Conference destination in asia

[djjk78]

I’m in an Australian startup and have been tasked with the role of sourcing a suitable destination in Asia for a company meetup.

Team is 5 in aust, 10 in India, 5 in Europe and 2 in aftica.

Goal is affordable but still somewhere we can all meetup outside of our home country. Will all be flying economy of course! It’s less of a conference, more of a meetup but some work/planning will be done.

Any suggestions please?

I came up with Sri Lanka, Bangkok area, Langkawi or somewhere nice and accessible from kota Kinabalu.

Ideally a direct flight for most people

Thanks brains trust!

 

[Daver6]

Singapore is the obvious option apart from the affordable part.

Bangkok could be good as a direct flight for most and affordable. Bali could be another option but you're possibly getting into a one stop flight now for Europeans (depending where they are) and the Africans.

The company I work for tend to use Dubai and Singapore when the EMEA and APJ team need to get together due to the ease of direct flights. Obviously that is trumping costs for us.

 

[djjk78]

Thx, while I think we’d love Dubai or emirates region, I think the costs once in a place like Singapore or Dubai would probably offset any flight savings and time across a team of 30 people. Hence why I’m kind of targetting somewhere slightly cheaper.

Tokyo, KL, Bangkok might meet the brief. Agree Bali would be great but it’s not overly different for us Aussies. I for one have been there 10 times and love it and most of our team have visited extensively too. As we are looking for Q1 2024 Tokyo could purely meet my selfish needs to go snowboarding for a few days too haha

 

[yachty]

Unless you're planning to stash everyone in an APA or similar tiny business hotel, Tokyo will be more of a shock than Singapore for hotel costs.

I reckon KL or Bangkok, both affordable with great air connectivity.

 

[leadman]

I'm the Chair of two international conferences that are held biennially in the Asian region. The largest one with 1,000 pax started in 1986, the other in 2009. Our next one is in 2025 and will be held in Kota Kinabalu; the last 2023 was in Siem Reap. The delegates were just blown away with REP, and it was an amazing place. Each year, we scan through Asia for venues, and it gets harder every event. Ho Chi Minh was going to be a possibility for the next one until the costs came in. It was eye-watering and on par with Singapore. We have done BKK x 4, KUL, DPS x 3, Macau, Shanghai, Hyderbad, etc, etc,

Depending on the number of pax, check REP. The Sofitel there was amazing and we picked it up for less than $200/n

 

[djjk78]

I'm the Chair of two international conferences that are held biennially in the Asian region. The largest one with 1,000 pax started in 1986, the other in 2009. Our next one is in 2025 and will be held in Kota Kinabalu; the last 2023 was in Siem Reap. The delegates were just blown away with REP, and it was an amazing place. Each year, we scan through Asia for venues, and it gets harder every event. Ho Chi Minh was going to be a possibility for the next one until the costs came in. It was eye-watering and on par with Singapore. We have done BKK x 4, KUL, DPS x 3, Macau, Shanghai, Hyderbad, etc, etc,

Depending on the number of pax, check REP. The Sofitel there was amazing and we picked it up for less than $200/n

Awesome tip, thanks so much. I had not considered Siem Riep. That would be a real cultural trip as well as being affordable overall. Obviously most of our staff would need a few flights to get there but internally within SE Asia shouldn’t be too expensive.

HCMC is affordable to access on flights but the crowded nature might go against what we are trying to achieve with a quiter meetup (similar to Bangkok of course) and it sounds like hotels are pricey nowadays.

 

[leadman]

I had more feedback about REP than all the other conferences put together. The majority of pax had been to the bigger Asian cities and never considered Cambodia. It was a bit of a risk to do a large event there, but it's created its own problem now in that delegates want to go "off track" now. One reason why we are in KK next time.

 

[MJ_/\_]

Unless you're planning to stash everyone in an APA or similar tiny business hotel, Tokyo will be more of a shock than Singapore for hotel costs.

If you want Japan, you could look at Yokohama, close to Haneda airport / Tokyo, but a lot cheaper... not as cheap as Bangkok, KL etc. but better than Tokyo at least!

 

[djjk78]

Update. Siem looks good. Easy and affordable flights from Aus and India.

Long and painful flights from Lagos and Almaty but that’s going to be the case for anywhere in Asia.

I think I’ve found our destination. Thanks all

 

[craven morehead]

Bangkok or Hua Hin

 

[SCM]

Book a resort in coughet or KL.

 

[dajop]

For the African and Indian attendees you might also need to account for the ease or difficulty of getting a visa in selecting the final country. In the past that tended to tilt things in favour of Thailand, but visa situations are always evolving.

 

[kgreenuq]

Have you considered Bali?

 

[djjk78]

Have you considered Bali?

I have, but assuming as there’s 5 Aussies if they are anything like me they’ve been a dozen times so wanted to consider somewhere different! Will add it as an option

 

[SeatBackForward]

For the African and Indian attendees you might also need to account for the ease or difficulty of getting a visa in selecting the final country. In the past that tended to tilt things in favour of Thailand, but visa situations are always evolving.

A lot of the conferences I attend offer to provide an "invitation" letter to prospective attendees to help with any Visa Application. But I agree, it's worth considering what, if any, Visa restrictions delegates may face.

 

[Wanderlust_tim]

It'd be a long way for the Australians, but it's likely that everywhere else would have direct flights to Istanbul.