On March 6, Tokyo-based MICE news media POP Inc. covered the Japan Convent on Management Association (JCMA) Human Resources Development Committee’s 2nd Member-oriented Training Seminar at SHAKOBA in Tokyo. The conference was conducted in a hybrid format, with approximately 50 participants offline and 70 online.
The event’s theme was “Approaches to sustainable MICE through business operations.” Vice Chair of the Human Resources Development Committee, Koji Okuno, explained the purpose of the seminar. “Sustainability efforts need to be promoted in cooperation with stakeholders,” Okuno stated. “While what must be done varies depending on business sectors such as management and operations, for this event, the focus is on operations, consisting of content which can be directly connected to business operations and which sales representatives can propose to their clients.”
Kazuko Toda, Director of the Convention Division of the Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau, presented the keynote speech, entitled “Regarding the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s initiatives and policies for hosting sustainable MICE.” In recent years, cases have emerged in which a region’s sustainability initiatives have become a requirement for organizers when selecting venues for international conferences. In response to this, Director Toda outlined Tokyo’s efforts to develop hands-on programs that contribute to sustainability, to set up a support desk for organizers, and to provide a tool to estimate CO2 emissions as a result of MICE. She also emphasized that since there are worries that sustainability projects are costly, the government will actively support such projects by establishing a subsidy program for environmentally friendly MICE. Director Toda added, “Collaboration with stakeholders is the most important factor for sustainable MICE. We would like to establish Tokyo as a sustainable MICE city while listening to the opinions of organizers. Furthermore, in the future, we also plan to consider initiatives that target not only organizers, but also MICE facility operators, visitors, and exhibitors.”
On the corporate side, JTB Communication Design presented its “CO2 Zero MICE,” which can power electricity used at events with renewable energy. In addition, the Imperial Hotel showcased “Something Sustainable for Banquets,” the company’s banquet sustainability initiative, and SHOEI introduced its reusable booth displays.
In addition, the JCMA’s SDGs Promotion Committee shared the results of a survey on sustainability efforts conducted among its member companies. The responses indicated that more than 60% of initiatives were environmentally-oriented. As for issues and hurdles, the respondents cited the difficulty of understanding the amount of emissions for the entire event industry, which is subject to scope 3, permeation of efforts within the company, and comprehension by organizers and stakeholders.
Human Resources Development Committee Chairman Shiro Honda concluded, “Through each presentation, two axes were clarified: what the industry as a whole should address and what individual companies can do.” He expressed enthusiasm for holding more sustainability-themed seminars in the future.
During the training seminar, members of the Human Resource Development Committee were assigned duties that differed from their daily tasks. Yoshimasa Horaguchi of KISSEI COMTEC Co., Ltd., an equipment rental and network infrastructure facilities company, stated, “I was in charge of cameras for live streaming. I would switch between speakers and feature speakers according to the content on the screen. We had discussed and decided in advance that speakers would be shown from the chest up while speaking and that we would pan in before they began, but I improvised the other details. It was a fresh and interesting experience for me because I never operate the behind-the-scenes of an event; I usually only get to see it. I also learned that it’s a difficult job since I believe that professionals in filming switch scenes based on facial expressions and stories.” The assignment of each duty was chosen by discussion among the committee members, and switcher and live streaming table were the most popular positions.