There’s an ongoing conference by the Federation for Asian Cultural Promotion at Marina Bay Sands. It’s an industry event for arts managers within the region but what the hey, the RAT likes to gatecrash once in a while. Primarily because I wanted to check out what the two integrated resorts had to say about their roles in the local arts and entertainment scene.   (Warning: It's a rather long post without pictures. But it has lots of words!)   ***   But before that, caught Esplanade/NAC CEO Benson Puah’s keynote address. It’s something he’s said time and again, but I still think it’s important to underscore this. Basically the message was: Work with your neighbours and look at the Asian region as one big mass of potential instead of separate markets. He mentioned that in the performing arts “we are more likely to give chance to Russian or Italian productions than Asian ones.” With such an obsession with Western productions, “we risk developing an Asia that doesn’t know who we are.”   ***   Two interesting points. I found it telling that in his speech, he said he’s looking “not to the cultural policy-makers but to the producers, programmers and presenters among us to drive this change.” Also, this whole idea of looking to the region – he rightly points out that the performing arts should take its cue from the rest of the arts scenes, which have been doing it all along and with success. The visual artists, film-makers, musicians, designers – they’ve all been collaborating and working with their neighbours. A number of theatre companies do it here, of course, but still, food for thought. For those who don't. That said, this whole Pan-Asian feel good vibe is well and good, but at the same time, IMHO, it also needs to be tempered by a few factors, not least of which is the uneven development of the countries in the region. The extreme diversity here in Asia is unlike Europe in terms of culture, politics and economics, which is arguably much more homogenous don’t you think?   ***   And finally, the main face-off. Woohoo. The line-up today included Resort World Sentosa’s Events & Entertainment director Seah Wee Thye on “Impact of the Integrated Resorts on the Arts & Entertainment Scene – The Singapore Experience” and Marina Bay Sands’ GM/VP-Singapore Development George Tanasijevich and Base Entertainment’s Milan Rokic on "How Marina Bay Sands is making a difference to Singapore’s ambition of becoming a distinctive global arts centre." With a lunch break in-between. But of course.   ***   RWS’s Seah made some interesting arguments so show just how they’re helping the local arts and entertainment scene by way of Universal Studios and the homespun Voyage de la Vie (which is into its 140th performance tonight by the way). I’m listing them down. Because they listed it down. 1)      More jobs. (He said 400 of the 600-strong staff of the Entertainment Department are Singaporeans) 2)      New job positions. Like "costume technician". What is a costume technician anyway? 3)      Opportunities for freelancers. With a small team handling all the daily entertainment events at the IR, they’d have to outsource. An example is how their mascot costumes were first done in the US, which they’ve moved to Hong Kong and now they’re in the process of looking into a Singapore company to do it. 4)      Skills training. They’ve trained 140 technicians to date. 5)      Introduced new technology. Apparently Voyage de la Vie uses “laser guided scenery”. What is that anyway? 6)      Introducing (commercial) performance as a valid career. A couple of weeks ago, he said, they hired some fresh NAFA graduates. 7)      Mixing up TV, theatre and events people under one roof (which, incidentally, was the TV sitcom he directed years back. Hehe.) 8)      Introducing the idea of a long-running show (compared to the comparatively short runs that our local theatre folks are more accustomed to), which arguably adds to the vocabulary of the local performing arts scene. 9)      And finally, and this is amusing, the chance for “younger people to move up”. And by that, he means a “ripple effect” as these young `uns get to penetrate the workforce because RWS has hired a lot of people from established companies like The Esplanade. And yes, he actually used the words “poached” – with, take note, the Durian’s CEO in the audience. Whoa Nelly. As for updates, next year they’re bringing the Valentino Retrospective show (I thought the National Museum was bringing that in?!), adding a Chinese version of Voyage de la Vie, touring the musical, and finally developing a show for when Voyage ends.   ***   Compared to RWS’ detailed counter-arguments against its detractors, MBS’ speech was rather tame. What can they offer Singapore’s arts and entertainment scene? Well, basically more tourists, more jobs, lots of space, The Lion King and... Bollywood. Tanasijevich said they’re aiming to bring in the “high value customer” and to “elevate the market.” Entertainment makes up only two per cent of tourism income these days. They’re hoping to have 17m people visit MBS by 2015. Jobs? They’re employing 7,500 right now and expect to hire 33,000. As to WHO those are, didn’t say. And yes, The Lion King. Which goes into one of their two theatres (4,000 bums in all). The other is going to be dedicated to all things not Lion King. That is, “classical music, ballet, opera, magic”, etc. Among the types of shows they’re thinking of doing is something that has to do with Bollywood. Because apparently, Singapore ranks high among Indian tourists. Although I really don’t see why Indians would want to go to Singapore to watch something in their own backyard. Hmmm. As for updates, MBS will be having its own e-ticketing service soon.   ***   So yes, two different approaches on how Singapore will benefit from the IRs. Or at least, two different ways of presenting their cases. I’ve got my own opinions on this but well, what do you think ?