The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) has persuaded
various local businesses to form an alliance aimed at promoting the city’s meetings
and business events offer.
The initiative comes as KLCC managers repeated calls for a
city convention bureau. Until now enquiries have been handled at national
level, through the Malaysian Convention and Events Bureau.
The KLCC Business Events Alliance (KLCC BEA), which includes
the KLCC,hotels, conference organisers,
and a shopping mall, will act as a ‘single point of contact’ for meeting
planners.
Its aim is to spur further collaboration to promote the city
as a business events destination.
Angeline van den Broecke, KLCC director of sales &
marketing, said: “We have to continually work harder and find more innovative
ways to promote the Kuala Lumpur business events proposition in the absence of
a city convention bureau.
“A city convention bureau would tremendously enhance our capabilities
to increase our competitiveness to attract more international events to Kuala
Lumpur and to get more visibility for the city. This is becoming more pertinent
as more venues and exhibition facilities are launched in the city. A city
convention bureau would be the cherry on the cake.”
KLCC general manager, Alan Pryor, said the private-sector
alliance would provide a ‘seamless and single point of first contact for event
organisers’.
“The KLCC BEA allows us to market the fully-integrated city
centre offering and create an all-inclusive proposition for meetings and events
from a venue, planner, accommodation and entertainment perspective,” he said.
“This initiative is to stimulate more collaborations and is the right time for
us to package the KLCC precinct in a dynamic way to attract more international
and regional events to the city, and grow Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia’s business
events footprint.”
He added: “Focused on providing a value proposition that will
help drive lead generation and conversion, the partners of the alliance have
come together to offer a specific set of benefits to Meeting Planners and Event
Organisers. We have developed a Benefits Programme which will provide
customised value adds from each of the alliance partners.”
The KLCC BEA partners include the Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur,
Impiana KLCC Hotel, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Kuala Lumpur, the Marini’s Group,
MCI Malaysia, Suria KLCC Shopping Mall and Traders Hotel Kuala Lumpur.
