Background: Recent years are seeing the massive growth of the MICE sector all over the world. Malaysia’s MICE industry attracted a total of 111,298 delegates to 153 events that had generated RM1.035bil in 2016. The next agenda is high yield ‘customer designed’ events that tackle the senses, ones that are enduring and memorable. The ecosystem has been upgraded and ready to welcome participants with the new addition of its MICE venue; a mammoth structure said to be the largest in South-East Asia. Come year 2020, the MICE industry is expected to net RM3.9bil in tourism money. Meaningful events are gaining traction. They are generally experiences that seduces the minds and the hearts; the result of interactions between the environments, biology, relationships and culture of the participants. These can be very tricky as participants social behavior can be unconventional due to their diverse functionality, linguistics and culture. “Customer designed” events may elicit novel demands that necessitates mental and social flexibility. Objective: This study was conducted to identify gaps in the role competencies of events professionals in the convention and exhibition industry. Results: Using Lucia and Lepsinger’s six-step competency model development, the study was able to draw four competency domains - communication, operational, entrepreneurship and personal characteristics. These were further tested on 97 respondents, and what had emerged were four new clusters. The preliminary model was developed from qualitative data collected via focus group interviews while quantitative data were gathered via online questionnaires. Conclusion: Results show that the observed variables can be explained largely by four clusters of competencies namely thinking, knowledge, ability and personality.
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In-Text Citation: (Ahmad et al., 2018)
To Cite this Article: Ahmad, J., Daud, N., Othman, A. K., Hussein, N., Omar, M. K., & Ibrahim, A. H. (2018). Novelties in the Convention and Exhibition Industry’s Professionals’ Competencies. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Socal Sciences, 8(11), 1930–1938.
Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s)
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