IBTM launches Asia-Pacific edition

Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) has announced the launch of IBTM Asia Pacific, which will take place at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre from April 6-8, 2020. The show joins IBTM’s existing portfolio of IBTM World in Barcelona; IBTM Americas in Mexico City; IBTM China in Beijing; IBTM Arabia in the UAE and IBTM Africa, in Cape Town.

“Launching a new event for the Asia-Pacific market is not only exciting for the IBTM brand, it is also supported by the fact that the region’s business events industry is expected to see the highest growth rate in the world to reach US$441 billion by 2025 [according to Allied Market Research],” said Shane Hannam, portfolio director, IBTM.

“It’s a market we know very well, and our research has shown that there’s genuine demand for a regionally focused event, both from our existing customer base and also from the industry in general. It’s an exciting new addition to the industry calendar not only for IBTM, but also for the wider business events market.”

IBTM Asia Pacific will bring together international, regional and local meeting planners and exhibitors for two days of pre-scheduled one-to-one business meetings, education and networking.

Shane Hannam, portfolio director for IBTM

The event will be under-pinned by IBTM’s Hosted Buyer programme, which creates personalised appointment diaries for hosted buyers and exhibitors to ensure that delegates only meet people with whom there’s a very good chance of doing business. The event will be preceded by a day of local tours for international buyers and an evening drinks reception.

RTE expects the show to service increasing demand from both from the inbound and outbound APAC markets, as well as allowing the group to implement a strategic shift for its IBTM China event, which “will re-focus on bringing together the highest quality Chinese buyers to meet with international exhibitors and international buyers to do business with Chinese exhibitors” according to Hannam.

“Singapore is considered as APAC’s regional hub for the business events market and that, combined with its excellent infrastructure and long-standing reputation as a global business destination mean that it was the natural choice as our host city," he said. 

IBTM Asia Pacific will be helmed by event manager Michael Jones, who has been with Reed Exhibitions for almost six years. The marketing and Hosted Buyer programme will be managed by the existing team based in London, supported by Reed Exhibition’s teams in Singapore and Japan.

Full details of the education sessions and networking programme will be released in coming weeks.