With the support of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Singapore Land Authority (SLA), and the implementation of robust safety and risk management protocols, the resumption of pilot events like Geo Connect Asia 2021 could prove a turning point for the MICE industry as it recovers from the impact of the pandemic
Singapore, 9th March 2021 - International events organiser Montgomery Asia announces today that Singapore Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan will grace Geo Connect Asia (GCA) 2021 as Guest-of-Honour. Southeast Asia’s highly anticipated flagship geospatial and location intelligence event, Geo Connect Asia comes to Singapore in a prototype hybrid format, with both a physical event on 24th and 25th March 2021 at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, as well as a virtual Geo Connect Asia for delegates and visitors to meet in person and online.
The event is expected to welcome close to 1,000 business visitors, delegates and speakers onsite, providing a crucial springboard to recovery and growth for both the ASEAN geospatial community and the wider MICE industry, as recovery from the impact of the pandemic continues apace. Additionally, up to 1,200 virtual attendees are expected at GCA 2021, forming a thousand-strong online audience that will be able to seamlessly navigate the event’s virtual Show Floor. This will feature up to 50 companies, more than half of which are international firms, and will provide virtual attendees with an engaging and immersive experience from the comfort of their office or home.
Geo Connect Asia 2021 will also be the first large-scale hybrid event of the year in Singapore, following the successful pilot of TravelRevive in November 2020. GCA 2021 is piloting the ‘hybrid event’ prototype developed by the Singapore Together Alliance for Action (AfA) on Enabling Safe and Innovative Visitor Experiences under the Emerging Stronger Taskforce (EST[1]).
Enhanced safety management measures (SMM) to ensure a safe conference experience
GCA 2021 will feature Geo Suites, which are ballrooms converted into “exhibition booths”. Each Geo Suite will cater to a single exhibitor who can display their products and provide demonstrations on a stage and hold business meetings in pods located within the Suite. Geo Suites will replace a typical trade show floor as the main mode of interaction and help to minimise intermingling between cohorts of attendees. Besides meeting pods to enable 1-to-1 meetings between exhibitors and attendees, larger meeting pods that are double in size compared to those used at TravelRevive will also be piloted at GCA to cater to 2-to-2 meetings. Both virtual and in-person attendees will also be treated to an enhanced digital experience. They can schedule business meetings prior to the event, and continue their engagements after the show.
Such a format will enhance attendees’ experience with its mix of virtual and physical elements while retaining a degree of interaction that is typical of a regular trade show, but in a much safer setting that minimises the risk of Covid-19 infection.
Andrew Phua, Executive Director of Exhibitions & Conferences at the Singapore Tourism Board, said, “As Singapore’s first large-scale hybrid event of the year, Geo Connect Asia 2021 underlines our continued role as a key hub for international trade events. It also pushes new boundaries in innovation and safe events, marking an important next step for Singapore as we continue to test and scale such hybrid formats. We look forward to hosting more of such events in Singapore, and to provide a safe and fulfilling experience for all our visitors.”
Geospatial technology and solutions integral to a sustainable recovery
The Geo Connect Asia 2021 Conference themed “Mapping the data-driven future economy,” will be led by high-level speakers and thought leaders from across the global geospatial industry. The event will provide a strategic and collaborative platform for industry professionals, government agencies, start-ups and more, through a diverse agenda of keynote addresses, plenary sessions, and roundtables. The first plenary session of the Geo Connect Asia 2021 Conference will examine how geospatial solutions can support ASEAN economies in staging a sustainable recovery from the pandemic. Titled, “Geospatial Planning & Solutions; the Key to a Robust & Sustainable Recovery”, the session will be moderated by Ng Siau Yong, Director, Geospatial & Data Division & Chief Data Officer at the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), and features a keynote speech by Hwang Yu-Ning, Chief Planner & Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
Through various strategies such as a ‘green recovery’, building epidemic-resistant smart cities, and improving infrastructure across geographies, geospatial technology and solutions could help Singapore and other countries successfully recover from the pandemic - with Geo Connect Asia playing a crucial role at the heart of the ASEAN geospatial community. A ‘green recovery’ will reduce emissions, with low-carbon economies providing more jobs and clean growth, reversing the effects of high-carbon infrastructure. For instance, transitioning to renewable energy, building electric vehicle charging networks, remodelling cities to make them easier to walk and cycle, planting trees and building flood defences are all necessary in a move to a low-carbon economy, and all are labour-intensive, thus providing jobs and aiding in economic recovery from Covid-19.
During the pandemic, cities focused on digital communication tools and upskilling of workers as working from home became the norm. Moving forward, smart cities must look towards cloud and infrastructure optimization, as-a-service deployments and data analysis to help drive forward-looking decisions and future-proof a city against the next pandemic. Improving infrastructure will also be crucial to recovery from the pandemic, particularly in the ASEAN region.
This will require the wider adoption of smart and digital solutions, including geospatial and location intelligence. Indeed, geospatial technologies and solutions may be even more critical to the emerging economies of ASEAN, as supply chains may break down with country- and economy-wide lockdowns.
