Determining Innovative Tourism Event Professional Competency for Conventions and Exhibitions Industry: A Preliminary Study

This study is conducted to understand the concept of competency and to determine the innovative competencies of event professional for conventions and exhibitions industry. The study has adopted a six-step competency model development in order to determine what the conventions and exhibitions experts perceive would be the innovative event professional competencies that can provide them with the competitive advantage needed to intelligently capture the opportunities. A focus group interview was conducted where a set of questionnaires was further developed and a pilot test was conducted to test the reliability and validity of the instrument. Four main competencies emerged from the analysis namely entrepreneurial competencies, operational competencies, personal characteristics competencies and communication competencies.