Korea MICE Expo 2012, held at the Coex convention & exhibition center in Seoul, is to play host to some of the brightest up-and-coming students in the international meetings and incentive travel industry when the IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum (FLF) takes place on July 4th, 2012. The global Future Leaders Forum program is an initiative designed to encourage the best and…
Korea MICE Expo 2012, held at the Coex convention & exhibition center in Seoul, is to play host to some of the brightest up-and-coming students in the international meetings and incentive travel industry when the IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum (FLF) takes place on July 4th, 2012.
The global Future Leaders Forum program is an initiative designed to encourage the best and brightest students to enter the meetings and incentive travel industry by offering education days, networking opportunities and internships.
At the Korean forum, up to 50 students from Korea-based universities will attend a series of presentations from leading meetings industry professionals. Presenters will include Chris Oh, from the MCI Korea Office, who will provide an overview on ‘The Meetings Industry’; Maureen O’Crowley, Vice-President of the Seoul Tourism Organisation, who will discuss ‘The Meetings Industry in Korea’ and Ju Young Kim, from the National Research Foundation of Korea and Researcher for the Center for International Affairs, who will offer an overview on her past Future Leaders Forum experiences. Miguel Neves, Events and Projects Planner, IMEX Group, will introduce the event and give a background on the way in which the forum has grown over the past decade.
Also included in the day are various round table discussions. Future leaders will have the opportunity to talk to industry professionals on a number of key industry or career choices. These comprise association management, hotels, conference centers and corporate events specialists. The round table experts will include Maureen O’Crowley, Bent Hadler of Hadler DMC; Karan Singh and Jean Park of the Conrad Seoul and Peter Lee of MCI Seoul.
Speaking of the importance of the forum and its aims, Ms. O’Crowley commented, “Seoul’s meetings industry is built upon the many talented business events professionals who have worked hard to make it the world top-five convention city that it is today. The Future Leaders Forum is an excellent way to help ensure that there will continue to be such talent driving our meetings industry in the years to come – and we appreciate the opportunity make this happen here at the KME, together with our fellow industry professionals from Seoul and beyond.”
Carina Bauer, CEO, IMEX Group commented: “The Future Leaders Forum is our investment in the future of up-and-coming meeting and event organizers. In collaboration with MPI and MCI our goal is to support the overall development of future talent which is achieved through enhancing understanding of the market to equip the next generation with the knowledge to make an informed career choice. Increasingly successful, these forums are now widely respected by employers and firmly established as a valuable opportunity to meet with talented students and interns. These students are the future and we want to make them feel welcome and motivated to join our industry.”
The KME 2012 IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum is the eleventh such event to take place in this year, and will be followed by a series of other forums hosted around the globe throughout the year. Locations include Australia, Serbia, Thailand and America. Around 900 students took part in the program in 2011 and around 5,100 students have now gone through the program since its launch in 2003. 90% of them have stated they are “more likely to enter the industry as a result of attending the Future Leaders Forum”.
The Future Leaders Forum has been developed and organized by the IMEX Group (organizers of the IMEX in Frankfurt and IMEX America trade shows for the international meetings and incentive travel industry), MPI (Meeting Professionals International), and global association, communications and event management company, MCI.
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