Tough love turned into sweet love for WebinTravel when it won the Trade Conference of the Year in the Singapore Experience Awards 2010.
It beat two other finalists, CommunicAsia and International Maritime Week, in the events section of the awards.
WIT won for its 2009 conference, held last October, which had the theme of “Tough Love” to reflect the stressful period the travel and tourism industry was undergoing after the global financial meltdown.
It acted as a call to arms and became a rallying point for travel leaders to inspire and motivate each other to make it through the tough times and to bounce back, stronger.
Run by the Singapore Tourism Board, the Singapore Experience Awards are judged by local and international professionals in the tourism, hospitality and travel industries and are a true reflection of peer opinion.
Today, it is a media brand that has daily news updates, a weekly e-newsletter, videos, social networks that engage its community and mini-events such as WIT*e – Inspiration & Mentoring for students and young talent and the WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp, the first of which was held on October 18 this year.
WIT’s editor and producer, Yeoh Siew Hoon (also a Tnooz Node), says:
“Doing this year after year in a segment that is changing so rapidly is a challenge because you’ve got to ensure the content remains relevant and timely even if you plan it months ahead.
"So what we do is take a collaborative approach and develop the content from ground up, engaging with our speakers, sponsors and customers constantly to ensure the content is in line with current trends and meets their needs.”