It was great to be invited for the virtual launch of "Meet Differently" campaign

I thank our friends at Place Borneo especially Gracie Geikie and Mona Manap for inviting me for the virtual launch of their "Meet Differently" campaign which was attended by local media members as well as those from the tourism industry. 

I also congratulate the team at Place Borneo for creating this exciting campaign and the great video they have produced on meeting differently as well as creating unique events. In my brief speech, it was mentioned for all of us to regulate the nature, format and size of an event for everyone’s safety and peace of mind, in this ‘post-COVID’ world that we live in. Hence, I agree with the need to ‘Meet Differently’.

It was noted that more and more events have adopted virtual platforms in the last year, and the importance of having digital events which have the potential of propelling us forward. Possibly, the organizing of hybrid events which is essentially a combination of both virtual and physical, can be done locally but can have far reaching impacts even at overseas. This initiative will comply to the strict SOPs but it still gives the best of both worlds and attendees from all over the world can have a choice to attend physically or virtually.

Briefly, I had also shared a snapshot of Sarawak’s 2020 performance figures whereby we secured an estimated total economic impact of RM293.27 million and expected direct delegate expenditure of RM159.38 million from 80 secured events to take place from now until 2026. 

From these figures, RM17.59 million of the total tax revenue is expected to generate at least 23,276 job placements for Sarawakians in the years that the respective events are to be held.