Meetings Africa Daily News: Tuesday

MINISTER OF TOURISM OPENS MEETINGS AFRICA

Published by www.theevent.co.za

OPEN FOR BUSINESSMarthinus van schalkwyk, the minister of Tourism, officially opened Meetings Africa 2011, the continent’s premier business tourism marketing platform.

“I AM very impressed with what South African Tourism (SAT) has achieved so far,” he said.

“When SAT raised the subject of buying Meetings Africa, we told them to make sure it was a good investment. After three years we can see that it is indeed a very sound investment for us.”

The minister recalled President Ja-cob Zuma’s State of the Nation ad-dress where he called tourism a ma-jor jobs driver. “Business tourism will play a key role in helping to achieve

this objective.”In 2009, business tourism repre-

sented 4,7% of total arrivals, signifying approximately 500 000 visitors to South Africa for meetings, incentives, con-ferences and exhibitions.

This represents a total economic value of about R4 billion, with business tourists spending an average of R5 300 during their stay in South Africa.

The average length of stay for busi-ness tourism also increased from 4.6 nights in 2008 to 2.8 nights in 2009.

Between January and November last year, the country welcomed 7.3 million foreign tourists. “This was abso-lutely on target,” van Schalkwyk said.

He added that South Africa has al-ready secured almost 200 conferences for the next five years. “This equates to 300 000 delegates, which in turn equals R1.6 billion for the economy.”

For example, Durban has been se-lected to host The United Nations Cli-mate Change Conference in 2011.

This critical conference shapes the social, economic and political poli-cies across several countries.

KwaZulu-Natal also recently won the rights to host the 2012 internation-al wildlife convention.

After his short but sweet speech, Minister van Schalkwyk promptly rang the bell, officially opening the event.

Marthinus van schalkwykminister of tourism

MEETINGS AFRICA / 02

A FULL DIARY FOR DAY TWO OF MEETINGS AFRICA

GENERAL EVENTS

Registration for Association Day07h00–08h00, Entrance Foyer, Hall One, Sandton Convention Centre (SCC)

Africa Association Day workshop08h00–17h00, Bill Gallagher Room, SCC▪National associations▪Hosted international association buyers

Registration for Meetings Africa opens09h00, Entrance Foyer, SCCOpen to all trade

Meetings Africa exhibition10h00-18h00, Hall One, SCCOpen to all trade

ETEYA Awards presentation15h30–17h30, Gauteng Tourism Authority (GTA) Stand 518Open to all

Meetings Africa official networking function19h00–24h00, Lekgotla, Nelson Mandela SquareBy invitation only

SAACI EDUCATIONAL SEMINAR

Green: The only colour for business tourism08h00-10h00 , Committee Room, Level Four, SCC

Panel of Speakers:

• Valerie Green Director: Climate and Energy, NBI The business case for greening business tourism in the South African and global context • Joyce DiMascio Joyce DiMascio Consulting Former head of Business Events, Australia How Australia put sustainability at the centre of its marketing for business events

• Greg McManus Heritage: The Environmental Management Company Greening of The Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City

• Justin Hawes Chair of The Event Greening Forum. Update on The Event Greening Forum

GEARHOUSE PRESENTATION AREA

10h00–10h30: Alex Donaldson – IMEX Frankfurt and IMEX America10h45–11h15: Gary Bailey - Bring leading edge leadership principles to management teams in an invigorating and magical way11h30–12h00: Andy Rice – The death of advertising12h15–12h45: Gerry Skerritt (The Dream Team) – The power of collaboration 13h00–13h30: Donna Rachelson – Branding and marketing you13h45–14h15: Marcel Oudejans – The lead generation machine: a process for profitable promotions15h15–15h45: Ryan Hogarth – Talking to the crowd 16h00–16h30: Jennifer Seif – The child protection code17h00–17h45: Errol Braithwaite - Gautrain

All presentations are open to all at The Presentation Area in Hall One at SCC.

Speakers sponsored by Unique Speaker Bureau.

