21/11/2020
Business Events will rise! Don't miss the Tourism Marketing Conference at CTICC on 26 & 27 November. Tickets at www.tourismconference.co.za
BEYOND THE HORIZON
This week President Cyril Ramaphosa hosted the Annual South African Investment Conference. As reported, the President of South Africa was not sure if he should go ahead with his event. In deciding to go ahead and host the event, we are informed of the economic success of the event through the investment pledges made. This Business Event demonstrates the power, and importance of our industry. The announcements made signified business confidence across the national economy and provided insights into the areas that investments will be made.
It is important to note that Business Events are:
• A catalyst for South Africa’s broader economic recovery, local employment reactivation and job creation, and
• Have a symbiotic relationship with many other industries including airlines, hotels and venues, transport, catering, cleaning, mining, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing, to name a few.
While virtual events may continue to act as a backstop, we have seen this week again that it is in no way a replacement for in-person events, do not support local employment and cannot not deliver the broader benefits of Business Events.
Without the event, business transaction, through the pledges that have been made to the South African people, could not have happened and as such, the social-economic affect would have been lost for Destination South Africa. If this event is not a key indicator to government of the important of our sector, as SAACI we do not know what will.
As an Association, we have and will continue to push on your behalf as we have shared weekly. We do believe that it has been tough, yes, but through collaboration we will make it through these dark clouds.
Our work on the recovery of the Business Events Sector has been enhanced as our CEO Glenton De K**k is a member of the TBCSA’s COVID-19 Work Stream. With the engagements SAACI has had with the Minister’s working team, this work stream aims to create an improved public-private sector team that cohesively works on key industry sector areas for implementation.
Work is also progressing well on our youth programmes with our partners Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The team under the leadership of SAACI Board member Minister Kganyago have clarity on our efforts to work with the future leaders of the Business Events Industry. We will soon be sharing these activities with you, our members.
We are aware of the need to have a real sense of what is happening with the Business Events Industry at present. To understand where the Business Events Industry’s current “heartbeat” is at, we will be requesting your participation in a Business Events Pulse Survey during the course of next week. The results will be shared with participating members, and as such we request members to please to participate.
Business Events was one of the first industries to be impacted by COVID-19 and may be one of the last industries to recover due to the long lead times - particularly for major Business Events.
IT IS A KEY ECONOMIC DRIVER as we have seen this week, that can’t be ignored. We urge members to remain positive and to consider how you can work with us as we drive recovery for all.
Remain Positive and Keep Safe,
The SAACI Team
