Conference organizers now face new regulations when organizing events in China. As China’s MICE industry flourish, more event organizers started to bring their conferences to this vast market. As a result, all kinds of ‘international’ events sprung up overnight in China, without any checks and evaluation of relevance, necessity and quality.

Hence, the Chinese Government has implemented the new National Guidelines for conference organizing, aimed at eradicating trivial meetings and emphasizing proper budget management. Here are the key points of the Guidelines:

•Words such as “summit” or “international seminar” cannot be used without prior approval;

•Bids to hold international conferences must be approved by the relevant authorities, and events lacking substantial content will not be permitted;

•International conferences requiring government funds should get approval from relevant financial departments ahead of time, and these funds should be included in the budget management process;

•All government departments, including local governments, are required to cap expenditure for hosting international conferences;

•The scale of international conferences would be restricted, hence prudence must be exercised for events with more than 100 participants, or the organizer’s application would face possible rejection;

•The presumption that conferences with more participants are more important is wrong and should be corrected;

•Local governments and departments should restrict the number of international conferences inviting Party or State leaders, and should not promise participants the presence of Chinese leaders.

While the above rules will mean more red-tape and longer procedures to get any conference up and running in China, one has to understand the state of affairs in China and see this as a means to clear the black-sheep in the industry. Red tape may also be redefined and be seen as an opportunity to provide organizers with a system to achieve clarity and transparency.

Some of effective ways to maneuver through these rules are:

•Show respect for culture differences and protocol;

•Understand the host country’s prerogative and priority towards the attendance of senior government officials;

•Balance between Insistence and compromise;

•Maintain effective communication among all parties;

•Exercise patience and keep balance between hosts;

•Insist on security on site, especially when senior officials are involved;

•Extend flexibility and be ready for short notice and last minute changes.

The above pointers were summarised from a presentation by Ms Kate Chang, Regional Director, PATA China, at the IT&CM China 2011 seminar.