Gaia Discovery report card for 2019 includes partnerships, speaking engagements, reviews and more. Here’s a snapshot of what this media has been doing to raise the bar on sustainability awareness & knowledge sharing. By staff writer.

SINGAPORE, 16 December 2019. This has been a busy year for Gaia Discovery! Our first alliance was media partnership with the Asian Ecotourism Network (AEN), a multinational network of tourism and ecotourism experts and model practitioners from many parts of Asia Pacific. The AEN is the regional initiative of Global Ecotourism Network.  

This follows through from Mallika Naguran, managing editor of Gaia Discovery, being appointed in 2019 as an AEN board member representing Singapore. In this capacity, Naguran promotes the goals of AEN to Singapore’s ecotourism sector and supports AEN in media and communication matters. Naguran also completed the GSTC Sustainable Tourism Training Program in the middle of the year, with AEN’s executive committee Masaru Takayama and Alan Wong as trainers.

This year, Gaia Discovery was also invited to numerous media conferences, product launches, opening ceremonies and media familiarization trips. See our articles on Lombok and Taiwan as a result. In previous years, Gaia Discovery has been invited on product and destination review trips to many places such as West Malaysia, Sarawak, Sabah, Thailand and Timor-Leste.  

Gaia Discovery continued to enter into partnerships with several reputable organisations in the space of sustainability. The events have mostly been forums and conferences targeted at businesses as highlighted below.

Here’s a selection of events that Gaia Discovery partnered with in 2019

GCNS Summit

Organised by GCNS, the Singapore chapter of the United Nations Global Compact, the Summit explored global trends in sustainability and what it meant to be progressive, forward thinking businesses and individuals. 

Themed "Reimagining Business for Resilience" this year, the Summit on 12 November 2019 brought together a diverse range of leaders from the private, public, and non-profit sectors to share their insights and expertise on what it takes to build a responsible, resilient business. There were insights on leadership, workforce development, plastic production and management, a low-carbon economy, and more! 

Guests of honour were Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources and Minister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs; and Ms Ho Ching, Executive Director & CEO, Temasek Holdings

Singapore Apex Corporate Sustainability Awards 2019

The Singapore Apex Corporate Sustainability Awards 2019 winners received the awards from Singapore’s Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung at a gala dinner on 6 November 2019. More than 120 leaders in the sustainability landscape attended the event.

Organised by Global Compact Network Singapore, the awards promote responsible corporate practices by encouraging businesses to align their operations and strategies to UNGC’s Ten Principles that encompass human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption. The awards also shine a spotlight on how sustainable business practices can be profitable and serve as a competitive advantage.

Sustainable Tourism Asia by Elevate

In partnership with Visa and Marina Bay Sands Singapore, ELEVATE hosted the second annual Sustainable Tourism Asia Forum on 21 November 2019 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.  The forum served as the platform for leading companies in the hospitality and tourism sectors, as well as government officials and non-profits, to share solutions that are driving innovation and advancement in the industry. Topics covered included the following: Community tourism; Responsible labour practices; Packaging; Circular economy; Sustainable food models; Gender and child rights.

How Media Partnerships Work

Here’s how media partnership with Gaia Discovery (www.gaiadiscovery.com) takes place. Most often, the partnership is based on mutual promotional agreement. Apart from writing about the event before it happens (a preview or event listing), we appeal to our fans and readers to attend the events featured as well. This is done primarily through our articles, social media and subscribers of Gaia Discovery eNewsletters.

Plus we provide banner advertisement spaces. Following the event, our expert writers report on the conference. For premium publicity through dedicated electronic direct mailer to our subscribers and social media followers, we charge a fee.

In return, our logo is often featured and linked back to our site. And Gaia Discovery is mentioned as media partner in the event collateral (brochures, fliers, website, backdrop etc). We do ask that specific mention of Gaia Discovery is made during the event proceedings as well.

There are numerous opportunities for us to bolster less formal event settings too, such as consumer trade shows and festivals. Approach us in 2020 with your ideas!

Gaia Discovery Speaker and Moderator Engagements

This year, beyond providing media coverage, we continue to be involved in imparting knowledge and fostering discussions on sustainability matters in the capacity of speaker and moderator.

Mallika Naguran, Managing Editor of Gaia Discovery, was keynote speaker at Taiwan’s Modern Tourism (TMT) Forum in Kaohsiung on 14 November 2019. She delivered the opening speech on sustainability issues, developments and innovations in tourism. Drawing from her extensive experience as industry practitioner, researcher and editor, she shared how Taiwan could dig deeper into tourism focused Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs.

Following the event, Ms Chu-Lan Yeh, Chairperson of Taiwan Visitor Association wrote to Naguran with these words:: “Thank you for sharing your life experience at the 2019 TMT Forum and elaborating on the concept of the recycling economy.  This allows us to deeply understand the sustainable development of tourism and the responsibility to the environment and society.”

Ms Naguran was also a moderator of a vibrant panel session on packaging and plastic waste at Sustainable Tourism Asia in Singapore. She helped set the stage on issues and opportunities of packaging in tourism and hospitality, guided the panel on their individual contributions, facilitated questions from the audience, and closed the session by summarising the salient points of the panel’s insights.

We do like being invited to speak at conferences and to moderate at panel sessions, so do not hesitate to contact us for such platforms. Jeremy Torr, features editor of Gaia Discovery has extensive editorial experience, so do tap his knowledge and moderation expertise at panel sessions.

Through Gaia Consult Global, we provide media training, professional writing services, sustainability advisory and consultancy.

So that’s a wrap! Do write to Jeremy Torr or Mallika Naguran if you’d like to connect with Gaia Discovery on any of these: media partnerships, media invitations, sponsorships, speaker and/or moderator request, media familiarisation trip, product or destination review, and more.