Part 2 of a three-part interview with the new chief executive officer (CEO) of Business Events Sarawak (BESarawak) Amelia Roziman.
By Tania Lam & Petronella Langita Felix
BUSINESS Events Sarawak (BESarawak), a non-profit organisation that is fully backed and funded by the Sarawak government to connect meeting planners, should reach greater heights with Amelia at the helm despite the challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a recent interview, it was quite obvious that Amelia Roziman, the new CEO of Business Events Sarawak (BESarawak) has a strong aspiration to succeed and clear visions of what she wants to do.
Being very well-versed in various aspects of her organisation she is confident that with the right connections, resources and incentives to plan and organise meetings, conventions and exhibitions, her specialist bidding organisation will attain higher accomplishments.
New Sarawak Tribune (NST): What is happening to your organisation currently?
Amelia: We have hiccups here and there, but I do not see them as things that we cannot overcome.
Nobody can ignore the pandemic; what about you?
We have been affected like every business or industry. It’s natural to think of it as a problem, but take it as an obstacle that you can get over, or else you might use it as an excuse as to why you cannot move forward.
How do you deal with it, then?
I do not look at it as a challenge anymore; I look at it as an opportunity to adapt, innovate and re-strategise.
You’re basically talking about change.
Yes, because to adapt, innovate and re-strategise, you need to make changes. If you have a plan but Covid-19 has come along, what would you do? You can have the same objective but be creative and innovative in your strategies and tactics.
Specifically, how has BESarawak adapted to the pandemic?
We are still for physical events while also supporting hybrid ones. There is no chance for national and international delegates to come at the moment.
What about domestically?
We are encouraging more home-grown or local events to be held to maintain the economic aspect. Previously, we only supported national and international events, but we have financial support for local events now. We have also included in the Post-Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030 certain home-grown that we want to develop.
Since the pandemic has practically stopped a lot of economic activities, what is there left to do?
Our sales team can’t do much at the moment and yet we still have success in bidding and winning events. The team is more into keeping in touch with existing clients and doing a lot of sales calls.
It’s like keeping in touch with old friends?
Yes, basically. For us it is about providing future business. Even before Covid-19, we plan events years ahead. So, we are collecting business leads now.
It’s more than striking while the iron is hot. You make sure the iron stays hot.
That’s one way to put it. We want to have everything ready so that once the skies are open we can go all out right away. We have to be quick as I am sure that other destinations would have similar strategies.
What about incentives?
We are also gearing up our funding support. We have a lot of incentivised packages for local, national, and international events, and we have also added value. For example, if there are about 100 non-Sarawakians attending a national conference here, we will sponsor a city tour for every 100 persons.
What do you expect to happen in the near future?
We expect to continue preparing for local events, which we hope would be possible to have in the fourth quarter of this year although perhaps not in places that have yet to move on to Phase 3 of the National Recovery Plan (NRP). As for national events, we hope maybe next year. We are also still securing a lot of business leads for international events for perhaps 2023 and beyond.
What if all of the aforementioned don’t happen, what then?
Then we will re-strategise again. We are so fortunate that our tourism ministry has been so supportive all the way with the re-strategising we have done.
Are you also working on other things right now?
One of the things we are working on now is the development of other segments. The convention segment has contributed 80 percent to our bid wins for the past 15 years.
You said other segments; what are they?
We have three other segments — exhibitions, corporate meetings, and corporate incentives. They are not fully developed yet. Then there is a new segment, home-grown events.
So, altogether there are four segments?
Yes. We are developing them now in as far as the guidelines and definitions go.
What else do you have going on that the public don’t know about?
We have a new campaign called ‘Responsible Business Events’ to get BE planners to organise events responsibly and to get attendees to enjoy Sarawak’s tourism products responsibly. Part of this mean’s adhering to the health standard operating procedures (SOPs) and other rules. We will provide Covid-19 home test kits, hand sanitisers, masks, and so on at our cost. We are going to launch this effort quite soon after we have settled the insurance that covers Covid-19. We are working on our participation in the Global Destination Sustainability Index (GDSI). This is led by the state tourism ministry in collaboration with BESarawak and Sarawak Tourism Board (STB).
Could that be one of the unique selling points for tourism and business events (BE)?
Yes, but this is actually beyond tourism and BE. If you look at the benchmark and criteria we have to fulfil, this will make Sarawak a better place to live in. The launch was last Aug 11 and we are the first in Malaysia and also Southeast Asia to be part of the index.
The word ‘hybrid’ has been thrown around quite a lot lately in various sectors. What do you know about it?
For one thing there is an upcoming project called the Hybrid City Alliance (HCA). As Covid-19 has changed the way we live and organise events, hybrid is the way to go.
What is HCA?
It is an alliance formed by the Hague Convention Bureau; very strong in Europe with a few members in Asia. Our participation is under the Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau.
What does that involve?
It involves creating hubs in different regions where people can gather physically and be connected online as well. So concurrently, various regional hubs are hosting the hybrid conferences. We still root for face-to-face events, but even before Covid-19, the digital and technology aspect of BE was already on the rise. When Covid-19 is not around anymore, I believe people will appreciate face-to-face events more, but technology will still be used to enhance our engagement or event organisation.
Besides this, we are also focusing on legacy impact of BE, and this initiative will be launched soon. When it comes to the impact of BE, we want the legacy to be seen, not just the economic impact and how many tourists are coming in. This is a bold and unique proposition for the convention segment, so that Sarawak can generate long-lasting positive changes and ultimately leave behind legacies.
We have actually started implementing this as it was approved last year, but the official launch by our chief minister has not been held yet.
