ICESAP ACCREDITATION SCHEME

THE Incentive, Conference & Event Society Asia-Pacific (ICESAP) has formally debuted its long-awaited agency accreditation scheme, with president Nigel Gaunt saying it is a vital part of the evolution of the business events sector.

Speaking to BEN at the launch event in Sydney last Thu, Gaunt said the Asia-Pacific initiative would deliver benefits to agencies, suppliers and clients - allowing corporate end users to confidently identify and contract event agencies that meet the stringent accreditation standards.

“The fundamental barrier to long term growth for the sector is a lack of self-governance by the intermediary agencies in the industry. There are no barriers to entry, codes of conduct, or probity and capability checks on agency owners, managers or staff,” he said.

Gaunt stressed that ICESAP was not trying to replace existing programs run by organisations such as Meetings and Events Australia, which particularly focus on individuals.

Rather ICESAP strongly believes agencies must be accredited to ensure long-term industry sustainability, he said.

“The ICESAP accreditation provides the industry with a consistent set of standards to follow and provides a strong foundation for raising the quality and professionalism of organisations in the industry.

“It also enables end users to more confidently navigate through the process of researching, appointing and managing event agencies.”

ICESAP has developed the accreditation scheme to involve a number of partners, such as Dun & Bradstreet Singapore which will independently and confidentially assess financial data about participants.

William Angliss College will also provide professional development elements of the scheme, Gaunt said.

Also at the launch was Directions CIM ceo Joanna Hancock, who is now regional vice president of ICESAP.

She said it was important that corporate customers in Australia and New Zealand “can access trusted and proven event agencies to assist in mitigating the risk associated with their meeting and event investment.

“By focusing on the event agency, we’ll see an uplift in the baseline quality of the industry which we’ll then continuously build on,” she said.

ICESAP has appointed an executive director - Compliance who will oversee the scheme in partnership with Gaunt, while Bradbury Consulting has been engaged to manage the application processing.

Applications will formally open early next month; however Gaunt confirmed there had already been very strong interest from across the sector in being part of the scheme, with at least one company already having paid its application fee.

ICESAP is targeting 500 agency participants in the scheme by Q1 2018, but Gaunt said based on overseas interest - particularly from China - this may be surpassed.

He urged the industry to get behind the program and “sell your professionalism”.

Full details of the scheme are now live at www.icesap.org.

Gaunt is pictured above with some of the other attendees at the launch; more pictures from the event are available online at facebook.com/BusEvNews.