Business tourism in South Africa remains positive - SAACI

SAACI 2008 Re p o Rt b A C k
The South African business tourism sector
is optimistic going forward, this was
the overall message that came out at
the recent annual national conference of the
Southern African Association for the Conference
Industry, held in Grahamstown in the Eastern
Cape, entitled ‘Elements of Change’.
The sector continues to be called resilient
and delegates surely painted a picture of just
Live group, Centrestage, transformed during the evening from the
Beach Boys, as seen in the picture, through to Rolling Stones,
and even The Beatles and other popular groups of the 70s.
Business tourism in South Africa
remains positive
that in terms of responses to a question on
business confidence. Close to 80 percent of
delegates said they were conducting the same
amount of business, or more, than one year
ago.
Bruce MacMillan, CEO of Meeting
Professionals International (MPI), the keynote
speaker at the SAACI conference, said globally
conferences are not being cancelled because
of the economic downswing, although it is
generally taking longer to finalise events as
organisers are more cautious.
He said according to MPI’s annual industry
study, Futurewatch, average worldwide
meeting attendance increased by 19 percent
in 2007. “The share of events in corporate
marketing budgets has increased to 27
percent, with marketers indicating that events
SAACI gets creative for a good cause
The SAACI Service chapter arranged for a fun afternoon as delegates were teamed up to make collages on large canvasses to
represent the business tourism industry in South Africa. All the necessary glitter, glue, paints etc, etc were provided by Party
Design and Contact Publications provided magazines for tearing up and a great deal of laughter and fun ensued. Due to many
factors only 12 people turned up so only three teams of four participated. The idea was to auction off the "artworks" at the
evening function. Over R3300 was raised and the money was donated to the Home for Abused Children in Grahamstown.
have a higher return on investment than any
other marketing channel.”
Mr MacMillan said the biggest challenge
impacting our industry is air travel – capacity.
He said he believe it would get worse before it
gets better.
“On the global arena he said competition is
on the increase with new convention centres
being built around the world. The event
planners options are huge and the sheer
growth of centres is remarkable.”
He warned that with all the new
developments there will be even more demand
for major human capital. “The war for talent is
about to happen – its looming.”
Responding to the competition he said
destinations need to focus on the ‘humanware
not the hardware’. “We are in the business of
relationships and that will trump ‘adversity’.
On another front, Mr MacMillan said the
new generation, branded the Mellennials are
driving the next growth wave. “They want to
be plugged in all the time. They know people
from all over the world and want to connect
with people from all over. They are the clients
of the future and are interested in making
global connections.”
He said it is imperative to build a global
meeting and event brand and complimented
South Africa on Business Unusual, its
international marketing campaign for the
events industry, for creating separate leisure
and business brands.
Mr MacMillan said Corporate Social
SAACI announces its
2008 award winners
The Southern African Association for the
Conference Industry (SAACI) announced
the names of the 2008 winners of its annual
Fellowship and Personality awards at its national
conference in Grahamstown this week.
The Fellowship award went to SAACI
board member Peta Thomas and vice
chairman Nina Freysen-Pretorius is SAACI’s
Personality of the Year.
The awards have been made since 1997.
Nominations are received from SAACI members
and the winners are chosen by a specially
appointed panel.
The Fellowship award goes to a member who
has had a minimum of ten years of service and
who has made a positive contribution to the
development of SAACI, while the Personality
of the Year award is made to a person who
has made an outstanding contribution to the
conference industry by virtue of his or her
involvement.
SAACI National Chairman Thomas Overbeck
said Thomas and Freysen-Pretorius are true
conference industry leaders and worthy SAACI
award winners.
“Peta Thomas has been instrumental in
positioning SAACI as a core player in the
education field and is the driving force behind
our new website. Nina Freysen-Pretorius,
Responsibility is a huge opportunity for
South Africa as well as greening initiatives.
“Greenings is becoming a criteria in choosing
a destination.”
On the 2010 Fifa World Cup, he said it is
a huge opportunity to market the country
as more companies are investing in bringing
together people at events such as 2010 due
to its high return on investment. This includes
the Fortune 100 companies.
Speakers at the conference agreed that
South Africa will only benefit from the 2010
Soccer World Cup tournament in the long run
if it looks beyond the tournament itself.
Conference industry marketer Charles
Drewe said international association meetings,
for instance, take a long time to plan and this
portion of the industry has already passed
2010.
