challenge owner in the city. Citing an
example, he said: “We are looking at
bringing ISPIM Connects to Singapore
in 2019 but we have not been able to
Busan scores 20 th World
Microscopy Conference
The International Federation of Societies
for Microscopy (IFSM) has picked Busan,
South Korea as the host city for its 20 th
World Microscopy Conference (IMC20)
in 2022.
Busan beat other destinations like
South Africa (Cape Town), Netherlands
(Maastricht), US (Portland), and Spain
(Madrid) in the race.
Taking place from September 25 to
30, the event is expected to be attended
Newly-formed
MSAE seeks AMC
The newly formed Malaysian Society
of Association Executives (MSAE) is
looking for an association management
company (AMC) that is willing to run it
in exchange for access to MSAE’s con-
nections.
MSAE president Zaliha Omar said:
“We don’t have the means to pay for
an AMC, so we are
looking for one that
is willing to do it for
free. In return, we
will connect them
with associations
that wish to or-
ganise meetings,
workshops, teaching
Zaliha: reciprocal
sessions and confer-
approach
ences.”
Zaliha said the role of the AMC
would be to organise a membership
drive, create sustainable funding, create
activities that will appeal to members,
and run the day-to-day operations.
MSAE currently has 23 members
from diverse sectors including trade,
medical, construction and petroleum
associations. – S Puvaneswary
The successful bidding team from South Korea
by approximately 3,000 delegates from
37 countries. Scientists in the micros-
copy sector will discuss trending issues
and network with other people in the
industry. The event will include a simul-
taneous exhibition of global microscope
manufacturing companies.
Held every four years, South Korea
will be the second Asian country, after
Japan, to host the conference.
“This success is a fruitful result of
our strong collaboration
with the local community,
academe, and the private
sector,” said In Sook Lee, di-
rector at the Korea Tourism
Organization – Convention
Team in a press statement.
“Last year, Korea was
the top meeting destination
according to the Union of
International Associations,
and we are determined to
promote Korea’s knowledge,
expertise, and capability to
attract more international
conferences,” she added.
identify an agency – a challenge owner
– that can give us the answers (chal-
lenges that the city is facing). Usually
we meet with the authority or people
who are involved in innovation, such as
the national innovation agency. There
isn’t one in Singapore, and the Agency
for Science, Technology and Research
has not been able to help. So I’m tak-
ing a different route by talking to the
Singapore University of Technology and
Design. If that fails, then we won’t do
Singapore at all.”
Besides boosting local and regional
attendance and faciliating broader con-
nections, Bitran said taking a challenge-
based content approach also allows
ISPIM to “build legacy into the event
programme”.
“By engaging city stakeholders
(in the programming), such as work-
ing with a local university to conduct
research on a challenge and implement-
ing solutions with the challenge owner,
we can track and measure the positive
impact our efforts bring to the local
community even after the conference
concludes,” he explained.
Innovation association tackles
society challenges with event content