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International Meetings: Asia Rising continued
Take Away
The congress is a volunteer-driven enterprise that is “run by professionals who arepassionateabout brand building.”
Brand Summit—was laterknown as IndiaBrand Summit until 2007, when it became the Asia Brand Congress. Last year, the conference took on its current internationalmoniker. According toWorld Brand Congress Secretari-
at Dave Porter, the “brand movement was con- ceived in India, and most of the members and sup- porters associated [with the movement] are Indians. Thus, we meet in India.” The congress is a volunteer-driven enterprise
that Porter said is “run by professionals who are passionate [about] brand building.” An advisory board is comprised of marketing executives from around the world (seeTakeAway, p. 41),whoflesh out such topics as creating brand loyalty and adopting new technology to build a brand. Porter handles the logistics and groundwork,
World Brand Congress 2010, By the Numbers
Anticipated attendance: 550-plus attendees
(up from 414 in 2009) Speakers:
68 (40 from India, 28 international)
Program: Three keynotes, four master classes, nine concurrent sessions, two panel discussions, one or two exclusive workshops
Exhibits: Limited to 28 42 pcma convene December 2010
working withMumbai-based Fun&Joy atWork, which he calls “a young, dynamic organization run by professionals who share a similar passion towards the brand movement.” While the majority ofWorld Brand Congress
speakers are Indian, 40 percent hailfromaround the world.With an increasing focus on attracting a global audience and speakers, are there plans for the conference to be held outside India in the future? While Porter said that they are open to other countries hosting the event, the “passion for the brand movement” that he speaks of seems inextricably linked to World Brand Congress’ original host destination. “India is a land of great opportunity and mystery,” Porter said. “Themore you explore and discover, themore it fascinates you.”
India’s Place In theAsia-Pacific Hotel Pipeline
At the Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific, held at the InterContinental Hong Kong in mid-October, attendees explored what could be “the next big hotel market” in Asia, according to Hotelnews- now.com.While China—with 800 cities able to support a luxury hotel, a trillion- dollar rail system, and 150 airports under construction—was identified as represent- ing the largest hotel-development opportu- nity, India has 21 percent of the hotel rooms in the Asia-Pacific pipeline. According to Jonas Ogren, area director–Asia for STR Global, India is expected to have a 50-per- cent increase in room count over the next few years.
continued from page 41 The conference
benefits from a strate- gic partnershipwith CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) CouncilWorld- wide. Porter said that almost all of the mem- bers of the CMO Council’s India chap- ter are affiliatedwith the conference. World Brand Con-
gress also employs social-media tools, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to engage attendees. And, as onewould expect fromamarket- ing conference, “members promote the event to their contacts,” Porter said. “There is a lot ofword- of-mouth by past attendees.”
Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene.
International Meetings: Asia Rising is sponsored by the Japan National Tourism Organization, www.jnto.go.jp.