MCI Group Lands in Lisbon and Hangzhou
WIDENING ITS MARKET IN ASIA AND EUROPE
Geneva, 19 March 2019. MCI Group, the global leader in meetings, events, congresses, association management and strategic consulting, is pleased to announce the launch of two new offices, MCI Hangzhou and MCI Portugal.
MCI Hangzhou follows a joint venture partnership with two state-owned enterprises: Hangzhou Tourism Investment Co., Ltd and Hangzhou Zhonghe Investment Co., Ltd. While, MCI Portugal strengthens MCI Group’s presence in Europe with a synergy between the Spanish offices of Barcelona, Madrid and now Lisbon.
With these two new offices, MCI Group will further strengthen its unique presence in two extremely prominent MICE destinations.
MCI Hangzhou plans to build a team of 8-10 staff in the early growth phase. The office will leverage its shareholders’ network and insights of provincial and local political, economic, and social know-how, whereas their financial investment is expected to establish a locally-based team of professionals that aspires to be a key player of the strategic development of MICE in Hangzhou city.
With MCI China as majority shareholder, the new office will curate and create content for the company’s partners’ integrated space projects “Urban Constellation” and “Qianjiang Century Park” to enhance their visibility and engagement with their audiences.
Hangzhou, famous for the UNESCO World Heritage sites of West Lake and Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, is the capital of Zhejiang Province in east China. As the host city of 2016 G20 Summit, Hangzhou demonstrated its ability to host large international conferences and conventions and has been awarded the 2022 Asian Games. It is home to the e-commerce giantAlibaba, and a hotbed for internet and tech startup communities. ICCA ranked Hangzhou second to Beijing and Shanghai between 2011 and 2015 and among the global Top 100 in 2015.
Oscar Cerezales, Chief Operating Officer - Asia Pacific, MCI Group, indicates that “the new Hangzhou office is a strategic move for all partners to innovate value creation by taking on an in-depth and collaborative end-to-end approach towards for all’s stakeholders.” Additionally, Frankie Gao, Managing Director, MCI China, shares, “this joint venture is MCI China’s strategic development into second-tier cities by collaborating with domestic enterprises to engage local communities in co-creating platform and IP content.”
Florence Chua, new Managing Director of MCI Hangzhou comments, “this joint venture realises a strategic partnership that is committed to attracting, developing and delivering high quality experiences for international meetings, incentives, and conferences coming to the city. Moreover, it will support the international activation of Chinese brands and companies based in the region. And no least, to engage and grow the communities around our partners’ landmark property projects.”
The strong interest to extend MCI Group’s services into the Iberian region is due to the growing number of new and existing clients who want to explore new business opportunities with an established event organiser. And in 2018, ICCA ranked Portugal among the top ten cities in the world. Thus, this expansion is a step in the right direction to explore business within in thenational market.
Sandrine Castres, General Director of MCI in Spain and Portugal comments "Our arrival in Portugal began with the presence of one of our business lines as DMC (Destination Management Company), therefore, once we acquired the experience and having known the Portuguese market with a consolidated team, we expanded our portfolio of services as MCI Portugal. This is part of our expansion strategy in southern Europe and is a natural step in the Iberian Peninsula due to the growing demand from our international and Iberian customers who require more combined services both in Portugal and in Spain.”
With the addition of these two new offices, MCI Group’s global presence grows to 60 offices in 31 countries.
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For more information on MCI Hangzhou, please contact
Florence Chua
Managing Director
MCI Hangzhou
florence.chua@mci-group.com
Tel number +86 (571) 2887 8817
For more information on MCI Portugal, please contact
Sandrine Castres
Managing Director
MCI Portugal
sandrine.castres@mci-group.com
Tel number +351 21 053 7240
ABOUT MCI
MCI is the global leader in engaging and activating audiences. Our business is founded on a simple human insight: When people come together, magic happens. This magic is called community. Since 1987 we have been bringing people together through inspiring meetings, events, congresses and association management. MCI helps organizations harness the power of community by applying our strategic engagement and activation solutions to build unforgettable online and offline experiences that foster change, inspire, educate and enhance business performance. MCI is an independently owned company with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and a global presence. Our +2,300 professionals in 60 offices and 31 countries work with clients across Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, India, the Middle East and Africa. Find out more at www.mci-group.com.
ABOUT HANGZHOU TOURISM INVESTMENT CO., LTD
Hangzhou Tourism Investment Co., Ltd is the investment company responsible for the property development and management of the Urban Constellation. The Urban Constellation is a restoration of a cluster of Hangzhou’s heritage-protected industrial factory buildings. Featuring museums, shopping, entertainment, hotel etc. it is positioned as an integrated cultural tourism space slated for full completion by 2021.
ABOUT HANGZHOU ZHONGHE INVESTMENT CO., LTD
Hangzhou ZHONGHE Investment Co., Ltd is an investment and management company responsible for the Qianjiang Century Park located adjacent to the Olympic Sports Center and next to the Hangzhou International Expo Center that is the main venue of the 2016 G20 Hangzhou Summit. It will also play a critical role in the master development plan of the 2022 Asian Games. The integrated space includes entertainment, restaurants, hotel, open green space, office buildings etc.