18th August 2019: The Asian Federation of Exhibition and Convention Associations (AFECA) will stage its 5th AFECA Asia MICE Youth Challenge on 10th October in Manila, the Philippines.

As of now, 21 participating teams who are students attending an accredited University or College within Asia will be competing at this prominent annual Asian MICE Youth Challenge organized by AFECA to inculcate innovative thinking and creativity for the MICE industry. These 21 teams are representing 12 countries/areas that consist of China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Macao, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. A breakthrough record in the history of AFECA Asia MICE Youth Challenge and we are all very excited about it!

This annual event has garnered much praise in the MICE industry and has been THE platform to develop and motivate the students to showcase their talents by presenting their genius novel event and convincing the judges that their country/area is THE BEST MICE destination in Asia!

Every participating team consists of 4 students and they are being selected by their respective countries/areas as highly qualified participants to take part in this challenging competition.

The participating teams will conceptualize, business-test, and create a launch event in one of the components of MICE: M “Meetings”, I “Incentive Travel”, C “Conference”, E “Exhibition”, and showcase the distinctive features and facilities of their country/area, to convince the judges why their destination is the BEST to host their created event. In addition, they will also be judged on creating the most attractive, effective and strategic business plan.

“The sparkling and innovation idea and presentation by participating teams never fail to amaze us”, said Mr Ravinder Sethi, Chair of the Organizing Committee. He further commented that “critical thinking, creativity and team spirit are being shown among the teams during the challenge and it is extremely encouraging in this fast-changing and unpredictable world”.

Mr Walter Yeh, President of AFECA also expressed his excitement for the competition. “Young talents are one of the cores of the development of MICE industry. AFECA members join hands and endeavor to make this regional setting prominent which allows our young MICE students to excel”, said Mr Yeh.

Attractive prizes like the winning trophies, certificates for each team members as well as cash prizes have boosted the excitement of the participants year after year. Besides the top 3 winning teams, award categories are also included - the “Special Recognition Award”, “The Best Theme Attire Award”, “The Most Popular Award” and “The Best Powerpoint Presentation Award” for team effort as well as “The Best Presenter Award” and “The Most Knowledgeable Award” as individual awards, in order to further encourage the hard work and achievement of the participating teams.

AFECA Asia MICE Youth Challenge 2019 will be held in Manila, the Philippines, concurrently with AFECA AGM, which is hosted by Department of Tourism, Philippines, Tourism Promotions Board Philippines, and Philippine Association of Convention & Exhibition Organizers and Suppliers (PACEOS).

The much talk-about prestigious annual Asia MICE Youth Challenge event is organised by AFECA, a federation with 34 MICE association members and 109 corporate members and 2 affiliates from 17 countries. AFECA is currently the leading MICE association in Asia. With access to other global MICE associations, AFECA is the gateway for Asia to reach out to the rest of the world.

For more information, please contact Bran Chiu at afecaamiceyc@afeca.asia.