Curtin Malaysia supporting business events industry in Miri and Sarawak

Miri – 13 May 2022 – Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) is committed to supporting the fast-growing business events industry in Sarawak by taking an active role in promoting and stimulating growth of the industry and leveraging the university’s strengths in tourism and hospitality related studies to help develop expertise in the field.

Curtin Malaysia offers a three-year Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and Tourism and Hospitality which prepares students for careers in areas such as tourism development, event management, and hotel and resort management. Many of its alumni are now employed by leading tourism, event and hospitality organisations in Malaysia and overseas, and some of the more enterprising ones have established their own related businesses.

Another testimony of this support is the involvement of academics and researchers from its Faculty of Business and School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPACE) in business events bodies at city and state level.

They include two of the five sub-committee chairs of the Miri Business Events Committee (MBEC) formed in March this year. Director of SPACE Dr. Fidella Tiew Nga Huong has been appointed chair of the Capacity Building & Human Capital sub-committee while Dean of the Faculty of Business Prof. Andreas Zins is head of the Business Development sub-committee.

The other sub-committees are for Stakeholder Development, Product Development, and Destination Marketing & Communications. The sub-committees were formed to implement strategy and tactical planning in the five key areas, with each chaired and co-chaired by subject matter experts.

According to Prof. Zins, each sub-committee will look into their areas of expertise to develop the business events industry in Miri and collaborating with Business Events Sarawak (BESarawak), government agencies, local councils and industry players to promote the city as a preferred business events destination.

Prof. Zins also highlighted the fact that Curtin Malaysia and BESarawak jointly established the International Journal of Business Events and Legacies (IJBEL) in collaboration with Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Sarawak and the Sarawak Research Society recently.

The online journal, the first to merge business events and legacy topics, was launched by Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Dato Sri Haji Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah at Curtin Malaysia on 16 March 2022. It is designed as a platform for industry students, academics, researchers, practitioners and policymakers to understand the relationship between hosting business events and correlating activities such as management, economics and entrepreneurship among many other disciplines.

Prof. Zins, who has considerable experience in managing international journals, is editor-in-chief of IJBEL. In addition to him, staff of the Faculty of Business contribute as managing editors, editorial secretariat staff, and editorial assistants and reviewers. A number of Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students are also involved as graduate research assistants, as are experts at the Curtin Perth campus as advisory board members and associate editors.

In addition to providing multidisciplinary perspectives, industry-relevant knowledge and high-quality publications about Sarawak’s business events and legacies, IJBEL also administers an event series called ‘IJBEL Studio’, the first instalment of which was launched at Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus (Swinburne Sarawak) in Kuching recently.

Prof. Zins, who moderated the session, thanked Swinburne Sarawak for hosting the first IJBEL Studio, describing it as a significant milestone in initiating dialogue and triggering issues about destination marketing between academics and industry practitioners.

Among the studio’s distinguished speakers were Audry Wan Ullok, President of the Sarawak Tourism Federation; Noor Ahmad Hamid, Chief Operating Officer of the Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau, and Dr. Jeffrey Jee Teck Weng, Director of the Business and Social Innovation Centre at Swinburne Sarawak.

The IJBEL Studio series aims to present IJBEL in a studio setting and welcomes anyone interested or is actively involved in business events who would like to learn more about related issues such as marketing, tourism development, management, economics, entrepreneurship, hospitality and legacies, among others. In addition, the series provides participants with comprehensive guidelines for writing and submitting camera-ready papers to IJBEL for publication.

Contributions of research papers from the industry are highly valued as they highlight the current situation of the market. IJBEL publishes major papers, reports and reviews providing high-quality content that advances knowledge for researchers, practitioners, consumers and policymakers. The journal can be accessed at https://ijbel.businesseventssarawak.com/ and enquiries can be directed to Managing Editor Dr. Tiong Ying Ying at tiongyingying@curtin.edu.my or Editorial Secretary Dr. Fayrene Chieng at fayrene.chieng@curtin.edu.my.

For more information on Curtin Malaysia, visit its website at https://curtin.edu.my or look for Curtin Malaysia on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn or Tiktok. More information on courses at Curtin Malaysia can be found at https://courses.curtin.edu.my/.

Group photo of sub-committee members following MBEC meeting at Meritz Hotel Miri.

Participants of the inaugural IJBEL Studio at Swinburne Sarawak.