Please note all times are subject to change.

Justin Hawes Greg McManus Celynn Erasmus on Monday


Meetings AfricA 2011 gets techno sAvvy

EXHIBITIONS Meetings Africa exhibitors are calling the Poken “a brilliant invention.”

MEETINGS Africa 2011 has upped the technology stakes by intro-ducing the Poken™ device to

this year’s exhibition. Poised to be the ’next best thing’ in

business networking, the Poken™ is a digital business card that shares con-tact details and online social network information between users in a very innovative way.

“Gone are the days of having to keep track of hundreds of business cards,” says Nomasonto Ndlovu, global manager of Business Tourism at South African Tourism. “The Poken™ device stores all details as you make contact with another Poken™ user and updates automatically when new user data is entered. It’s never been quicker and easier to stay in touch with key business networks.”

To stay connected at Meetings Africa 2011, simply press your Poken™ device (available at the registration area) up against the device of another user to instantly share the contact details and other specific information instantly.

“We acknowledge that our visi-tors, exhibitors and buyers use Meet-ings Africa as one of their largest net-working events of the year,” continues Ndlovu. “The Poken™ device will speed this up considerably; allowing for more time to do the all important business discussions.”

Debbie Fortmann and Janelle van den Berg, exhibitors from Champagne Sport Resort and Pumula Beach Hotel, also think that the Poken™ was a good

tool for marketing themselves. “Brilliant invention. Excellence concept, no pa-per work. It is easy to use and we already have contact details of about 30 peo-ple,” they say.

Visit the Poken™ Registration Area for your device – it’s free of charge to regis-tered buyers, exhibitors and international guests. If you have not pre-registered, as-sistance is on hand at the desk to ensure you’re up and running with this year’s hottest networking device.

Poken

BID PARTNERS

South African tourism, Joburg tourism Company, and Sandton Convention Centre are optimistic that this year’s expo will exceed expectations.

Meetings Africa’s bid partners – south African tourism, Johan-nesburg tourism Company (JtC)

and sandton Convention Centre (sCC) - are optimistic that this year’s expo will

exceed expectations. “We anticipate welcoming an in-

creased number of exhibitors, media, visitors and 150 international hosted buy-ers to the expo,” says Lindiwe Kwele, JtC CeO.

Meetings Africa is a top priority for the Johannesburg Convention and events Bureau, a division of JtC focused on ag-gressively promoting the city as a leading global destination for business tourism.

JtC’s campaign for Meetings Africa is

Rediscover Joburg. “the action in Joburg certainly never stops and hosting a suc-cessful World Cup spectacle has been a defining moment for us,” says Kwele. “Joburg took centre-stage with great ac-claim - we really excelled at showing all our guests a fabulous time Jozi-style. in-deed, there’s been a positive paradigm shift for our city when it comes to percep-tions of everything from lifestyle appeal to safety and security.”

Johannesburg is the economic pow-erhouse of Africa and gateway to many parts of the world.

Over 55 international airlines link the city to major centres worldwide, while Joburg hosts 75% of corporate head-quarters and is the only city in south Af-rica with four venues capable of hosting more than 5 000 delegates.

One of these is sCC, which is hosting Meetings Africa for the seventh consecu-tive year. sCC is situated in the centre of sandton, the centre of Johannesburg, the centre of gauteng, the centre of south Africa. the sandton area has the highest visitor attendance “draw factor” in south Africa for high level meetings and exhibitions and is therefore an ideal choice for business visitors.

For more information, visit JtC at stand 510 and sCC at stand 504.

BID PARTNERS UPBEAT ABOUT MEETINGS AFRICA

Meetings AFRiCA / 04

Lindiwe Kwele, CEo of Johannesburg tourism Company

EXHIBITOR NEWS HIGHLIGHTS


GENERAL INDUSTRYYOU can find the full versions of all of these breaking news highlights online at www.theevent.co.za, where you can also submit stories for inclusion in tomorrow’s edition of Meetings Africa Daily News.

