The award recognises the programme's timeliness, originality, and impact on the exhibition industry.

This article was originally found on PRNewswire.

Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) joined The UFI Award and Competition Programmes and was declared winner during the UFI European Conference held in Poznań, Poland from May 4–6, 2022. The award programme was organised to share best practices and showcase the most outstanding initiatives in six categories among UFI's 812 members from 84 countries. The six categories are Digital Innovation, HR Management, Industry Partners, Marketing, Operations & Services, and Sustainable Development. The Marketing Award is judged on six criteria: How the market strategy meets the new demands imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic; The key challenges faced during the delivery of the strategy (timing, location, regulation, budget, etc); The process used to develop the marketing strategy; The key elements of the marketing strategy (target groups, value propositions, key selling points, clearly defined and measurable objectives, and communication channels); Sales support provided by the marketing team; and Results and lessons learnt. The finalists for UFI's Marketing Award 2022 were Thailand, Spain and China.

Mr. Chiruit Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya, TCEB President said: "TCEB launched the 'MICE Winnovation' programme in 2021 to propel the development of innovation and inspire our exhibition industry to 'win with innovation'. The aim is to help upgrade and enhance the competitiveness of Thailand's MICE industry and help our MICE entrepreneurs respond more adeptly to market risks and trends. This award captures TCEB's commitment to promote innovation as a means for sustainable growth. We want to help organisers harness the power of technology and inculcate an innovation mindset. During the pandemic, 'MICE Winnovation' was launched as a platform to match tech entrepreneurs with organisers with the aim of generating market-ready solutions that address specific pain points and deliver productivity gains. As an incubator of tech solutions for all facets of the MICE business from visitor engagement to energy management, the 'MICE Winnovation' programme has allowed us to build an online Innovation Catalog, a resource that is now available to all MICE entrepreneurs."

Mr. Holger Feist, Chair of the UFI Marketing Working Group said: "Change seemed to be the only constant for many in our industry over the last year. So it was only consequent to honour the 'Best marketing strategy in a changing exhibition industry' with the UFI 2022 Marketing Award. How were new demands imposed by the pandemic met? Which challenges had to be overcome? What about the originality of the solution, and how could others benefit from it? The winner has taken a broad perspective, looking at a country's entire MICE industry. It has applied a novel approach, designing a multi-faceted programme to foster innovation and technology adoption in the MICE sector – including matchmaking with start-ups, innovation vouchers and expert workshops. And while delivering a state of the art data-driven campaign, the winner has shown that in the end, it is not all about technology: It is the shift in mindset that matters. Congratulations from the entire jury to the 'MICE Winnovation – Defeating the pandemic. Winning with innovation' project. Congratulations to TCEB, the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau."

Over the past two years, "MICE Winnovation" has proven to be a marketing booster for the industry. In 2021, TCEB received applications from organisers seeking innovation and technology for 26 events. TCEB then tracked the economic impacts of the technology introduced in 10 of these events. The results were revealing: The technology adopted created 63.54 million euro in value from a budget of 190,000 euro. The top two areas implementing new technologies were the organisation of hybrid events and crowd management for health and safety purposes. In 2022, TCEB will continue to promote hybrid technology for events and help MICE organisers explore the use of robotics, automation, and facial recognition to boost productivity and enhance visitor experience.

MICE Winnovation is a collaboration between TCEB and 6 partners: National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), National Innovation Agency (NIA), Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa), Thai Exhibition Association (TEA), Thailand Incentive and Convention Association (TICA) and Thailand International Events & Festivals Trade Association (TIEFA).