MICE | Insurance congress returns to Macau one decade on

The Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress and International Dragon Awards (IDA) returned to Macau earlier this year after a decade-long break. This year’s gathering marked the 11th such event worldwide, and was held in August at the Convention and Exhibition Centre of the Venetian Macao.
According to a statement issued yesterday by the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM), more than 7,000 professionals from the international insurance industry attended the event.
To date, 17 countries and regions including Macau, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Canada, have each hosted at least some part of the annual event.
According to IPIM, the awards are a prestigious event in the Chinese insurance industry. Seven cities bid to be the host for this year’s events. Aside from Macau, the applicants were Nanjing (China), Kaohsiung (Taiwan), Hawaii (United States), Melbourne (Australia), Fukuoka (Japan), Jeju Island (South Korea) and Singapore.
Richard Wu, Vice President of the 11th Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress and 2016 International Dragon Awards, was cited by IPIM as having claimed that Macau has transformed itself into a destination city in the past decade.
IPIM explained that the Macau selection was also influenced by “the cooperation of Macau’s government departments” and the city’s “renowned infrastructure.”
The large-scale convention is just one of a number of such MICE events to be held in the city in the second half of 2016. Others include the 9th Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Asia, which is expecting more than 5,000 participants. DB