The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre will partner with Marketing Challenges International (MCIntl), an established thought leader in global destination marketing for meetings and conventions for more than 30 years, to help drive the venue’s presence and business opportunities in the North American market.

The Centre’s General Manager, Alan Pryor explained, “We are excited to be working closely with MCIntl’s Managing Partners Michel Couturier and Jacqueline Hewitt, as well as their team, to expand our in-market reach and optimise our client engagement with North America. We have been consistently investing in the North American market to secure meetings, conventions, and incentives and are confident MCIntl’s market expertise, industry insights, and reputation for success will greatly benefit these efforts.”

Pryor continued, “This tie up with MCIntl is another important step to gain first-hand business intelligence to help us better identify relevant North American industry platforms and forums to take our business development strategy to the next level.”

MCIntl is a full-service global destination marketing firm based in New York City. They are a key marketing and sales partner connecting leading convention bureaus and convention centres to the North American meetings market. For more than 30 years, destinations have looked to MCIntl for its market expertise, industry insights, and reputation for success.

MCIntl’s Managing Partner, Michel Couturier, is an active member of ASAE, ICCA, MPI, PCMA, and SITE. Most recently, Michel chaired the Marketing Task Force of PCMA, and was a member of the Global Advisory Board of PCMA.

He helped develop and launch SMU International and created the Global Events Visionary award to recognize planners of international events. He deeply understands the business events industry and will be deploying his knowledge, combined with that of the MCIntl team, to assist the Centre to tap into the market’s many opportunities.

Speaking on the collaboration, Michel Couturier, shared “We are thrilled to be marketing The Centre in North America. The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre is uniquely located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur within walking distance of leading hotels. Kuala Lumpur is the growing capital of Malaysia, a strong economy in South East Asia.”

She added, “These are distinctive assets that make The Centre an amazing venue to market to both the association and corporate planners. Our close cooperation with The Centre’s management team will facilitate the RFP process. As Kuala Lumpur offers great value, we know that we will be successful in putting The Centre on the map of planners of international events.”

Reiterating the importance of the North American market to the Centre, Pryor highlighted a recent educational visit they hosted for prominent American company Maritz Global Events, which is one of the best-known and most respected brands in the business events world.

The visit was part of the Centre’s global industry engagement programme to grow its business acquisition of international corporate and association meetings and events, as well as build greater awareness of Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia’s business events proposition through a first-hand experiential immersion.