On May 12, the “MICE City Forum” was convened in Taipei, organized by the Bureau of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Economic Affairs of R.O.C. in collaboration with the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and Taiwan Convention & Exhibition Association. The event drew some 300 participants, including MICE industry players as well as teachers and students from universities and professional schools with MICE curriculum in Taiwan. Masahiko Hagiwara, Corporate Officer of Congress Corporation, spoke on the topic of “Winning large-scale international conferences” and lent his expertise to the panel discussion that followed as well. After his talk, the audience posed lots of questions about Japan’s MICE education and human resource development.

Taiwan, which successfully organized the Taipei International Flora Expo in 2011, as well as the city of Taipei that has been confirmed as the host of the European Cyclist’s Federation’s (ECF) Velo-city Global Conference in 2016, are passionately tackling activities to foster human resources in the MICE industry.

This Forum proved to be a very meaningful opportunity, where we recognized anew the presence of Taiwan as a key player in the Asian MICE arena as well as the significance of human resource development and education for MICE.