Peshawar & MICE

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Genuinely Powerful Or Just Obsessed?

    A few years ago, a strange phenomenon began to unfold in Peshawar: while the headlines shrieked about all manner of real or imagined threats to the city, rats started congregating here. Their diversity was breath-taking. Rats from every genetic & social class suddenly materialized in our little town. Initially it was only in the interior & rural areas, which are known to maintain questionable hygiene standards, so nobody gave it much thought; but then, the rats started appearing in suburbia; & they weren’t conventional rats; they broke into places where there wasn’t a scrap of accessible food; they actually hurled themselves against locked doors repeatedly, in a futile & injurious effort to gain entrance! Bad for business…& intriguing enough that people started showing interest in Arbab Asim’s rat policies (until he confessed he was out of public funds & couldn’t pay the “rat commission” he had promised folks).

    Anyway, Peshawarites are smart & adaptable, & so the issue appears to be gradually getting resolved. The creatures’ breeding centers seem to have started shutting down. Even foreigners acknowledge that. Now, it is time to explore what that means for the advancement of the city’s economy.

    In late March, the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) held a prestigious Plastic Surgeons’ Conference, in which several doctors from Western countries (especially the United Kingdom) took part. In early April, the Peshawar Medical College Doctors’ Convention reportedly invited around 3,000 doctors from all over the world (especially the United Kingdom, again). Britishers, especially doctors, aren’t likely to appreciate spending time with rats, right? They, of all people, know what London was like before Londoners figured out how to rid the city of whatever (or whoever) brought the rats.

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What’s “MICE”?

    If Peshawar’s ranking as an acceptable venue for international gatherings is improving, it is time to start exploring the “MICE” industry. If managed properly, this could prove a splendid advantage for the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is expected to bring hundreds of multinationals to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), which means that it would not be a bad idea to start learning how to organize world class gatherings in the Provincial Capital. Given below is a short description of the nature of this unique business sector, courtesy Wikipedia (wikipedia.org):

    Meetings, incentives, conferences, & exhibitions, or Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, & Events (MICE) is a type of tourism in which large groups, usually planned well in advance, are brought together for a particular purpose. Recently, there has been an industry trend towards using the term ‘meetings industry’ to avoid confusion from the acronym. Other industry educators are recommending the use of “events industry” to be an umbrella term for the vast scope of the meeting & events profession.

    Most components of MICE are well understood, perhaps with the exception of incentives. Incentive tourism is usually undertaken as a type of employee reward by a company or institution for targets met or exceeded, or a job well done. Unlike the other types of MICE tourism, incentive tourism is usually conducted purely for entertainment, rather than professional or education purposes. MICE events are usually centered on a theme or topic & are aimed at a professional, academic or trade organization or other special interest group.

    MICE event locations are normally bid on by specialized convention bureaux in particular countries & cities & established for the purpose of bidding on MICE activities. This process of marketing & bidding is normally conducted well in advance of the event, often several years, as securing major events can benefit the local economy of the host city or country. Convention bureaux may offer financial subsidies to attract MICE events to their city.

    MICE tourism is known for its extensive planning & demanding clientèle.

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10 US Companies

    Given below is a (possible) list of the most sought-after MICE companies in the US market, along with a few particulars about each company. It is true that Eastern Hemisphere companies from countries like China, Japan & South Korea are coming up fast, but for the time being, these are likely to be the companies (which specialize in the healthcare, medical & pharmaceutical sectors) to watch if Peshawar actually does succeed in becoming a popular MICE destination (in alphabetical order):

1. Aimia Proprietary Loyalty US Inc. (Founded in 1938 & headquartered in Minneapolis, this company has an employee strength of 4,300 & specializes in the pharmaceutical & high-tech sectors).
2. Altour International Inc. (Founded in 1991 & headquartered in New York, this company has an employee strength of around 1,200 & specializes in the healthcare, medical, financial services & insurance sectors).
3. American Express Meetings & Events (Founded in 1916 & headquartered in New York, this company specializes in the pharmaceutical, computers & electronics sectors; its employee strength is not part of the public record).
4. Ashfield Meetings & Events (Founded in 1976 & headquartered in Ivyland [PA.], this company has an employee strength of 300 & specializes in the healthcare, medical & pharmaceutical sectors).
5. BCD M&I LLC (Founded in 2006 & headquartered in Chicago, this company has an employee strength of 533 & specializes in the pharmaceutical, financial services & insurance sectors).
6. BI WORLDWIDE (Founded in 1950 & headquartered in Edina [Minn.], this company has an employee strength of 1,085 & specializes in the healthcare, medical & telecommunications sectors).
7. Bishop-McCann (Founded in 1997 & headquartered in Kansas City [Mo.], this company has an employee strength of 70 & specializes in the pharmaceutical & telecommunications sectors).
8. Creative Group Inc. (Founded in 1970 & headquartered in Appleton [Wis.], this company has an employee strength of 125 & specializes in the pharmaceutical, financial services & insurance sectors).
9. CWT Meetings & Events (Founded in 1994 & headquartered in Minnetonka [Minn.], this company has an employee strength of 1,600 & specializes in the pharmaceutical, computers & electronics sectors).
10. Enterprise Events Group Inc. (Founded in 1994 & headquartered in San Rafael [Calif.], this company has an employee strength of 112 & specializes in the pharmaceutical, computers & electronics sectors).

