Seoul is gearing up for a busy new year of international meetings, with six notable large-scale gatherings set to bring 17,200 participants to the city’s top conference venues in the first half of 2020 alone. The three largest of these, which include the 25th CardioVascular Summit-TCTAP, 15th International Congress of the International Radiation Protection Association, and 24th International Congress of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine – accounting for 10,900 of that figure – reflect continued preference for Korea’s capital as a premier MICE event destination, bolstered by a strong local event support program – PLUS SEOUL – provided by the city.
Upgraded for 2019, PLUS SEOUL provides a wide range of support for all MICE events, including corporate meetings, incentive tours, and exhibitions, hosted in Korea’s capital. This year’s revamp focused in particular on emphasizing the personal enjoyment factor of business events in Seoul, turning them into appealing storytelling experiences and opportunities to create lasting bonds with fellow attendees. Additions to the support thus comprised highly-customized add-on features for events, ranging from branded souvenirs and buses to special team building activities, cultural performances, commemorative crafts, and more.
A popular customized add-on in 2019 was Application Development Support, in concert with the global trend for favouring event apps over printed material to boost environmental sustainability. Seoul Premium Book, containing various extras from 31 of the city’s top Seoul MICE Alliance members, made a great entering in offering benefits for the participants even after the MICE event for the spare time. About 600 participants used the premiums at the Seven Luck Casino in three month period already.
Further enhancements planned for PLUS SEOUL in 2020 will include greater promotion of the city’s unique venues for one-of-a-kind team building activities, as well as additional customized experienced programs, among others.
“Our goal for year 2020 is to continue to promote our current strengths and further develop and support specialized local programs that meet the needs of global trends” said Don Byun, Executive Director of the Seoul Tourism Organization’s Seoul Convention Bureau division.
Seoul currently ranks in third place worldwide for the number of meetings hosted the previous year, according to the latest UIA International Meetings Statistics Report – a position it has now held four years’ running. In November 2019, Seoul was named ‘Best MICE City’ by readers of US magazine Global Traveler for the fifth year in a row.
Upcoming Events in 2020 Utilizing PLUS SEOUL
Date | Conference Name | Host Organization | Venue | No of Participants |
25-27 Apr 2020 | 25th CardioVascular Summit | CardioVascular Research Foundation | Coex | 2,900 |
11-15 May 2020 | 15th International Congress of the International Radiation Protection Association | The Korean Association for Radiation Protection | Coex | 2,500 |
23-29 May 2020 | The 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering | Korean Institute of Information Scientists and Engineers | Seoul Dragon City | 1,500 |
24-28 | 24th International Congress of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine | Korean Society of Clinical Chemistry | Coex | 5,500 |
8-12 | 20th World Congress on Nondestructive Testing | The Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing | Coex | 3,000 |
22-25 | 2020 Global Marketing Conference Seoul | Korean Scholars of Marketing Science | Coex | 1,800 |
13-17 | 18th Urological Association of Asia Congress | The Korean Urological Association | Coex | 1,700 |
More information about PLUS SEOUL is available at www.miceseoul.com.