Identity crisis?
Is the meetings industry having an identity crisis? It seems hard to believe, given the billions of C&I dollars changing hands each year. And yet, as AMI magazine has put it, garbage disposal operatives are better known than meetings professionals. Why the low profile? Many of those interviewed by AMI blamed the widespread use of the acronym "MICE" for the industry's under-the-radar status.
Any first-year business student knows that a strong, memorable logo is the bedrock of brand recognition, and in that sense, MICE doesn't cut it. More scurrilous and sly than evocative, the MICE label seems a long way from the sort of image the meetings business needs to gain the recognition it deserves.
It is interesting that the acronym seems to be used more doggedly in the southern hemisphere. The director of the MICE Club in South Africa, Helen Brewer, says it is no coincidence that many Australasian practitioners use the term "wherever possible ''. Whether MICE or meetings industry or business tourism, I would suggest we try to live together with all our varying definitions and avoid decrying the one in favour of another merely for cheap publicity purposes, she says.
Yet coming up with a title that is unified and comprehensible outside the industry is a practical step rather than an ideological one, with the benefits far outweighing the inconvenience of changing letterheads and business cards.
As the president of Vancouver's Criterion Communications, Rod Cameron, puts it, This isn't about finding the perfect name, but rather trying to create a higher profile for the industry and what it does. Whatever name you pick, the adoption of a single, consistent and recognisable industry designation goes a long way toward helping achieve that larger objective, and the longer we fail to rally around one, for whatever reason, the longer we remain obscure as an industry."
CIM opts for C&I as an alternative industry descriptor, holding to the idea that it is better for our industry to sound less like a pesky rodent and more like the global powerhouse that we are. Any more bids?
posted by CIM Magazine @ 12/07/2006 01:00:00 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
MICE has always been a dodgy name for what can be a noble, enabling profession. Surely something better than be thought up? Suggestions from Scabble fanatics would be appreciated.
Quite apart from anything else the MICE acronym is innacurate and contains a tortology 'just to make it work'! The industries represented are, as far as I am aware, Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions and Special Events. To be precise at the very least it should be MICES but when the tortology (Meetings, Conferences, more or less the same, just the size that makes the difference) is removed we have either ICES or MIES, neither of which really has the power of a brand name.
I also dispute that there is one industry! Each of the industries represented (except Meetings and Conferences and even here there are some differences, usually one being corporate the other public or association) requires a very different knowledge base and skills.
The MICE acronym was first coined in the Philippines, I believe, and has spread to Asia in particular and Australia too though, not to New Zealand which refers to all things MICE as C&I. Australia is now moving to 'Business Events' to distance itself from the dreaded MICE which I think it better but still infers a substantial degree of similarity between the various disciplines.
MICE is used extensively by suppliers in order to overcome the need to have individual members of staff skilled in one or other of the disciplines covered. This 'dumbing down' usually shows itself in inexperienced salespeople and a lack of appropriate skills when dealing with clients.
If we must look for a brand name then 'Business Events' has my vote (only because I don't have time to think of another at the moment). But why do we need a brand name anyway? Each of the industries involved has been developing nicely without the need of a public persona up to now.
Let's kill off MICE once and for all!
Yes it is a term used practically ubiquitously in Asia, and considered a mark of pride by many of those who have MICE Manager or Travel Services MICE on their business cards.
As we continue to work in a globalised environment, there will be regions or countries which would want to stick to what works for them (eg Asia loves MICE). Other countries/regions who do not like the same term should not denigrate those who are proud to wear what works for them, even though they may have to work in an environment which does not use the term (eg Asian companies operating in Australia).
The problem appears to be that members within the same industry/(ies?) in Australia are constantly unable to unanimously decide on what term to use. Probably once a common term has been decided and agreed upon, thereby fostering some sense of identity and pride, will the debate on whether a rodent acronym or a "proper" acronym is better, be resolved.
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