Other key topics at the GCA 2021 Conference include:
● On the Move: Smart Transportation for Asia’s Dynamic Urban Landscapes
● Digital Twins: Transforming the Dynamics of Connected Infrastructure Planning
● Easily Accessible Data for the Future of Geospatial Planning
● Building resilience and sustainability into ASEAN geospatial planning
● Harnessing the power of satellite imagery for a sustainable future
● Smarter Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities
● Sustainable and Liveable Cities
● Putting 5G to Work: Intelligent Use Cases for ASEAN
New speakers, sponsors and partnerships at Geo Connect Asia 2021
Japanese geospatial solutions and satellite technology company Synspective and French technology giant 3DS have been confirmed as Conference Sponsors, with Synspective’s Founder and CEO Dr Motoyuki Arai to address the topic of SAR Satellite and Big Data Technologies in Risk Management and Sustainable Development at the Conference. Julie Gaubin, Senior Business Consultant for Construction, Cities and Territories Industry at 3DS Singapore, will speak on the topic of Digital collaboration: The enabler towards Sustainable cities and Resilient infrastructure. Synspective and 3DS join global imagery and real-time insight company Planet as Conference sponsors; Robbie Schingler, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Planet will be presenting on the topic of Harnessing the power of satellite imagery for a sustainable future on the 25th of March.
Up42, offering an open platform for earth data and analytics, will be participating as a Geo Connect Asia Silver Sponsor, combining a meeting suite with a presentation titled, “Unlocking the social and economic impact of AI-driven earth observation.” This will be delivered by Sean Wiid, Chief Executive Officer.
Montgomery Asia is also proud to announce that Geo Connect Asia has entered two new Trade Partnerships with the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (CICES) and the Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES), as well as a partnership with SGTech for the Singapore Pavilion at GCA 2021.
John Whitehead, APAC Director of Sales and Distribution at Trimble, said, “Geo Connect Asia 2021 has adopted innovative technological solutions in order to make this year’s event possible, and is an excellent platform to showcase the latest in cutting-edge geospatial tech from Trimble, particularly in this new hybrid format that offers the interactivity of a physical event from the safety of one’s home or office. We are proud to present here our latest in 3D laser scanning solutions, developed at Trimble to help quickly capture, analyse, model and produce precise deliverables across a diverse range of industries. Another highlight is our expanding stable of high accuracy augmented reality (AR) products, which are increasingly being used by our global clientele to make the most out of collected data, enhance communication, save costs, improve workplace safety, and increase worker productivity.”
Rupert Owen, Montgomery Asia Geo Connect Asia Co-founder, said, “The 2021 event will be the culmination of two years of exploration and focus in guiding the development of a world-leading hybrid platform for the geospatial and location intelligence markets in Asia. We are very grateful for the unwavering commitment of our sponsors, supporting organisations and the broader geospatial industry community. With more than 40 leading speakers and panellists the conference provides a very exciting mix of thought leadership, industry insights and educational opportunities for membership associations.
The co-operation of the Singapore Tourism Board and Singapore Land Authority has been critical to the staging of the event and we look forward to creating an annual event with a global impact to reflect the dynamism of the Asian geospatial ecosystem.”
GCA is the event that will bring together the geospatial community and markets from across the ASEAN region and the world.
Geo Connect Asia is also a participant under the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Framework. Industry professionals may claim CPD Points for attending Geo Connect Asia 2021. For more details, visit https://www.geoconnectasia.com/conference
For the latest updates and announcements, visit www.GeoConnectAsia.com.
About Geo Connect Asia 2021
The first online & offline conference-led event with a specific focus on Southeast Asia, Geo Connect Asia 2021 will bring the industry together for two days of focused discussion and networking on 24th – 25th March 2021 at Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands. The inaugural event will provide a hybrid strategic and collaborative business meeting platform for industry professionals, government agencies, and start-ups to come together to build and develop knowledge of global solutions for Asia’s geospatial & location intelligence markets. Discover how geospatial solutions and location intelligence can take your business to new heights, and meet and network with some 2,200 industry professionals physically and virtually, all sharing a collective vision of the global geospatial community.
About Montgomery Asia
Established in 2016, Montgomery Asia is a fully-owned subsidiary of UK-based Montgomery Group, one of the most widely respected exhibition companies in the world since 1895.
Montgomery Asia focuses on the growing Asian market, bringing the group’s flagship events to this region as well as developing new trade shows that meet the needs of the Asian market.
About Emerging Stronger Taskforce – Alliance for Action on Enabling Safe and Innovative Visitor Experiences
Co-led by the Emerging Stronger Taskforce (EST) members Mr Lee Seow Hiang of Changi Airport Group (CAG) and Ms Kwee Wei-Lin of Singapore Hotel Association (SHA), the EST Alliance for Action (AfA) on Enabling Safe and Innovative Visitor Experiences has worked closely with a diverse range of industry stakeholders such as the National Association of Travel Agents (NATAS) and Singapore Association of Convention & Exhibition Organisers & Suppliers (SACEOS), and government agencies such as STB and Ministry of Health (MOH), to explore and pioneer new ways to facilitate safe and innovative visitor experiences in a COVID-19 environment, to ensure that Singapore remains a leading hub for business and enterprise in Asia Pacific.
For more details, please visit https://emergingstronger.sg.
Media Contacts:
Rupert Owen / Ariel Tan
Montgomery Asia
Gavin Choo / Cris Lacuna
Blue Totem Communications (Singapore)
+65 9297 5828 / +65 9236 5740
[1] The Emerging Stronger Taskforce (EST) was formed under the Future Economy Council (FEC) to review how Singapore can stay economically resilient and build new sources of dynamism to emerge stronger from COVID-19. The EST is co-chaired by Minister for National Development, Mr Desmond Lee, and Group CEO of PSA International, Mr Tan Chong Meng, and comprises members from various sectors, including businesses and trade associations and chambers. It has convened the Singapore Together Alliances for Action (“AfAs”), which are industry-led, government-supported coalitions that act quickly by prototyping ideas in areas of opportunity for Singapore. The AfA on Enabling Safe and Innovative Visitor Experiences is one of these AfAs.
