Smart MICE
The Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) is accelerating the project of “Smart MICE,” which will play a pivotal role in the development of the MICE industry in Incheon.
At a briefing session for creating the Smart MICE held at a conference room on the 27th floor in G-Tower on Apr. 11, the IFEZ said that it has shared and checked the project plans with Incheon Information Technology Industry Promotion Agency and Incheon Tourism Organization.
According to the IFEZ, the Smart MICE creation project was selected as the special project for regional development by Presidential Committee on Balanced National Development in order to promote the job creation oriented service industry. It is to integrate Songdo Convensia with related businesses in neighboring areas by using information and communications technology (ICT).
The project aims to construct the Smart MICE integrated web portal for information about various events, transport and accommodation, build the Smart MICE platform to reserve, lease, support and attract events, establish the Smart MICE data base to collect information of event hosting organizations, create a center to experience virtual reality content related to the promotion of Smart MICE, and to form a medium and long-term strategy for Smart MICE. The first part of the project will be completed at the end of Aug. this year.
The total project will end in 2018. As a national project supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the basic plans for the project was established last year and went through the investigation process by the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs and the safety examination by Incheon City. As a result, an iCraft-led consortium was selected as the final choice to carry out the project last month.
The IFEZ expects that the project will help provide information about MICE, such as Smart MICE business convention centers and accommodation and tourism, offering differentiated services from other convention centers and improve the convenience of users. Also, it will allow users to easily find restaurants, stores and lodgings around Songdo Convensia.
In addition, it can provide information about job offering via the Smart MICE web portal, matching hosts of events which take place at Songdo Convensia to workers in the regional MICE industry.
Park Sang-shin, head of the Planning and Coordination Division at the IFEZ who presided the meeting on the day, said, “Recently, 6,000 employees at the Assurance Group in China visited Incheon and vitalized the regional economy. It shows how important the MICE industry is. The Smart MICE creation project will greatly help Incheon become the most innovative city in the MICE industry.”
An official from the IFEZ said, “We will make every effort to successfully complete the Smart MICE project by forming an advisory committee consisted of relevant agencies in the Public Private sector and gathering opinions of experts in the MICE, tourism and IT sectors in the future.”