Enormous HD screen display

So first and most important piece of news – wifi’s free within the convention centre and exhibition area. “Today,” declared CEO Arun Madhok proudly, “we had 3,000 people logging in at the same time and it was stable.” It can reportedly handle up to 6,000 users at the same time.

Second bit of cool is the enormous HD screen display at the entrance – it’s the largest HD screen in the world at 60m by 60m. The new lobby with the screen cost a cool S$10 million to build.

It’s a definite “wow” factor and you can see lots of people taking photos in front of the screen – some delegates waiting for images of their particular event appearing before they take their snaps.

I can see this being a hit with event organisers and my mind was taking wild flights of imagination, thinking what we could do with this screen during the WIT Conference …

Arun Madhok

Airtime costs S$25,000 a month, based on four appearances an hour – it’s a major revenue generator for the centre, obviously. Any takers?

Levels 1 and 2 are now completely dedicated to the shopping mall – lots of new shops, bars, cafes and restaurants. And Level 3 will be where the WIT Conference will be held, with ITB Asia on Level 4.

The biggest change is to Level 3 where the ballrooms and meetings rooms were. The idea was to create more of a “hotel-like meeting space and less of a convention and exhibition centre” feel and it works.

The design is clean and minimalist, the carpet is plush, the lighting warm, and almost all the meeting rooms are “virtual”, meaning lots of movable walls which equates flexibility with use of space, configuration and set-up depending on your event needs. “We want to leave it to the organisers to create the space they want,” said Madhok (below).

There are lots of interactive touch screen displays, which can also be customized for the event. I liked the giant, mobile iPad-like displays – there are 12 in total – and organisers have free access to them to load whatever content they wish.

Summit 1 and 2

Our conference and showcase will be held in Summit 1 and 2, but apparently, we can choose to call the rooms whatever we like too – the display screen outside the room gives us the ability to personalize. So any ideas – please share, people.

Level 3 is directly linked to the shopping mall – one escalator away from consumption distraction. Some organisers like it and some don’t, fearing the temptation will be too great for their delegates and they will lose their audience.

One organizer that I think has no fear of losing their audience is the owner and landlord of Suntec – City Harvest Church – which is basically the anchor tenant on Level 6.

The ballroom

Go up that level and walk into the ballroom – and it’s like stepping into a rock concert-amphitheatre. The venue takes 6,000 people and during its services every week, it packs them in. I have yet to attend any of their services but I am told it’s more like a pop concert with serious audio-visual, lighting and special effects.

And their audience is mainly youths. At a time when churches around the world are complaining about the declining number of youths in their congregation, City Harvest doesn’t seem to have a problem at all in this regard.

The hangout area is more Google-like than God-like. It’s a really cool space with contemporary design and funky furniture which I’d love to beg, borrow or steal – but that may be a sin.

Makes me think we should look at their business model as a case study …

The hangout area

Our tour ended up where we started – at what Madhok calls “The Big Picture” – the giant screen. He is clearly excited by the new centre. “We’ve worked three years on it and it’s good to finally see the results,” he said.

He’s full of stories – how a “mistake” became a success story – a dual-coloured chair was produced by the supplier when the centre had ordered a mono-coloured one but turned out everyone preferred the two-toned version which has now become the hottest selling item for the supplier.

And oh yes, he can also “freeze” the screen to show your logo at the time you want your photo snapped. “We do all this with an iPad,” he promises.

Can’t wait to freeze “The Big Picture” with our WIT logo this October – watch out, world. The Asia Factor is arriving.

More next week …