Record number of meetings MEETINGS Africa is about making con-nections. South African Tourism (SAT) called on Outsmart Marketing to set up

a matchmaking programme that would deliver guaranteed pre-scheduled ap-pointments run via an online diary sys-tem integrated into MS Outlook.

Outsmart Marketing’s system has been used at over 90 exhibitions during the past five years.

The idea is not a new one. The online diary system was implemented in 2009, but had less than ideal results.

Last year approximately 2 000 meet-ings were confirmed via the online diary

system. This year, however, is a different story altogether.

Tracy Watchman, director of Out-smart Marketing, explains that 3 222 meetings have already been confirmed at Meetings Africa out of the 7 387 meet-ing requests. The figure beats the previ-ous record set at Mining Indaba.

What makes Meetings Africa unique is the fact that there is a matchmaking team constantly working in the back-ground to action all meeting requests, calling individuals to confirm availability and to address any problems.

“85% of the total meeting requests have been actioned. If the process was left to technology only 30% of meet-ings requests would be actioned,” says Watchman.

Global recognition for Fairfield ToursFAIRFIELd Tours cemented its standing as one of South Africa’s leading tour opera-tors when it recently added two highly acclaimed international awards to its trophy cabinet. The Cape-based com-pany received both the 2010 Platinum Technology Award for Quality and Best Trade Name, as well as the 2010 BId Star Leadership in Quality Award. Visit their corporate travel division, Fairfield Meet-ings and Incentives, at stand 615.

Fairfield’s Sally Gordon, Keely Phillips, Johann Kleinhans, Juliane Loubser, Johan Smal, Barney van Heerden and Carol Martin

GENERAL INDUSTRYTHE fi rst day of Meetings Africa began with a SAACI educational workshop on The Consumer Act (CPA) which comes into effect 1 April 2011.

THEMBI Kunene, chief quality assur-ance offi cer for The Tourism Grading Council, was the fi rst speaker. She

says the CPA came up regularly on their recent road show. “Some were happy,

others were very unhappy.” Attorney William Fullard spoke about

the contractual framework of the CPA. “A supplier of goods and services is often in a superior position to the con-sumer and can often dictate the terms of the contract. The CPA goes against this notion,” he explained.

The CPA outlaws certain contrac-tual terms and conditions entirely, such as the clause that does not protect the customer from gross negligence or does

not include warranties pertaining to the misrepresentation of goods or services. “There is another section in the CPA that says certain clauses and conditions must be brought to the consumer’s attention in a particular manner. Suppliers have to write these terms in plain language, of-fer them conspicuously and allow time for the consumer to understand these terms,” Fullard said.

This means that a supplier cannot supply goods at an unfair price, or have contracts that are unreasonable, or offer warranties that are unjust.

The last speaker was Peter Cumber-lege, who explained how the act affects accommodation marketers. “Marketing material such as brochures and menus has to be factual. If you say your hotel is fi ve minutes from the beach, then make sure your hotel really is fi ve minutes from the beach.”

With regards to overbooking and over selling, establishments might be in trouble. “The CPA states that you cannot accept money for goods and services that you can’t deliver.” If a consumer makes a reservation which an establish-ment cannot deliver on, then the estab-lishment is responsible for fi nding a room of the same quality for the consumer.

Visit SAACI at stand 509.

SAACI EDUCATION WORKSHOP EXPLAINS CPA


FROM LEFT: Peter Cumberlege (Hospitality Management Services); SAACI GM Adene Pringle; William Fullard (Fullard & Mayer Attorneys); SAACI chairperson Nina Freysen-Pretorius; Thembi Kunene (Tourism Grading Council of South Africa); and industry advisor Advocate Louis Nel.

GAUTENG TOURISM AUTHORITY SUPPORTS SMMES

GENERAL INDUSTRYGAUTENG Tourism Authority are proud supporters of Meetings Africa, where they are co-exhibiting with a number of SMMEs and hosting The Gauteng ETEYA Awards on their stand at 4pm today.

