An Event Planner's Guide to Chinese New Year

The 10th of February marks Chinese New Year, so we talk to Sheldon Goii, an event professional based in Singapore, about the traditions of the celebration and beyond that, the continued need to connect through events in the region.

Hope you enjoy this episode!

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Transcript

Hello and welcome to our podcast series created by us here at Broadsword, Be Listening. Happy New Year's everyone. Our first podcast of 2024 is here and right on theme this episode, it is all about Chinese New Year. And we have a very special guest all the way from Singapore to tell us all about it.  Welcome to the podcast, Sheldon. 

Thank you. Hello everyone. 

Could you tell us about the Chinese New Year's traditions that take place in Singapore. What do you look forward to the most and what is your favourite memory of Chinese New Year? 

Chinese New Year is really all about the family. So I really look forward to visiting the parents and the whole extended family comes together. And of course, you can't escape the good food. My favourite memory is really the, we have the barbecue pork, you know, in Singapore we call it bak kwa. It's a barbecue flavored pork, absolutely delicious, really bad for the diet, but it's really getting together with everybody. Sometimes the extended family that you haven't seen in a long while. I think that's the really nice thing about Chinese New Year. Everybody takes out in new clothes. So everybody's dressed up nicely and lots, lots of good, good vibes going around. I guess that's, that's the really nice part about it.

From an event planning perspective, what are the ingredients to a successful celebration at this time of year and what are the challenges? 

I think in terms of events, the Chinese New Year doesn't really pose any great challenges. I would say during Chinese New Year than anything related is usually going to have, this year especially,  every event is going to have a dragon dance. And of course, another tradition that's quite typical to our area is lohe, where there is raw fish salad and the whole table comes together and toss, with shouting sort of auspicious words. The belief is that the higher you toss, you get more good luck for the coming year. Which is a little bit weird because at the end of the day, the whole table is messy. You don't have very much left to eat. And then you wait for the good luck. So that's something quite typical. I think that definitely some video you can watch about it on Lohei. It's very interesting because there are a couple of ingredients and every ingredient has an auspicious name to it. And then everybody around the table tosses it to mix it up . It's like a raw fish salad, you mix up the vegetables and the preserved fruit and the raw fish because fish means prosperity in the Chinese language. So this is quite unique, but  I think every Chinese New Year event will have a lohe, a dragon dance, but otherwise a lot of just good vibes going around. I think that's the really nice thing. 

It's always nice to have good vibes and family come together and just good, good food that you can share with each other and throw into the air for good luck! What are the best venues or locations in Singapore for Chinese New Year?

I would say during Chinese New Year, the best is at home because everybody visits each other and therefore most of the shops and attractions are closed during Chinese New Year. So everybody's spending time visiting friends, visiting family, and the homes become really lively, very nicely decorated, and lots of greetings and cheer going around. So, yeah, I mean, typically traditionally where it's with other festivals where everybody goes out and congregates, I think Chinese New Year is unique that everybody goes to each other's homes rather than grouping out together outside.

What are some of the typical decorations that you'd find?

You would always see a lot of these hanging decorations like couplets. You know, they have a good luck wording in Chinese, some lanterns and of course the pussy willow. It's a long stem sort of plant with little buds on it and it starts to blossom during Chinese New Year. So they form little flowers. And all these supposedly they bring good luck, but well, they're pretty to look at anyway. Whether you believe in luck or not, I'm not so sure. 

What are event trends you're expecting in 2024 for Singapore? And what do you think, like how it will differ from 2023?

I have a feeling it will slow down a little bit. I think 2023 was super busy partly is sort of a revenge events planning because everybody was so cooped up during COVID. I do see that events will still continue as usual in 2024. You know, people who recognize the value of events are definitely going to want to stage them again. But that I think not as much of a rebound post -COVID versus 2023. So hopefully, in fact, I think maybe it's a good thing because in 2023 with the onslaught of events, it meant that there was a lot of very short lead times. There were some times where you didn't actually plan everything in full for an event because it was too much going on in too little time. So I think it will stabilise a bit in 2024.

Well, 2024 is the year of the dragon, which, according to some research I've done, should make it a particularly prosperous one. Kind of going into what you said before, do you feel that this is true for 2024? 

Well, it's a little bit hard to predict the future. I want to believe that it will be. You know, I think end of the day, there's a little bit of uncertainty around the global economy and the geopolitical tensions around the world. Definitely there's going to be some worry about what the outlook is going to be. So I think logically, we would think there's going to be downside, but I hope that the Year of the Dragon maybe mitigates that a little bit and then we kind of turn out okay when we look at it at the end of the year.

As we have come to the end of this episode, do you have any advice for event planners planning something in Singapore this year? A recipe for success, so to speak? 

Well, I'm not sure if I can give you a recipe for success, but my advice would be just go right ahead and plan for your event. Singapore is always great. Lots of good infrastructure, good connectivity to the region and internationally, lots of services here to support you on your event. And in spite of the possible slowdown in the global economy, I think in every crisis, you have opportunities. So the economy slows down. All the more, you have to rally your own people. So town halls and staff meetings should go ahead. You need to reach out to your customers and let them know that you're the best people that they should work with. So you need to do a nice, good event to reinforce that message and bring the confidence of your clients. So I think this even in a downturn, it's still more important than ever to organize a good, classy event, well produced and you know, the money is well spent. 

Definitely. In a certain way, you just need to start being more creative and see what's right around you.

Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, it doesn't mean that a good event has to spend a lot of money, but I would say start planning early. Don't wait till the last minute, but definitely don't hold off doing your events because that is the way to just go downhill if you disappear from the radar of your clients and you lose your engagement with your stakeholders. That's going to be a little bit harder to bounce back from. So maybe if the market doesn't work so well, spend a bit less, but definitely, definitely please carry on, right? Do it in Singapore. We're a great place to be. Good weather all year round. 

Thank you so much for coming on to our podcast and sharing your thoughts with us today. 

Most welcome. It leaves me now just to wish everybody a kong si fa cai, which is in English, I think that means just I wish you get rich. That's the standard greeting for Chinese New Year, but I guess you get that vibe. You know, it's all about good luck and prosperity. And of course, definitely good health. I think very important to everyone listening in. 


Well, that is the perfect way to end this episode and start the new year. 

If you would like to see similar content to this, you can follow us on our socials at broadsword event house on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and broadsword group on X. or visit our website at wearebroadsword .com. Thank you for listening and hope to see you on the next one.