the event july 2011

SPORTS TOURISMTHE Sports & Events Tourism Ex-change (SETE) takes place from 27-29 July 2011 at Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC). The inaugural confer-ence aims to facilitate the growth of South Africa’s sports and tour-ism industry.

SPORT a serious business. Sport tourism and mega events contribute approximately R6

billion to the South African tour-ism industry. According to statis-tics from South African Tourism (SAT), tourist arrivals reached an all-time high of 8.1 million in 2010, with 1,061,687 more tourist arrivals to South Africa than in 2009. This is a growth of 15.1%, driven mainly by South Africa hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup in 2010. South Af-rica outperformed global tourism which grew by 6.7% in 2010.

It’s pretty obvious that mega sporting events equal big bucks. The Rugby World Cup is the world’s third largest sporting event that adds anything be-tween £250 million to £1.1 billion in additional economic impact. It attracts over 350 000 visitors. If ten percent of those visitors had to return, that’s 35 000 people who will come back to the coun-try to spend their money again.

Even countries like Quatar are looking at expanding its sporting interests having successfully host-

ed the 2006 Asian Games and the 2009 and 2010 Mens’ Volley-ball world club championships.

The purpose of an event like SETE will be to look at ways in which South Africa and its role players can use sport to gener-ate economic benefi ts, both tan-gible and intangible.

South Africa built ten sta-diums for the FIFA World Cup and these are far from white el-ephants. Over and above the potential to attract other big sporting events, FNB Stadium

and Cape Town Stadium have been used to great effect as live music venues, notably for the U2 360 tour. Moses Mabhida Sta-dium in Durban has become a popular bungee venue.

Sport events can be used to regenerate neighbourhoods, for example Gauteng benefi t-ted hugely from the construction of the Gautrain. The economic benefi t of a sporting event also leads to job creation. Research shows that sports events attract a large fan base and job creation

is boosted when industries create products and services related to the event. The 2010 Winter Olym-pics had a $10.7 billion impact on the host nation’s economy and created 244 000 jobs.

“It is evident from the success of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, that sports tourism has the potential to act as a catalyst for, among others, job creation, increases in tourism arrivals and spend and the enhancement of infrastruc-ture. These elements have sig-nifi cant economic spinoff for a

country. One of the goals of SETE is to explore how sports, tourism and the events industry can con-tinue the partnerships we creat-ed in 2010 to lead to further ben-efi ts for South Africa.” says Sugen Pillay, global manager: Events at SA Tourism

There were also social ben-efi ts with South Africa expe-riencing unprecedented na-tional unity and camaraderie and Archbishop Desmond Tutu identifi ed sport as a catalyst for social change.

From a business perspective, the possibilities are endless and can include merchandise sales made off a new player to ticket sales and broadcast deals; spon-sorships and brand exposure; tourism growth and tax infl ows; the upliftment of infrastructure and skills, and even intangible benefi ts such as brand, goodwill and national pride.

In South Africa, the price of a team’s brand and the sponsor-ship associated with it is worth millions. The latest asking price for the country’s national soccer team Bafana Bafana’s brand stands at a reported R41 million. Sports sponsorship reinforces a brand and profi les it internation-ally through media exposure, which encourages sales and driving revenues for the business.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

pg4 pg14 pg 26

BIG QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED AT SETE

Royal Bafokeng Stadium

R22.80July 2011 The Sport issuewww.theevent.co.za

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VENUESWITH its V&A Waterfront setting and a capacity for up to 500 guests, The Pavilion is an ideal location for that special event in Cape Town. The venue recently appointed new talent with a new vision for the centre.

THE Pavilion Conference Cen-tre has appointed hospitality stalwart Johan de Villiers as its

new general manager. Johan brings with him

twelve years of experience in the hospitality industry hav-ing worked within Sun Interna-tional and the Legacy Hotels &

Resorts ranging from food and beverage manager to deputy GM and banqueting manager at Sun City.

Johan’s vision for The Pavil-ion Conference Centre is both ambitious and an example of his passion for business. “I’d like for The Pavilion to be the num-

ber one small to medium sized conference and exhibition location destination in Cape Town with a flair for excellence, service, diversity and original-ity. Our goal is to adapt within the market as it changes and to streamline our business to fit in with all expectations, require-ments and originality”.

The Pavilion’s conference facilities are flexible; in that it offers various sized venues that can be tailor made according to clients’ individual needs. “We can offer a cocktail party for up to 500 delegates; or a small corporate meeting in our boardroom for ten delegates. In total we offer five meeting rooms, some of which are in-terleading for bigger groups. We also offer an auditorium that can host up to 300 del-egates,” explains Johan.

“Using the first and ground floors; we can accommodate up to 60 shell schemes for an exhibition. We pride ourselves in our AV offering with state-of-the-art equipment to comple-ment our clients’ experience,” he says.

