By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, April 26: The first ICCA Association Impact Masterclass commences in Kuching today, marking the beginning of a programme where 24 Malaysian and international association leaders will undergo training to earn the prestigious Association Impact Leadership certificate.
According to Business Events Sarawak (BE Sarawak), they will become the first cohort to be recognised as Association Impact Leaders awarded by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) in collaboration with their co-creators Meet4Impact from Canada and GainingEdge from Australia.
The two-day specialised training course, held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) on April 26 and 27, covers important topics related to legacy building and impact creation. The course offers insights, practical tools, and hands-on learning to effectively communicate their impact mission, scale up partnerships, and create an effective approach to impact planning, management, and measurement.
The course is led by association meeting experts Genevieve Leclerc, co-founder and CEO of Meet4Impact, and Gary Grimmer, executive chairman of GainingEdge, who are also co-creators of this unique education programme.
Held in Kuching, it highlights Sarawak’s proactive steps to establish itself as the Legacy Capital of Business Events in Malaysia and Borneo, in tandem with the Legacy Impact Master Action Plan 2023–2025 to prepare Sarawak’s business events industry towards impact-driven meetings.
The Masterclass will count towards the ICCASkills association certification and is considered a beneficial preparatory step for other courses under the ICCASkills umbrella.
Deputy Minister of Tourism Dato Sebastian Ting and Sarawak Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) president Dato Sri Abang Abdul Karim Tun Openg were present.
BESarawak CEO Amelia Roziman emphasised that business event organisation is now at a phase where associations must translate ideas into actions for real impact.
“Sponsoring and hosting the first Association Impact Masterclass reflects our commitment to enabling associations locally and worldwide to be proficient and powerful at creating change through their events.
“We hope participants feel empowered and confident to apply the Masterclass lessons when hosting a business event in Sarawak, Malaysia, or beyond. We want associations to become more powerful and appreciate and respect the support from our international partners for putting this course together and developing a legacy for everyone,” she said in the media release today.
ICCA CEO Senthil Gopinath highlighted that the importance of legacy cannot be understated as the Association Impact Masterclass is an incredible opportunity for association professionals to hone their skills in building legacy, measuring impacts, and cultivating the activities of their organisations to achieve sustained growth and development.
“I anticipate the transformative impact that two hugely interactive days in Kuching, Sarawak will bring to our thriving global community,” he added.
Leclerc pointed out that associations worldwide could truly benefit from a deeper understanding of how to supplement their strategic plans through the development of impact strategies that encompass their entire operations in optimising the influence of their events.
“Such strategies aim to improve the delivery of their missions and establish a structure for facilitating social and economic advancement in society. We are delighted to introduce this new educational initiative that will be beneficial to the growth of Sarawak-based associations, whose contributions are already recognised and strategically leveraged by the government here,” she said.
Grimmer commended Sarawak for taking the real leadership role in developing an innovative new programme that will benefit associations globally which are already providing so many transformative impacts to communities, nations and sometimes the entire world.
“This Masterclass will help strengthen their societal contributions even further,” he acknowledged.
BESarawak is the exclusive Seed Grant Contributor for the Association Impact Masterclass, with the intent of growing the human capital with qualified association members who specialise in legacy impact, thus positioning Sarawak as the Legacy Capital of Business Events in Malaysia and Borneo. — DayakDaily