GAUTENG is proud to have hosted Meetings Africa, Africa’s premier business tourism lekogtla, since

its inception.Dawn Robertson, CEO of Gauteng

Tourism Authority (GTA), says, “Business

tourism is regarded as one of the high-est yielding and most profi table inbound tourism segments due to distinct purchas-ing trends associated with it. Business tourists tend to be less sensitive to price than leisure tourists, traditionally spending on average twice as much per day be-cause their purchase decisions are infl u-enced primarily by the ability to use time effi ciently within their travel schedules.”

She adds that, as many business tour-ists tend to extend their business trips for pleasure, there is enormous potential in this market.

Meetings Africa boasts a strong de-velopmental hallmark by providing an equal market-access opportunity to SMME players.

This year will be no exception, as GTA will be co-exhibiting alongside Mbokoto Guest Lodge and Spa, Intende Travel, USIBA Country Lodge and Spa, Mount Zion Tours and Travel, Leshala Cuisine, and Vaal Nest Boutique Hotel.

GTA will also host The Gauteng Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year (ETEYA) Awards today from 4pm at stand 416.

GENERAL INDUSTRYYOU can find the full versions of all of these breaking news highlights online at www.theevent.co.za, where you can also submit stories for inclusion in tomorrow’s edition of Meetings Africa Daily News.

Gearhouse invests in Christie MicroTilesGearhouse south africa’s aV division has invested in 100 of Christie Digital’s

amazing multi-award-winning MicroTiles. Check out these MicroTiles in action on their stand, 210, at Meetings africa.

Tourvest launches sports tourism and MICE divisionTourVesT, south africa’s largest tour operator, has launched a second busi-ness division, focusing on sports tourism and MICe business. This second pillar will house all brands and divisions of Tourvest currently active in these business sectors

(T.e.a.M.; Global Conferences; Indo Jet; and the Tourvest Travel services MICe division. Visit Global Conferences at stand 812 to meet Bryan Coetzee, the new division’s Coo.

Sandton Convention Centre maintains its winning streaksanDTon Convention Centre (sCC) has been busy locking business through an aggressive Beyond 2010 strategy.

“We have already been appoint-ed as the venue of choice for many international and national congress-es, conferences and exhibitions in 2011, 2012 and 2013, such as The India Clothing and Textile Trade in 2011, In-ternational Federation of societies of Cosmetic Chemists Congress in 2012, and Fourth World Conference on Doping in sport in late 2013 to name but a few,” says Mati nyazema, sCC’s executive director.

For more info, visit stand 504.

Cocktails at Expo CentreJoIn expo Centre Johannesburg at stand 707 for cocktails and snacks to-day from 15:30-18:00.

Compiled by Kevin Kriedemann


MeeTInGs aFrICa / 07

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Gearhouse used Christie Microtiles at The Metro FM Awards

SITE RESEARCH SHOWS HOW SIGNIFICANT MEETINGS ARE

INCENTIVESSITE is a participating sponsor, along with 14 other industry associations, in a landmark research project, The Eco-nomic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy.

oNE of the key findings was that organisations are successful when they invest in face-to-face

interaction for their key stakeholders. of the 1.8 million us meetings, 1.3

million are classified as corporate or

business meetings, 270 000 are conven-tions, conferences or congresses, 11 000 are trade shows and 66 000 are incen-tive meetings.

Incentives represented 4% of the overall events examined, accounting for 25 million participants and 13 million room nights occupied in the us alone.

The vast majority of meetings (85 per-cent) were conducted at venues with lodging. Meetings generate 250 million overnight stays by 117 million americans and five million international attendees.

The us meetings industry directly

supports 1.7 million jobs, a $106 bil-lion contribution to GDP, $263 billion in spending, $60 billion in labour rev-enue, $14.3 billion in federal tax reve-nue and $11.3 billion in state and local tax revenue.

The 1.7 million jobs generated by the meetings industry is larger than many us industries, including broadcasting and communications (1.3 million), truck and rail transportation industries (1.5 million) and computer and electronic product manufacturing (1.1 million).

