Taking place from February 10 to 12, ibtm arabia, formerly GIBTM, is the leading one-to-one event for the Middle East meetings, incentives, conferences and events (Mice) industry. The event will invite an elite community of up to 200 leading Mice industry suppliers and up to 200 buyers for three days of mutually matched pre-scheduled appointments, networking, education and business.

Influential hosted buyers attending ibtm arabia, to be held at St Regis Saadiyat Island Resort in Abu Dhabi, include United Nations Association of Germany, Association of Hesse - Germany, Pan Arab Continence Society - Egypt, The London Diplomatic Association - UK, SEMARK - Saudi Arabia, Access Worldwide Destination Management - UAE, Bahraini Tourist and Travel Bureau - Bahrain, among others.

TTN spoke to ibtm arabia event director Lois Wilcox for exclusive insights. Excerpts from the invterview:

Apart from the rebranding, what else is new about ibtm arabia?
The whole concept of ibtm arabia is new to the region. ibtm arabia changes the Middle East meetings event’s space and will improve the experience for everyone involved. This is an exclusive event designed for meeting professionals, where guests and suppliers are carefully selected - a quality over quantity approach with a one-to-one exhibitor / buyer match with no trade visitors. Hosted buyers will be totally relevant to who exhibitors want to meet with. They will be able to focus 100 per cent of their time preparing for buyer appointments, not on set-up, tear-down, shipping of their stand, and other related logistics.

Exhibitors can now control their own destiny and experience on a level playing field. They will part of a three-day community where everyone does everything together, business, education and networking. ibtm arabia is a Mena specialist event, designed for Mena buyers of Mena/ international products and services, and international buyers of Mena products and services. The cost of the event to a supplier is all inclusive.

How will this new dynamic format benefit exhibitors and hosted buyers?
Perhaps one of the key USPs is that the event will be a business forum, a place where a community of like-minded Mice professionals can network and do business together with no distractions.  The format will include a “Discovery Day” open to both exhibitors and hosted buyers, so they get a chance to attend a tour of Abu Dhabi, the ibtm arabia Knowledge Forum, as well as the business sessions over two days and of course the essential fun element of nine networking opportunities to create the important social down time which can also be more business but in a more relaxed format. In essence, Saadiyat Island will become a community of international and regional Mice professionals for three days in February, a unique opportunity for everyone involved.

What kind of response have you received so far?
Over 50 per cent of the meeting pods have already been reserved, with suppliers including NTOs, CVBs, hotels, venues, DMC’s and technology providers participating. Some of the hosted buyers confirmed to attend IBTM Arabia 2015 include Bespoke Discovery (Jordan), Semark (Saudi Arabia), International Association of Dental Students (Jordan), Ripe NCC (UAE), BME Global (UK), WAITT (Netherlands), V Global Management (Malaysia), Healthcare Consultancy Group (USA), International Academy for Design and Health (Sweden), The London Diplomatic Association (UK), Show D'VISION (Germany) and The Achievement Awards Group (South Africa).
Hosted Buyer, Alan Dilani, International Academy for Design & Health, Sweden, will be attending ibtm arabia because they are organising their world congress.  Kim Harper, travel manager of Achievement Awards Group from South Africa, will also be placing business in the region.
Dan Ragusa, senior meeting planner, The Scienomics Group, US, who handles events for Pharma companies in the US, will also attend.
 
What is the projected volume of business expected at ibtm arabia in 2015?
Because this will be the first event of its kind with the one-to-one mutually matched appointments, we have no way of knowing the stats in advance of the show. However, ibtm arabia will follow ibtm america, ibtm india and ibtm africa, all of which are now using either the meeting pod concept or a table top event to focus on a region and its meetings industry. ibtm arabia will have up to 200 suppliers who will meet with the same number of the most prestigious planners in the global Mice industry. The mix of buyers will be 50 per cent regional and 50 per cent international.

This is an exclusive event designed for Mice professionals, where guests and suppliers are carefully selected - a quality over quantity approach. All exhibitors and buyers select who they would like to have appointments with and a sophisticated software system matches the preferences of buyers and suppliers resulting up to 30 pre-scheduled mutually matched appointments.

The meetings professionals who apply to attend this event as hosted buyers will be selected on their business influence and buying power, both in the region and globally. Successful applicants will be senior decision makers from the Middle East, Europe, Americas, Asia Pacific and Africa, therefore representing a cross-section of the most senior meeting planners in the industry.  Specifically, international hosted buyers will have definite business to place in the Middle East and regional hosted buyers will have specific international business to place. Hosted buyers at ibtm arabia will include meeting and conference planners from the insurance, medical oil and gas, healthcare, finance and IT industries, high-level representatives from government, Fortune 500 company planners, large incentive buyers, major association planners and third party agencies.

Can you give us your latest expert insights into the Middle East’s meetings market?
The Middle East is the fastest growing international association meeting market in the world according to an International Congress and Convention Association study. The report revealed that the total number of regularly-occurring, internationally-rotating association meetings is increasing by 100 per cent each decade and has been consistently doing so for the last 50 years, with no signs of a slowdown.

The report highlighted that between 1998 and 2002, there were 532 association meetings in the Middle East. That figure had grown to 905 between 2003 and 2007 and then expanded once again between 2008 and 2012 to 1,776 association meetings.

The number of meetings in the Middle East has grown even quicker than in other regions -- it has more than tripled over the last decade. Recent Euromonitor International statistics showed the volume of MICE and business travel departures from Saudi Arabia were up 400 per cent in five years and it is forecast to grow a further 60 per cent by 2018. We expect ibtm arabia to be a valuable event for international suppliers who want to do business with the region’s hosted buyers.