Is it easy to deal with MICE?
As you may recall, last autumn I wrote about MICE, which stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions/Events (not only for the little grey creatures :). I discussed this topic with a number of people and they gave me some ideas for a new article.
Today such concepts as "business tourism", "meetings industry", "incentive-tourism" become more and more popular and put strong demands on any company dealing with MICE industry. A positive development has been the continuing growth of business travels.
Among the conditions for successful development of business tourism and MICE, a lot depends on the hotel infrastructure, providing good services for high-quality events. Convenient conference-halls, equipment, business-centers, task-oriented and comprehensive training of the specialists, understanding specifics and nuances of business tourism, good image and reputation are all prerequisites that predetermine perception of MICE-oriented businesses by the business traveler. 
Special events such as conferences, presentations, seminars, product launches are complicated events with thousands of details, and have to come off without a hitch. The success of a special event planned and conducted with flair and without unexpected surprises can - in its turn - bring great success to your business or initiative.
Every aspect of organizing and managing a special event, such as how to choose the best venue; preparing and managing the budget; scheduling; coordinating food and beverages; selecting decor, themes, and entertainment; media; and staffing, should be well thought out way in advance. All the above is included in the process called event management.
Event management is a full compendium of different actions taken when organizing and handling a mass event, whether it is a corporate or a personal-social occasion. The main objective of an event manager is to make a simple event into a great occasion that will be remembered by everyone long after it is completed. So, if you want to organize a special event - corporate or family, here are some hints for you.

What to start from.
There might be various reasons to organize a special event. Depending on goals and character of an event, ranging from contests, seminars, trainings, fund-raisers, meetings, round-tables, anniversaries, ceremonies, awards, presentations, openings, sports events, musical events, concerts, mass holidays.
Management of the simplest and smallest event demands significant effort and expense. First of all, you should clearly picture the event: its goals, tasks, objectives and the desired public feedback effect. After having answers for all the above questions, you can start the event management. Here are some key issues to think over:
1. Budget. First of all you need some understanding about prices and costs, plus what you can afford.
2. Timeline. It is not less important than making a budget to clearly know the date of your event, and the time you have to get ready.
3. Personnel. How many people will you need to organize your event? Who will be responsible for different preparation stages such as invitations, materials, equipment, making deals with suppliers, showmen, etc. And don't forget to appoint someone to deal with the media.
4. Communication and attraction of public attention. Always remember, that one of the goals of an event manager - is to get the desired disseminations and public awareness. Therefore, when planning an event, you should think who, how and what way you want it to be carried on.
5. Do it yourself or out-source? It is up to you, but as I wrote earlier, it is very time and effort consuming job. Most of the experienced business people prefer to hire professionals. In this case it is important to find the agency that offers "turnkey" service, taking care of all the aspects involved in guaranteeing perfect operational and organizational success - management of accommodation and transfers, logistics, catering, conference organization, visits and pre-and post-event excursions. Last time I had difficulties with that, but I hope very soon the MICE market in Uzbekistan will be larger and more sophisticated. Special events are complicated and require professional attention that most companies are not able to organize without assistance. If you are not familiar with planning and organizing a special event, it is probably best to get help.
Since my last article about organizing conferences, I found two companies that actually work in MICE industry in Uzbekistan: Mercury Service and ITE Uzbekistan. Mercury Service offers you various “turnkey” solutions for any corporate or family event (meetings, conferences, seminars, business forums, official visits, celebrations, weddings, family holidays, etc.), while ITE Uzbekistan is a world leader in organization of various exhibitions, along with all kinds of meetings, seminars, business forums, conferences, round tables associated with exhibitions.

BLITZ-INTERVIEW WITH NODIR RASULEV, DEPUTY GENERAL DIRECTOR, MERCURY SERVICE:

- Why it is difficult to find information about your company in the Internet or media? I heard about you by chance from people.

- I should admit that unfortunately we do not have our own website and information on the web yet, but we are working on having our own website very soon. We do make some advertisement, so hopefully in 2008 you will hear more about us. From the other hand, we collaborate with many International and local organizations, diplomatic missions, and have too many projects. For instance, in 2007, we organized over 200 events including corporate meetings, presentations, diplomatic visits, conferences, etc. And each event includes all kinds of services, such as sending invitations, making three variations of budgets and scripts, accommodation, catering, and many others.

 - Well, that means there is room for expanding. How long does it take to organize a large special event, let's say a conference?

- It depends on an event program; in each case it is different. We start from offering a client various programs, and the client chooses the right one. Then we work on the budget with various choices. Just as an example: we organized the program for Austrian Companies Economic and Trade Mission initiated by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. There were representatives of 48 Austrian companies visiting Uzbekistan in March 2007, and we worked on setting up around 600 meetings for them with Uzbek business people, along with organization of a conference for 500 participants, dinners, show and travel programs. The whole preparation procedure took us about three months of intensive work

BLITZ-INTERVIEW WITH GULNOZA SHAKHMARDANOVA, SENIOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, ITE UZBEKISTAN:

- If a company or an organization wants to be known in Uzbek (or any) market, what is the most effective action to take?

- The most effective event for advertisement purposes is participation in a specialized exhibition and have a conference/seminar/presentation organized in the frame of such exhibition.
Exhibition is a very large and effective event gathering lots of people (local and foreign businessmen) simultaneously in one place. Only this way a company just within 3 days will get the results that can be achieved during full 6 months. 

- Where interested people can get more information about your company activities?

- We have a website: www.ite-uzbekistan.uz for our activities in Uzbekistan and www.ite-exhibitions.com for our activities worldwide.  We will be glad to see the readers of Business Connections among our clients.

And I personally want to wish you good luck and great success for any initiative you are going to start.

Always yours,  Nargiza.

(If you need any additional information on this topic, please, do not hesitate to contact me on my  e-mail:  seaf.uz@gmail.com).