For more information, visit stand 113.


GENERAL INDUSTRYYOU can find the full version of all of these breaking news highlights online at www.theevent.co.za, where you can also submit your stories for inclusion in tomorrow’s edition of Meetings Africa Daily News.

Legendary LekgotlaINSPIRATIONAL Legend Golf & Safari Resort was the proud host of South Afri-ca’s first major political event of 2011.

President Jacob Zuma and his cabi-net chose the unique, award-winning leisure venue at the heart of the Big Five Entabeni Safari Conservancy in the Wa-terberg area of Limpopo as the setting for their annual January legkotla to set out

the Government’s strategies for this year. Legend Golf & Safari Resort won Af-

rica’s Leading Sports Resort and South Af-rica’s Leading Golf Resort at 2010 World Travel Awards.

For more info, visit stand 424.

Green is go – red is stopSOUTh African Tourism is challenging you to consider where you put your waste and to encourage you to help Meetings Africa with recycling. The ZF Cleaning Team is on-site to do the cleaning and recycling but they need your help.

A two-bin system has been imple-mented at Meetings Africa where peo-ple need to consider if a product can be recycled (plastic, paper, tins, glass) or if it should be sent to landfill (also known as “the rubbish dump.”)

The basic rule of thumb is if it is still rela-tively clean and can be recycled, then please place it in the recycling bin. If it is something that is “dirty, sticky or gooey” then rather place it in the waste bin.

The cleaning team will be moving through the venue collecting waste and recycling. They then separate the recy-cling into glass, plastic, tin, cardboard and paper so that this can be recycled.

Compiled by Kevin Kriedemann


Legend Golf & Safari Resort’s 19th hole is only accessible by helicopter



EXHIBITOR FEEDBACKWE asked some exhibitors how they found the fi rst day at Meetings Africa. Here’s what they said:

Kgomotso Mathapo(Sandton Convention Centre)I HAVEN’T been able to sit down all day. It’s much busier than last year, plus the clients are very different. They’ve been straight to the point and we’ve also seen that clients are starting to differentiate between Johannesburg and Cape Town. The Poken has been phenomenal; we’ve exchanged info-rmation with quite a few people.

Derek Houston (Reed)DAY one has been an interesting exercise. There have been some good leads, but to be honest we haven’t been using the online diary system to its full extent.

Elmarie Delport (Southern Sun)WE had a busy morning, but a slow afternoon. We haven’t use the Poken very much as most people still prefer to exchange business cards.

Janine Abrahams (SAACI)THERE’S been a lot of interest in the national conference. We’re running a special rate for Meetings Africa. After Thursday the price goes back to normal.

Kavitha Pawnath (Gearhouse)IT’S been interesting. We’ve received more leads from people visiting the stand. Thankfully these clients are very informed so that’s been very reassuring.

Herbert Mashuela (Blue Train)WE’VE had a very productive fi rst day. All of our appointments have shown up so in that sense the matchmaking system worked. My diary is full for the rest of the exhibition.

Roger Martin (Bagzz)AS a fi rst time exhibitor, it’s been interesting. We’ve seen few people visiting us but the leads have been valuable. I’ve met clients wanting to work with us from two African countries.

Ashleigh Coote (Gautrain)WE’VE received a lot of exposure from international press. There’s been great interest in profi ling the Gautrain.

Thapelo Kobue (Complete Exhibitions)SO far today we’ve received interest from 10-15 people who’ve walked up to our stand. The matchmaking system has also been working for us.

EXHIBITORS POSITIVE ABOUT THE FIRST DAY AT MEETINGS AFRICA

The Legend Golf and Safari Resort SWAT team

Kirsty Lee Walker & Derek Houston

Protea Hotel Balalaika

Fiona Abrahams and Herbert Mashuela Craig Newman & the Expo Centre girls

Jongi Ntshuntshe,Vickie Carson & Nina Pieters

Meetings Africa Daily News: Tuesday

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