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All Dressed Up &…

    As a matter of fact, there are a number of reasons that indicate the feasibility of turning Peshawar into a MICE destination:

1. The CPEC is going to make the most tangible difference to KP & Balochistan – because Sindh & Punjab are already comparatively economically advanced. Between KP & Balochistan, Balochistan has a smaller pool of skilled professionals who actually know what to do when organizing international events than KP, which has garnered a certain amount of experience in high profile events since Khyber Teaching Hospital was equipped with state-of-the-art machinery a few decades ago.
2. The conversion of a number of government guesthouses into hotels & motels, generated a lot of hope that the increase in the supply of rented living space would lead to skyrocketing tourism revenues…& then not much happened. No tourists – & consequently, no money – visible on the horizon so far. Encouraging further development in Peshawar’s MICE prospects may be a way to profitably fill the dozens of empty hotels all over the Province.
3. Malakand has been officially taken off the “warzone list” & tourism revenues are expected to start trickling in this summer, assuming KP Government policy implementation is allowed to progress unhindered.

    These 3 factors are just the commercial reasons why it would be a good idea to start exploring this unique business sector in KP. The reason that qualifies as far more significant to the people who are genuinely invested in making this Province all that it can be, is that the more internationally-important activities are held here, the less room there will be for parties with malicious intentions to mislabel this region as “unstable” or “violent”. Who knows? We might even succeed in finding a profitable & interesting use for the PIA Planetarium!

 

The SDGs: Of, By & For The People

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LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS OR A FLASH IN THE PAN?

    These days, the most important news on the planet is the Paris Climate Summit. Under normal circumstances, the ordinary working class & the business world couldn’t care less for yet another party thrown for rich folks. The reason for the global interest this time is, this conference is not just another gathering of rich heads of state who got bored & decided to check out The City Of Love, but because the goals – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – upon which it is supposed to focus truly seem as though they will make a positive difference to the life of the common man. There are several reasons that it is expected that the SDGs are expected to be even more effective than the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but the clincher is that, this time around, the United Nations Secretary General has decided to officially include the private sector in the list of parties responsible for making the SDGs a success. This is an excellent strategy because, in today’s day, the annual revenues of the top multinational companies (MNCs) are greater than the annual budget of an average-sized Developing World country. That means they play an important role in a far greater number of fields than the ordinary person can imagine.

    The only shadow on the horizon is the fact that there are a large number of influential interest groups who are highly invested in letting the degradation of the environment progress unhindered. They believe that spending money on making their production processes or products “greener” will only result in a narrowing of their profit margins; they prefer to use strategies such as the carbon pricing system as places where they can potentially conceal any climate “mistakes” that are born of polluting production processes. As to what they will do once the damage is irreparable, they believe that they will construct special settlements equipped with as much technology as it takes to filter out the pollution they helped unleash on the rest of mankind. The fact that most competent experts insist such “safety domes” are not viable options, doesn’t seem to make any difference to their thinking. Therefore, the majority of middle-class stakeholders are still uncertain whether the SDGs really will be able to deliver all that they promise.

    The SDGs & the Paris Climate Summit may officially include only a relatively few participants, but the principle upon which they are both based is the business & concern of every human being on Earth…making the attendance number 7 billion! That is the essence of a successful humanitarian (or financial) endeavor: Make certain that only the people who will suffer the fallout of a corrupt decision are responsible for each phase of the project (or enterprise).

    For instance, the World Health Organization (WHO) is still fighting Ebola in the African nation of Guinea; granted there is hope that the virus has been eradicated, but even if that is so, it has taken about 2 years to achieve that goal. The strategy used was sending several medical professionals to the country to treat patients, spread awareness & train local personnel. This was the conventional approach in use since the beginning of time. But would it have taken 2 long years if the WHO had taken the financial approach instead?

