Phil Chung speaks to TravTour MICE
Phil Chung, CEO of Yashobhoomi Operating Company (Kinexin) speaks to TravTour MICE magazine
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In its quest for presenting the newer developments in MICE infrastructure
across India, TravTour MICE reached India’s finest MICE venue –
Yashobhoomi. Situated in Dwarka, New Delhi Yashobhoomi is the latest
entrant to India’s fastest growing list of purpose-built MICE destinations.
TravTour MICE spoke to Phil Chung, CEO of Yashobhoomi Operating Company (Kinexin) about the USP’s
and amenities of the project. What he shared with an evergreen smile is
presented here :
Q 1. Please elaborate your journey as a MICE professional and your experience working in
India.
Before I started our India IICC (Yashobhoomi) project in 2018 on behalf of my mother
company, I worked for about 20 years for Korea’s largest tradeshow and convention venue
named KINTEX (Korea International Exhibition Center). As the General Director of business
development and global marketing for the company, I co-organized numerous international
tradeshows for KINTEX with global and international organizers from Korea, UK, Germany,
Singapore, China and even India to name a few.
I also created or helped KINTEX to create JV businesses of many kinds including venue
catering business while acquiring or helping/advising to acquire many other operation
rights of several large international conventions and tradeshow venues in and out of South
Korea.
Before I joined KINTEX from 2004, I worked in the USA(Mid-Manhattan, New York) for an
innovative software start-up called The Empowered Media founded by a US internet
broadcasting pioneer, Russ Allen. And also worked for a professional tradeshow and
convention organizer of South Korea and others.
Over the past 20 + years, I’ve attracted numerous world-class exhibitions, tradeshows,
conventions and large-scale international events, which have resulted in many ‘firsts’ in
Korea’s history, together with our company. I’ve also participated as an expert in the
development of the country’s MICE industry development plan, contributing to the
establishment of national standards in the MICE industry, particularly in the tradeshow field.
And then back in 2018, we became selected as the official operator of IICC (India
International Convention & Expo Centre) in Dwarka Sector 25, New Delhi through an
international competitive bid, and after working as the official consultant of IICC Limited
over the years, we started our venue operation from Oct 1st of last year after the official
inauguration ceremony (Sep., 17th, 2023) celebrated by the Honourable Prime Minister of
India.
Q 2. What are the USP’s of Yashobhoomi at IICC Dwarka New Delhi for which exhibition
organisers should prefer it over other convention hotels and venues in New Delhi/NCR ?
The first phase of Yashobhoomi (formerly known as IICC) venue in New Delhi(India) was
inaugurated by the honourable Prime Minister of India last year(17th September 2023) with
2 large/dividable tradeshow halls (about 60,000 sqm. indoor), outdoor exhibition
Space (about 20,000sqm), convention centre (comprised of 7 story building with 13 divisible
conference rooms, 1 divisible auditorium for over 6,000 people and 1 divisible grand-
ballroom for over 3,000 people) and Yashobhoomi (IICC) express metro station (directly
connected to indoor Exhibition Hall 1 foyer) and two surrounding highways (Dwarka expressway,
Urban Extention road II) directly connecting our venue via flyovers reaching our venue to all major
areas of Delhi and beyond has been also recently inaugurated by the VIP, which has empowered the
Yashobhoomi (IICC) venue with the great accessibility to all major parts of the city, attractions,
accommodations and the IGI international airport. We have about 10,000 deluxe hotel rooms
available within 30-minute drive from the Yashobhoomi venue including a deluxe hotel complex
(Aerocity) attached to the IGI airport, which are being filled up with our business attendees all year
round right after our opening last year. Some of the notable USP’s of Yashobhoomi are as under :
∙Accessibility : All parts of New Delhi are connected via Yashobhoomi/IICC/Dwarka Sector 25
Express metro station and directly connected to the foyer of the exhibition hall of
Yashobhoomi)
∙Strategic Location : Yashobhoomi is closer to all key NCR markets including Gurugram
(formerly known as Gurgaon) where there are numerous multi-national companies such as
SAMSUNG Electronics South/Western Headquarters, Accenture, Google, Oracle, Ernst and
Young, Dell Technologies, Honeywell International India, CISCO Systems India and many
others, all of which are important tradeshow exhibitors/participants/buyers to all India’s key
tradeshows and conventions.
∙Accommodation : The hub of deluxe hotels (accommodations) including the Aerocity (Deluxe
hotel complex providing about 4,000 deluxe hotel rooms) next to the IGI Airport that is just
5-8km away from our venue; about 10,000 hotel rooms in various 3-5 star hotel are
conveniently available within 15 km drive reach from Yashobhoomi venue.
∙Nearby Attractions : Hot attractions of the city and beyond including but not limited to NCR’s
top integrated malls such as Vegas Mall in Dwarka(10min.), Ambience Mall in Gurgaon,
Michelin star restaurants (Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French and others).
Q3. How has been the first year in the business for IICC Dwarka ?
We commenced our commercial operation from the 1st of Oct. last year receiving more
than 300,000 domestic/international visitors and buyers over the last 6 months (Oct. of 2023 to
March end of this year), which has been a very successful inaugural year of our venue. As a very
important/ending part of G20 Summit(India) of last year, as our opening international convention,
we successfully staged 'The 9th G20 Parliament Speakers Summit(P20), Oct 12-14, 2023 (more than
30 countries participated)'. The successful P20 was followed by 'World Investment Conference (4
days in Dec. 2023) which was attended by over 1,000 international participants from 50
investment promotion agencies (organized by World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies),
Rotary Club of India (Inner-Wheel) convention (over 5,000 people), and many more.
Q4. What are your strategies to attract international associations and MICE planners to your
property?
As our venue is a purpose built for large scale international tradeshows, we have lured and
successfully staged 20 international tradeshows and exhibitions from Oct last year to the end of
March this year (end of the fiscal year) which includes the nation's biggest Mobile industry
Event (MobiaLive in Oct., 2023), International Airport show (Indi Airport, Nov., 2023), SIAL
India (organized by Comexposium/InterAd), Mission Net Zero India Summit (organized by Constella
group in Dec., 2023), Fintech Festival India(by Constella group, Feb., 2024), AdTech(by
Comexposium, Feb, 2024), the region's largest plastic industry tradeshow (PlastFocus,
70,000sqm/gross) in Feb. 2024 and the nation's largest textile show (Bharat Text, 60,000sqm/gross)
in March 2024 to name a few. Furthermore, large national/international corporate conventions and
expos like Herbalife Spectacular(Feb., 2024), Eureka Launch/Galaxy Unpacked(by SAMSUNG) in Jan.,
2024, AMAZON Global Selling Export Connect in Feb, 2024, and others have been staged with great
success and feedbacks from organizers and visitors. Uniquely, we also had staged large scale
national/international events like Russel Peters Comedy Show with over 5,000 attendees from in and
out of the country, several convocations, and even commercial film-shooting events positioning
Yashobhoomi (IICC) venue as the region's most prestigious and popular multi-purpose venue
attracting various kinds of prestigious national & global brand MICE events of all kinds through our
global business networks and know-how.
