Women’s History Month Spotlight: Genevieve Lim, Director of MICE Management at Marina Bay Sands

As part of Women’s History Month, Sands is featuring women who have contributed to the company’s success and exemplify its culture of professional growth and advancement.

Genevieve Lim has been with Marina Bay Sands for nearly 15 years and is the director of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) management. She provides background on her career journey, resources that helped her succeed and advice for women in advancing their careers.

 Outline your career path prior to and at Sands Marina Bay Sands.

 “I’ve always been passionate about the hospitality industry, and I started my journey in it more than 20 years ago and have never looked back. In the last 20 years, I’ve had the opportunity to conceptualize festivals and events, attractions marketing, sponsorship and account management before joining the Sands family.

“As a pre-opening Team Member at Marina Bay Sands, I’ve held various positions in sales, working to develop long-term, repeat MICE business at the resort, collaborating with a team of dedicated sales colleagues to work alongside the Singapore Tourism Board and various government agencies to bid for international events and congresses to take place here.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, I had the opportunity to work with cross-functional teams within Marina Bay Sands to ideate and operationalize the Hybrid Broadcast Studio, our state-of-the-art hybrid meeting offering. My key responsibility at that time was to work with various industry partners around the world to collaborate and bring forth the concept of virtual meetings to industry stakeholders and clients.

“In 2022, I was given the opportunity to set up a new strategic planning team with the MICE unit to drive innovation, commercial strategy and integrated MICE management. In this role, I’m responsible for overall long-term commercial strategies and working with cross-functional teams to ideate, test, model and deliver new innovations within the MICE area. We aim to improve operational efficiencies, integrate MICE operations with the sales team and optimize industry partnerships and industry relations.”

What skills, trainings, mentors and experiences helped you build a successful career?

“I was blessed to have had great mentors throughout my career who taught me all they knew. They were amazing colleagues and friends whom I tapped as sounding boards for my wild ideas. They challenged me to always step out of my comfort zone and to push the envelope in everything that I do.”

What advice can you give to women specifically or anyone who wants to advance in their careers?

“Perfect the art of work-life juggling. It’s all about being able to balance different priorities at different moments. As women, we have a tough role to balance home responsibilities, self-care and work. Embrace this proudly and never hide from the constant need to juggle between these demands.

“Be authentic, be you. People need to know you for who you are, for your values and for the things that you believe in.

“Be curious and be a change maker. Reflecting on the last 20 years of my working life, I’ve always had an inquisitive mind; I’m curious about things that come my way and wonder how they can be done better. I’m always encouraging my team to take two key steps to improve performance: try to automate repetitive tasks and empower decision-making with data tools at a variety of team levels.”

What are your ideas for evolving the workplace to better support and empower women?

“Flexible work arrangement systems help women focus on what matters most during the time they are at work and grant the ability to take hours off instead of an entire day off.

“I also encourage women to provide 360-degree mentorship, at every phase of their careers. Mentorship benefits not only the mentee but the mentor tremendously. Encouraging Team Members to be mentors at every phase of their careers fosters a give-back mindset and makes our organization and people kinder.

“I also believe in creating a less hierarchical workforce where possible. While this may be challenging to execute, I see a lot of benefits in helping younger female Team Members cultivate their voices and opinions early on in their careers. If companies can establish taskforces and workgroup settings where all are regarded as equals, I think they would be surprised by how much these opinions will come forth and contribute positive benefits.”