It is a great sign that a long term plan for tourism will be crafted in order to create a strategic positioning for our country.

However, I must say that one thing a plan cannot do is to make it a reality. A plan is a piece of paper and sooner that plan is finished and is put into ACTION the better.

Action that is judiciously crafted is better than a haphazard action that is only meant for PAPOGI like the now famous case of “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” branding.

Action after a well thought our plan is the solution to our ailing problems in the tourism and MICE industry.

Action coming from experts not as what Cito Beltran’s article today a bunch of Student Council leaders running a National Government.

I picked this up from a tweet and hopefully this is true for our tourism industry. The press release was from the Department of Tourism

Interestingly, this is a true story and it shows that if a man accumulates a lot of positive memories in his/her mind and heart he/she can survive any obstacles or difficulties he/she may be in, even if it is a life and death situation.

This gets me thinking, in events management an organizer as a company will survive any challenges, even if it is a life and death situation, if it has successfully provided good memories (profitable included) to all of its clients and partners.

If this is the case, the challenge and the process continues to everyday develop a relationship and create memories that will outlast any competition, most especially when the going gets tough in this very competitive industry of events management.

Asia is all about relationships.


We do business but first we have to know the person we are dealing with. After this, it is the only time we start doing business with his company. There are some business deals in Asia that are made by handshakes. No contracts are needed to create a million pesos or dollar deals, Trust is the only thing needed to seal it.

I remember a story told that one of our tycoons who owns a bank was approached by his manager, the manager told him that one client wanted to borrow money but when he analyzed it the client has no capacity to pay.

But to the manager’s surprised, the tycoon said lend him money he have the capacity to return it and pay us.

The manager just scratched his head because the tools available like risk analysis and other technical analysis points otherwise. But since the tycoon is his boss he approved that the client be lent a huge sum of money. True enough it was paid by the client.

Trust is like an oil that seamlessly allow relationships and business to move in a blur. We all need to develop trustworthiness in order for us to survive this very complex world.

The same applies in event management in the Philippines, Trust can make or break an event!

P.S.

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How much innovation and cohesion can we generate from Ba? The answer is limitless and all my colleagues in this special seminar that we are undertaking are nodding. All of them I think will be bringing back and introducing innovations centered around Ba.

In the project management class that I am attending here in Tokyo one hot topic is communication management . Every attendee expressed the difficulties in managing communication.


Our lecturer, Taeko Inoue of Sony, mentioned that in their company the more difficult because Japanese Culture tends to use ambiguous words. For them, a simple word can have deeper meaning. This makes communication more challenging.

A lot of ways to improve communication have been discussed. What is interesting is the topic of High Context and Low Context Communication. In high context, every message implies deeper meaning. This communication is depicts Japan . In the Philippines, we are in the middle of High Context and Low Context Communication. This is mainly because of our Western influence.

How do you manage cost in events management. Most particularly, how do you manage cost in events management in the Philippines?


I say this because in a bidding process clients sometimes wanted the lowest price but demand the highest quality. After you win a bid and determine the scope of work, the client in the actual event demands more things outside the scope of work.

Cost management is a big issue in events management one that can spell the difference between the event manager’s organization’s life and death.

My eyes are glued to Tanaka San our lecturer here in Japan as he expound and hammered the need for value creation as the ultimate goal of projects and programmes. After his explanation he asked us to think for ourselves if what we are doing have values created.


He said that all projects and programs must have value creation otherwise it is useless and it is not a project or a program.

When I was left for myself it got me thinking what are the values created by event management? I arrived on the following conclusion, event management in the Philippines create the values like Knowledge Values because of the partnership and new products and ideas presented to clients and visitors alike on an event.

Two other values that it gives are Value for Shareholders and Value for Society. Events benefit the shareholders like the event organizer, local government, venues, exhibitors, participants, and country because of the events inherent power to gather and provide a platform for exchange of ideas and networks al l shareholders either gain knowledge and income out of events.

However, observing the landscape in our country there are events that don’t provide values or no discerning values created.

If this is the case we must first determine our discerning values before we create or realize an event. This will help us avoid the common mistake of creating events for the sake of creating and profit.