Prof Matthew Lester, Head of Taxation at
Rhodes University predicted that South Africa
will display its usual resilience in dealing with
challenging factors like the current world
economy, changes in political leadership and
the power crisis, but said the country’s biggest
challenge remains dealing with crime and
violence effectively.
Dr David Morrell, spoke on why the
local South African association appointed a
European PCO for the 2008 Anaesthesiology
World Congress, which took place in Cape
Town.
Dr Morrell presented a balanced report on
the procedures that led to a European PCO
chairman of our branch in Kwa-Zulu Natal, has
through her professionalism, hard work and
dedication made a huge contribution to the
development of SAACI.
“Both Peta and Nina deserve the recognition
of our association on a national level. We
look forward to continue working with them
to grow SAACI and the professionalism of the
Thomas Overbeck, national chairman
of SAACI with Peta Thomas, Total
Impact Communications, who won
the Fellowship Award.
being appointed.
The requirements included capacity, had
to be more than a two man show; contacts –
had to have a database of groups; had to have
innovation and imagination and ofcourse the
congress needed to make a profit. Ofcourse
there needed to be trust, due to past bad
experiences where money had disappeared.
One of the primary reasons was the local
PCOs did not have the necessary expertise for
this congress.
Local PCOs were brought in on different
stages to assist and this, according to a
PCO who was involved, provided a wealth of
expertise for future congresses.
Daniel Tschudy, international meetings
industry consultant looked at how African
countries an overcome the perception
that they are unsafe and unstable. In his
presentation he provided the audience with
answers to a questionnaire he had sent out to
across the global meetings industry. The most
surprising result that came from the survey
was that those that had been to Africa would
come again and those that had not would not
consider visiting.
Therefore the results showed that the
perceptions were negative overall due to crime
and in many cases political instability.
Mr Tschudy provided 10 suggestions on how
South Africa for instance could change these
perceptions, including identifying ‘tourist
ambassadors’ and introducing multilingual
‘tourist police’. n
conference industry in South Africa.”
SAACI’s more than 1 200 members
represent a variety of sectors within the
conference industry, including conference
venues, professional conference organisers and
a large variety of services such as audiovisual,
entertainment, décor and catering. n
Nina Freysen-Pretorius, The Conference
Company won Personality of the Year.
Pictured with Thomas Overbeck, national
chairman of SAACI.
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SAACI 2008 Re p o Rt b A C k

SAACI 2008 Re p o Rt b A C k
SAACI goes ‘back to school’
THE SAACI National Conference in
Grahamstown kicked off with a “Back to
School” welcome function at St Andrew’s
College.
Seen at the event …
Sunil Menon, NFS Hospitality; Nina Freysen-
Pretorius, The Conference Company and
Dawn Holmwood, Contact Publications.
Lindiwe Mahlangu, The
Johannesburg Tourism
Company and Charles Drewe,
Drewe Associates.
Craig Newman, The Expo Centre and Thomas
Overbeck, national chairman of SAACI.
Carol Mcnab, The Conference Company; Joan
Mollagrean, Rentnet; Linda Ngcipe and Ngobile Majozi,
both of Tourism KwaZulu-Natal.
The ICC Durban team from left: Marlene Govender, Sal Govender, Sandy Le Brasse, Neero
Parbanath, Buhle Ntuli with Craig Drysdale, Springbok Atlas, middle.
Entertainers from Centrestage at the ‘Back
to School’ theme party.
Dean Gunningham, Complete Exhibitions
and Ryan Selby of Selbys SA.
The NH Hotels team, from left: Angela
Jacobson; Jaco du Plooy and Natalie
Kensley.
Leon Bosch, Guvon Hotels; Ian Lill,
Adventours & Transfers and Penny
Loubser, representing Indaba Hotel.
SAACI celebrates with 70s party
The Gala evening took shape in the form of a ‘70s Party’ held at the Mandela Dining Hall.
Delegates got all dressed up in their 70s gear.
Seen at the event …
From Eastern Sun Events, Michelle Kielblock;
Tanya Schmidt and Lizl Fyffe.
Justin Hawes, Scan Display and
Jeanette van Rensburg, Contact
Publications.
Lumka Dlomo, Johannesburg Tourism Company;
Daniel Tschudy, Meetings Industry Consultant and
Bashni Reddiar, SAACI.
