GGRAsia – MBS offers virtual meeting place using its resort settings

MBS offers virtual meeting place using its resort settings

Oct 18, 2021 Newsdesk Industry Talk, Latest News, Singapore, Top of the deck

The promoter of Singapore casino resort Marina Bay Sands (MBS) said in a press release it had launched what it terms a “virtual meeting place” (pictured in a digital image) that can be used in conjunction with in-person events.

The future of meetings in a world where Covid-19 will be “endemic,” rather than as at present a pandemic, will involve offering event delegates “a seamless experience transitioning between physical and virtual events as well as providing on-demand content akin to that of online streaming entertainment platforms,” said Ong Wee Min, vice president of conventions and exhibitions for Marina Bay Sands Pte Ltd, as cited in a Thursday announcement.

The company says the Marina Bay Sands virtual meeting platform is designed to meet three key needs of the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) sector: networking; content delivery; and global buying and selling of goods and services.

Settings for so-called “breakout” meetings during virtual events can be customised to represent different parts of the real-life property, such as its ArtScience Museum, and Sands SkyPark Observation Deck.

The platform is divided into three main parts. They are: the “plenary” area, with virtual exhibition space modelled after the ballroom at Marina Bay Sands’ MICE facility, Sands Expo and Convention Centre; the “library”, offered as part of the property’s “hybrid broadcast studio”, which launched in the summer last year; and virtual “breakout rooms” enabling attendees to form one-on-one and group meetings.

Marina Bay Sands says three organisations in Singapore were involved in helping to develop the platform.

They are: Pico Art International Pte Ltd, the Singapore arm of an global branding agency; Singapore-based GEVME, a provider of platforms for online meetings; and Sixtrees Viz Comms Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based animation studio with services including interactive elements for online meetings.

The parent of Marina Bay Sands is United States-based Las Vegas Sands Corp, which is also the parent of Macau casino operator Sands China Ltd.