Luxurique’s Naomi Mano Moderates MICE Conference

Luxurique President and CEO Naomi Mano moderated a hybrid conference and panel discussion on the future of Japan in the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) market on 4 August.

Organised by the Japan Mice Association, the Meeting & Incentive Business Travel Conference 2020 brought together a panel of four industry experts in Tokyo and keynote speaker Dr Mario Hardy, CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, who attended virtually from Bangkok.

Panellists Billy Kurosawa, president of JTB Global Marketing, Hiroaki Fujii, head of DMO Marunouchi and DMO Daimaruyu, Makiko Yamamoto, honorary chair of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Japan Chapter, and Takashi Oe of Keio University’s Media Design Institute, discussed the challenges and potential of Japan as a destination for business events.

In his keynote address, Dr Hardy highlighted the opportunities for Japan in the business travel sector and shared his thoughts on the future of holding MICE events in a pandemic environment.

“The day was a wonderful chance to share ideas on how to leverage Japan’s strengths to make it a destination of choice for safe, enriching and rewarding events and business travel,” says Mano, who is also chair of the Japan Mice Association.

The conference, which was held in collaboration with Keio University, was attended by more than 130 people through Zoom.