What 2018 has in store for MICE?

In our mid-year analysis, industry experts tell us how the MiCE business has fared in the first six months of 2018. The veterans unravel trending segments and what to expect from 2018

Vijay Dadhich Managing Director

Blue Moon Travels & India MiCE Award Winner

The first quarter of 2018 has witnessed a lot of incentive movement with most corporates rushing to use their R &

R budgets before the close of the financial year. The second quarter saw a slow down. This was a crucial time for planning for the next two quarters. Destination weddings is the more lucrative segment as a single wedding spread over two or three nights ensures optimum utilisation of all resources available at a hotel- accommodation, venues, catering. Our Destination Wedding Company, is gearing up for the upcoming wedding season. We are confident of converting the 'Big Fat Indian Wedding' as our primary focus for financial year 2018-2019.

Ashish Jagota Executive Director

Concept Conferences & India MiCE Award Winner

The first half of the year was not very busy given the lean period, however, the later part of the year looks bright. For us at Concept, 2018 looks very promising especially in the area of conferences, which is our forte. We have signed contracts till 2020! Our work and dedication speaks in volumes, which has reaped for us in getting repeated business in the market. We were awarded a conference of 7500+ delegates in 2016 in Kochi, thereafter the same in 2018 in Coimbatore and yet again in 2019 in Kolkata. There are new cities arising as upcoming MiCE destinations like Bhubaneshwar, Lucknow, Nagpur, to name a few. MiCE essentially facilitates networking for a fruitful business. What is needed here is to recognise the change in which the world is conducting business, the changing trends, the technological revolution which is making its presence felt in the way in which events and meetings are being conducted. At Concept, we try to add these changes and value to our events and educate the client on the same.

Kapil Arora Director-Sales and Operations Wizard events & India MiCE Award Winner

FY 2017-18 had been really great for us. We added couple of big brand names as our customers, delivered some unique projects, grew as a team and the overall revenue increased approximately by 60 per cent YOY. Though the AMJ quarter (Q1) started a bit slow, but from Q2 onwards, business gathered pace and we got the opportunity to manage some of the prestigious projects for our customers. Other than domestic destinations, we managed projects to some far off locations like Switzerland, Peru, Japan, etc.

There are some important and prestigious events which we had been managing for couple of years. Some of these include: CXO Summit & Partner Summit for a leading global technology giant, 600 pax international & domestic incentive trip for channel partners of a leading paint company, India showcase event for a global leading hotel chain.

Mohit Khanna MD iCE Group India & India MiCE Award Winner

The year 2018 has had a robust start. Meetings and events business have been transformed by the introduction of technology. Hotels have become flexible and overall the industry has seen a boom. For us at iCE, social segments and weddings business has increased as compared to last year due to word of mouth publicity. However, our core still lies in corporate MiCE. Having the advantage of our own events team helps get hold of the entire project and deliver as per our client's expectations. With elections coming in 2019, it looks like there would be some uncertainty until the results are out so it is best to make hay while the sun shines this year.

Disha Shah Director, iCE Group India & India MiCE Award Winner

The summers have slowed down our domestic MiCE business, though the outbound is on a rise. We are expecting the domestic business to pick up post monsoon. After Diwali, the real season of inbound incentives would begin. There is more clarity with regards to the GST implications this year and people are now prepared to make that much expenditure. We have projects lined up post July 2018, while the next six months are going to keep us on our toes.