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SAVING HUMANITY REQUIRES A GOOD BUSINESS MODEL

    The more idealistic members of society tend to consider mixing hard-core business with humanitarian endeavors to be somehow “immoral”, citing examples such as Big Pharma’s profit-maximizing strategies that are based on endangering innocent human lives. There is another school of thought that credits weapons designers with some of the greatest inventions in the world such as DARPA’s invention of the Internet (that one is actually wrong: it was the civilian research-oriented CERN that actually invented the Internet; DARPA simply weaponized it). A wiser approach is to take the middle road: Fire can be used for both good or evil; the decision is squarely in the hands of the human race; similarly, business can be as much a force for good as it has been for not-so-good. Given below are some examples, drawn from current events:

 

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Health & Wealth

    What if the WHO had adopted a 2-pronged strategy in its fight to eradicate the Guinea Ebola Outbreak: Coordinated the movement & deployment of relevant medical personnel as per routine; but side-by-side, what if it had taken a look at Guinea’s top natural resource – it owns approximately 50% of the world’s bauxite reserves. Then it could have identified the world’s top bauxite mining company, which (according to the Web) is the Canadian company First Bauxite Corporation. According to its official website, First Bauxite invests primarily in South America; but there must have been financial repercussions from the Guinea Ebola catastrophe on this company, because First Bauxite’s stock price has been on a downward spiral during the last couple of years & has only begun to stabilise since Monday, November 16, 2015 – the very day when the WHO announced that Guinea’s last Ebola patient has been cured & the country’s 42-day waiting period (to be declared Ebola-free) has begun.

    If the WHO had explained these repercussions to First Bauxite & negotiated for financial & logistical support from the company when the first Ebola patient was brought in for treatment, would the effort have taken this long & would as many patients have died & medical personnel been put at risk? Unfortunately, the world will never know.

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A Waste Of Taste

    In my opinion, you haven’t really lived until you have tasted wheat from Haripur, mangoes from Multan, peaches from Swat & apples from Quetta. You can search the world over & never find the equivalent of the local produce in terms of flavor, fragrance & food value. Just ask the Americans & the Britishers. If it were scientifically possible to replicate these results in any other place, rest assured the entrepreneurs of the Western Hemisphere would have done it by now; the fact that they have tried but been unsuccessful means only one thing: it’s impossible. Apparently, replicating the exact interactions between specific climates & soil types is more difficult than it seems on paper. But the soil & the climate are just two of the vital factors in a successful harvest; healthy farm labor is every inch as important. Because raising a specialized crop is not the product of a few Green tractors & a couple of drums of Monsanto pesticides; the success of a farm in the East is highly dependent on the skill & experience of the farm labor.

    There is a proven link between market demand & animal extinction; in the same way, there is also a link between regional environmental degradation & the increasing scarcity of specific crops. If this link were given due importance, the international community would realize the importance of taking into account the views of local farm owners who are actually the people who would be truly devastated if they could not cultivate their signature crops any longer.

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Deep Waters & Cheap Shipping

    The fishing grounds of the Arabian Sea, particularly those sections that are worked by Pakistani fishermen are gradually being over-fished & depleted by large-scale commercial sea food suppliers. The result is that, not only are the supplies going down, the fishermen of the Sindh coast are being driven to beggary for lack of a way to pursue their trade. The reason is that the authorities insist on classifying these people as independent workers who simply reside in the same village. This incorrect designation means that these communities, which actually operate as cooperatives, are not receiving the importance, attention & financial encouragement that they deserve (& actually get in Western countries). The financial explanation for this could be that most unemployed fishermen start earning their living as under-paid dock workers & merchant sailors; their desperation is so severe that they are willing to settle for lower wages than their expertise in local sea routes would merit, under normal circumstances.

    The rising global temperatures are directly responsible for the melting of the polar ice caps & consequent rising sea levels. This not only means a change in the 70-30 sea-land distribution ratio & the destruction of the homes of thousands of coastal communities; the increasing area covered by deep water will expand too. That is very good news for the shipping concerns because it will increase the range of shipping routes available to them.

    But while the shipping companies may be popping champagne over the melting of the ice caps, the rising sea levels mean a change in salinity levels all the way up to the rivers that drain into the ocean. Pakistan, along with several countries in Asia, has a very healthy river & sea fish export business, because the fish here are good enough to make the average European’s mouth water. Pakistan alone currently produces 531 different species of fish, of which 233 are fresh water varieties, & all of them are highly sought after the world over. Rising sea levels & changing salinity levels means that the entire range of Pakistani sea food is in serious jeopardy. But will the multinational sea food suppliers be concerned enough to act? Unlikely, because they can simply choose another set of fishing grounds in another region; but the local fishing cooperatives will face utter ruination. So, unless the national & international authorities make a sincere effort to ensure a seat at the decision-making table for the fishing communities of Sindh Province & other similar groups around the Developing World, the problem is nowhere near a sustainable solution.

    Wealthy customers with exotic sea food tastes around the globe, will all unanimously agree that rising sea levels is something that must be controlled at all costs…but only if the link between the polar ice caps & their dinner menus are clearly explained to them.

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WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER

    “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” is a common scientific question. I’m sure the answer must consist of extremely vital information, but it seems a singularly whimsical idea compared to the far more pressing issues plaguing the world today. However, it provides a nice template for another question: “What will you have for breakfast, lunch & dinner, if the chicken starves for lack of food crops & is dead before it can lay an egg?”