The Malaysian state of Sarawak is quickly gaining more attention within the international meetings industry. Over the next two months, 12 international as well as national events are planned! Sarawak is growing in popularity due to many reasons – infrastructure for congresses, great currency conversion rates – 5-star accommodation starts at around €60/$70 and goes up to about €100/$120, one-of-a-kind leisure activities like visiting the Sarawak Cultural Village live museum, and of course, no one can forget about the local cuisine! If you aren’t feeling so adventurous there are naturally lots of other international cuisines available, including Indian!
From October 10th to 12th, the ASEAN Conference on Healthy Ageing 2017 will be taking place at the Hotel Pullman in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak. This conference is being organized by a non-profit organization, the Malaysian Healthy Ageing Society. This society was very important during the planning of the first-ever World Congress on Healthy Ageing in 2012. This year’s conference will focus on topics such as healthy ageing and economic sustainability, elderly law, healthy workplaces as well as the abdication of smoking, alcohol and drug use.
Also starting on October 10th and lasting until the 14th, the Hilton Kuching will be hosting the International Symposium of Applied Structural Equation Modeling (SASEM) 2017. This symposium has also been organized by a local entity, the Sarawak Research Society (SRS). The keynote speakers are Professor Marko Sarstedt (University of Magdeburg, Germany) and Professor Peter B. Seddon (University of Melbourne, Australia). The professors focus on consumer behaviour and strategic IT decision making, respectively.
Considering the fact that local societies were able to bid, win, and will successfully host such congresses in the future and past demonstrates Sarawak’s great amount of local knowledge. There are 69 universities to enable plentifull collaborations between international professors, students and researchers. Such collaborations and the presence of strong scientific societies pose a great source of motivation for science and research-based congresses, especially, to come to this destination. Malaysia, in general, is expected to transform into an even greater knowledge hub due to its work with the World Bank, which started last year! The focus is to promote knowledge sharing as well as develop the Malaysian economy to become competitive with high ranking economies by 2020.
Dr Sha’ari Bin Ngadiman, Chair of the Organizing Committee for the 5th Asia Pacific Conference on Public Health 2017 (APCPH) this past September explained that Sarawak was an easy choice for the destination of their conference. “The appeal of Sarawak was bountiful – from the full support of the Sarawak Convention Bureau, the excellent facilities the State has to offer and most of all the attractions which derive from the rich flora and fauna heritage.”
We have previously discussed local knowledge on our platforms here at tmf dialogue because we and our clients understand how important it is that a location is not only be beautiful but beneficial to the event in some way. Presence of local societies or groups with esteemed professionals, researchers and even students, promotes the exchange of ideas and can make the difference between a good and great event!
Visit sarawakcb.com to find out some valuable information about this up-and-coming MICE destination.