Liza Monteiro, The Conference Company; Lynn and Ron Selby, Selbys
SA; Nina Freysen-Pretorius and Deidre Hancke-Haysom,
The Conference Company.
The disguised NH Hotels team, from left: Natalie
Kensley, Jaco du Plooy and Angela Jacobson.
Elmarie Delport, Southern Sun
and Meagan Swail, Southern Sun
Newlands.
Nigel Walker, Complete
Exhibitions and Denise Kemp, Eastern
Sun Events.
Koos Myburgh, Event Scape and Margi
Biggs, Specialized Tours & Events.
Vanessa Falconer, Meta4 Marketing; Charles Drewe, Drewe Associates; Grant Medcalf and
Corné Koch of Thebe Exhibitions and Projects and Angeline Lue, South African Tourism.
Joyce Dogniez and Bruce Macmillan;
Meeting Professionals International with
Denise Kemp, Eastern Sun Events.
Entertainers in “The Beatles” mode.
Dawn Holmwood, Contact Publications and
Frank Johnson, SAB World of Beer.
Glenn
and Loryn
van Eck,
Magnetic
Storm.
38 Southern Africa Conference, Exhibition & Events Guide 2008 Vol. 28 No. 7 2008 Vol. 28 No. 7 Southern Africa Conference, Exhibition & Events Guide 39
SAACI 2008 Re p o Rt b A C k

SAACI 2008 Re p o Rt b A C k
Seen in conference mode …
Peta Thomas, Total Impact
Communications and Errol Ninow,
Alex Gintan Associates.
The Arcadia Hotel team, from left: Renier Buys,
Daniela Stander and Srinivas Venkatkumar.
Tebogo Tsoku, Johannesburg
Tourism Company and Pearl Mohapi,
Gauteng Tourism Company.
Rashid Toefy, Cape Town International
Convention Centre and Muhammad
Khan, Tribal Meetings.
Keith Muller, Network SA; Brian McDonald,
Global Conferences Africa and Thomas
Overbeck, national chairman of SAACI.
Sanchia Webster, Protea Hotels
and Miller Matola, ICC Durban.
Dirk Elzinga, Cape Town
International Convention Centre
and Justin Hawes, Scan Display.
Speaker, Jane
Stevenson, Frankly
Speaking.
Joey Pather, Cape Town International Convention
Centre; Romaine Veeren and Racquel de Sousa,
Congress Rental.
Grant Medcalf and Corné Koch, both of Thebe
Exhibitions and Projects; Zelda Ingram, Thebe
Conferences and Nadia Jappie, V&A Waterfront.
Koos Myburgh, Event Scape and Margi Biggs,
Specialized Tours & Events.
Speaker, Chris Breen,
University of Cape
Town.
Speaker, Dr
Kathleen Nelson,
University of
Nevada Las Vegas.
Speaker, Dr Dave Morrell, 14th
World Congress of Anaethesia.
Seen in conference mode …
Martin Macphail, Conference Communications
and Keith Murcott, Feather Market Centre.
Speaker, Dan Nelson, Dan
Nelson Productions.
Zelda Ingram, Thebe Conferences; Lumka
Dlomo, Johannesburg Tourism;
and Mmatšatši Marobe, CEO TBGSA.
Nigel Walker in his school
outfit.
Samuel Nassimov, Premier Hotels & Resorts
and Peter Repinz, Afri Temba Leisure.
Thomas Overbeck presented Tracey Goodall and
Rose Kemp of Contact Publications with an accolade
for outstanding service behind the scenes.
Receiving the certificates from Thomas is Dawn
Holmwood, Contact Publications.
Glenn van Eck, Magnetic
Storm and Adele Muller,
Bushman Sands.
Lindiwe Mahlangu, CEO Johannesburg
Tourism; and David Frandsen, Cape Town
Routes Unlimited
Denver Manickum, I-Cube Advertising and
Liz Maziya, Zone Marketing Consultants.
Désirée Smits van
Waesberghe, Association
Global Services and Esmaré
van Tonder, Arabella
Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
Speaker, Professer
Matthew Lester,
Rhodes University.
Antoinette Meinhardt, South African Tourism;
Matifadza Nyazema, Sandton Convention Centre and
Liz Maziya, Zone Marketing Consultants.
Greg McManus, Heritage -
The Environmental
Management Company.
Frank Johnson, SAB World
of Beer; and Irene Costa,
Contact Publications.
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SAACI 2008 Re p o Rt b A C k