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Philippines' City Cebu to Host International Contact Center Conference and Expo for the First Time

By Tracey E. Schelmetic, TMCnet Contributor

The Philippines has stolen the mantle of call center capital of the world from India. The nation, which counts call center business as one of its leading industries, is celebrating by hosting, for the ninth time, the Philippines’ contact center industry’s biggest annual event: the International Contact Center Conference and Expo (ICCCE) this month. ICCCE, the flagship event of the CCAP, the Philippines’ contact center industry’s main advocacy group, will take place from August 28th to 30th in the Philippines city of Cebu, attracting contact center CEOs and other executives from all over the world. The event will be held in Shangri-La Mactan and Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu.

According to the Contact Center Association in the Philippines (CCAP) president Benedict Hernandez, Cebu was chosen to host the event because of its recognition as one of the world’s top 10 contact center destinations along with Metro Manila based on Tholon’s Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations Report, the Cebu Sun Star is reporting this week. Cebu, which has never before hosted the ICCCE event, ranked number eight in the report. Last year, it was held in the Philippine capital of Manila.

“It is fitting for us to host the event given our recognition as the call center capital of the world,” Hernandez said in a recent press conference at the Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu. Officials said they expect about 2,500 attendees to the event this year. Although last year’s conference in Manila drew 7,000 attendees, the smaller size of the conference facilities will limit that number. As of now, 12 high-profile speakers are expected to deliver keynotes. The event will also feature a number of roundtables where senior executives deliberate on industry issues like currency, cost and manpower supply, all major issues facing the Filipino call center industry today.

The conference will also cover plenary and tracking sessions that cover talks about managing the effects of currency fluctuations to business competitiveness, the emerging geo-political forces and its effect on outsourcing, risk-proofing growth plans and strategies, manpower sourcing and integrating social media, big data, analytics and mobile computing in customer relations, reported the Sun Star.