The First Word: Protecting employees when borders close
In June 2025, escalating conflict and airstrikes between Israel and Iran triggered widespread airspace closures across the Middle East, grounding thousands of flights and severely disrupting global travel. Over 2,000 flights were cancelled or diverted within 10 days, stranding an estimated 50,000 travellers, including 30,000 Israelis unable to return home as Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion […]
Sector Report: HR challenges in the Hotels and Hospitality industry
The First Word: Safeguarding your employees abroad
In today’s increasingly globalised economy, the movement of employees across international borders is more frequent, presenting numerous opportunities with heightened security risks. As employees travel through regions with diverse geopolitical climates and varying safety standards, multinational corporations face a critical challenge — ensuring the safety of their workforce in a world where threat levels are […]
Foreign investors eyeing Southeast Asia for MICE development
Event organisers and HR professionals should be paying attention to movement in the global market, identifying characteristics of their country, culture, and workforces that offer a distinct and conducive atmosphere for events. This was one of several insights found in the latest Chief of Staff Asia research paper. Expanding Domains in Modern MICE and Staff […]
Formal MICE education can help HR leaders, event organisers stay agile
Given the rapidly changing business landscape and colourful demography of Southeast Asia, it is necessary for HR to stay agile if teams want to maximise staff events for organisational growth. A key strategy for this is to acquire formal MICE education. This was one of several insights found in the latest Chief of Staff Asia […]
Feedback, content confetti among strategies for creating memorable events
International event organiser Live Union mentions several characteristics of a successful event, including that of being memorable. To maximise the impact on delegates, HR can use open communication, ‘content confetti’, and leadership development strategies. This was one of several insights found in the latest Chief of Staff Asia research paper. Expanding Domains in Modern MICE […]
Event organisers need to prioritise in-person connection for scattered workforces
Remote and hybrid work arrangements reshaped how employees interact. The reduced face-to-face connections reinforce the need to balance relationship-building and work collaboration when team members finally come together for in-person gatherings, such as during the end of the year. This was one of several insights found in the latest Chief of Staff Asia research paper. […]
Recovery and stability under way for Southeast Asia’s events industry
Hotel occupancy rates from late 2022 until the present time reflect rapid recovery and stability for the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) and staff events industry of Southeast Asia. This was one of several insights found in the latest Chief of Staff Asia research paper. Expanding Domains in Modern MICE and Staff Events, available […]
MICE and Staff Events in 2023
The Week Ahead: Mental health, staff events, HR Tech, and more
While it’s a long weekend here in Singapore, it’s still set to be a huge week of content, case studies, interviews, and research across all Chief of Staff Asia platforms from Monday November 13. On Monday, our First Word column has a contribution from Low Kiang Wei, medical director for International SOS. He’ll be […]
