In the scramble to launch accreditation programs, Incentive Conference and Event Society Asia Pacific (ICESAP) has announced it will throw its hat in the ring.

ICESAP president Nigel Gaunt will launch the new Agency Accreditation Program at the upcoming conference in Singapore from November 30 to December 2.

Gaunt said, “Accreditation is vital for the MICE sector if it is to grow and prosper in the modern commercial environment.

“Corporate governance and purchasing protocols require companies to only deal with professional intermediaries and end supply partners. MICE agencies that fail to adopt a formally recognised agency accreditation regime will only have themselves to blame if they lose important corporate customers to accredited companies or they prefer to buy directly from the end suppliers.

“We need to work together to ensure there is a simple single accreditation scheme across Asia Pacific. MICE is a cross-border business and can’t afford a myriad of schemes across different markets or different industry disciplines.

“ICESAP worked through APEC over an 18-month period to arrive at a single set of criteria for all intermediary agencies.

“In addition, APEC insisted the accreditation program does not disadvantage small to medium enterprises and our efforts were rewarded when ICESAP gained the APEC Tourism Working Group’s buy-in to the ICESAP scheme for a pan Asia Pacific roll-out in 2017,” he said.