A recent event illustrates the centre’s diversity as a venue. The Pavilion recently hosted the 2011 Tattoo Convention which was attended by 4 000 visi-tors. Live tattoo demonstrations took place on the ground floors where 50 shell scheme stands had been erected.

“We believe that The Pa-vilion Conference Centre has some unique selling points that make us an ideal venue for conferencing,” says Johan.

“High quality AV equipment, flexibility to configure venues to suit client needs, natural light in all venues with panoramic views of the V&A Waterfront and Ta-ble Mountain, excellent tech-nology infrastructure and an au-ditorium that could serve either as a venue for presentations or product launches,” he explains.

BMW SA has just recently sold the BMW Pavilion building in which the conference cen-tre is located. The new owners are Zenprop Property Hold-ings (PTY), but Johan says that despite the new ownership its business as usual.

The Pavilion Conference Centre is currently running its winter special offering reduced rates for both half day and full day conferences from as little as R225 per person. The centre is also offering a 25 percent dis-count of the venue hire when booking an evening gala din-ner or cocktail evening.

For more information visit www.thepavilion.co.za

Sally Fink

PAGE TWO PIN-UP: THE PAVILION CONFERENCE CENTRE

Pavilion Conference Centre

3

BIG QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED AT SETE CONTINUED

SPORTS TOURISM

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“Businesses that realise the impact of sports on their opera-tions will have the opportunity to leverage from an enhanced pro-file and an increase in profits, as their brand and sales gets boost-ed from an increase in tourists,” says Carol Weaving managing director of Thebe Exhibitions and Projects Group.

Apart from the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa has host-ed international events such as the Cricket World Cup, the FIFA Confederations Cup and the Rugby World Cup, to name a few. This has attracted the inter-national media, which has pro-filed the sport, its sponsors and the country on a global stage.

“This large-scale profiling means that business owners not only have the opportunity to generate sales from tourists in the country, but from international viewers too who want to come visit the country in the future,” says Carol.

The increase in a host coun-try’s profile leads to heightened business activity and additional investment for years to come. “The reality is that countries are increasingly realising the benefits of hosting major sporting events and the impact of such events on business,” she adds.

Conference topics will en-compass all aspects of sports busisness. The legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup will feature Laurine Platzky, Deputy Minister of Tourism Tokozile Xasa, Danny Jordaan, Holger Preuss, Qondi-sa Ngwenya, John Perlman, Pieter Cronjé, and Prof Paul Singh,as speakers.

Sustainability challenges and opportunities will feature Derek Casey, Minister of Sport & Recreation Fikile Mbalula, Sug-en Pillay, Brad Jansen, Douglas Michele Turco, Dave Sidenberg as speakers with a second ses-son on the topic featuring Urmil-la Bob, Scarlett Cornelissen; Gil-lian Saunders, Bashni Muthaya, James Seymour, Carol Wright, and Charl Durand.

Building Sport Tourism port-folios will feature Dr Deborah Johnson, Elizabeth Kruger, and Ernie Heath, while Sport Tourism Beyond Events will feature case sturdies from Brendon Knott and Kwakye Donkor.

Other panelists include Nanita Ferrone (How to Lev-erage a Successful Sporting Event), Michael Linley (Meas-uring Intangible Event Impact), and Serkan Berber (Athletes as Event Tourists).

An exhibition will take place concurrently with the confer-ence. Exhibitors will include sports industry associations, sports marketers and managers, sports bodies, destination man-

agement companies, sponsors, venues, production companies, sporting goods, event and exhi-bition management companies and tourism authorities to name a few.

Exhibitor Louise Rohner from Upper Eastside Hotel says, “The exhibition is a brilliant platform and opportunity to expose our product to a multitude of like-minded buyers. It is very impor-tant for Upper Eastside Hotel, as a new kid on the block to show the sport travel industry that we can cater to a number of diver-sified needs that many other ho-tels can equal.”

South Africa’s national ‘Buy Local’ Campaign, Proudly South African initiative will also exhibit. “Buy Local is a tried and tested international method of creating jobs and since South Africa is a sports loving nation it is important that all fan gear of our local and national teams is manufactured in South Africa to contribute to the retention of jobs in the clothing and tex-tile sector in South Africa”, says Dalene Du Preez.

Lisa Hood from Springbok Atlas says, “As a sponsor for this event, we aim to showcase our company as the leading transport provider in the coun-try. Springbok Atlas has a long legacy of involvement in South Africa’s biggest sporting events, including Rugby World Cup 1995, Cricket World Cup 2003, IPL

2009, British & Irish Lions Tour 1997 and 2007, Confederations Cup 2009 and Soccer World Cup 2010. We proudly stand with our hands on our hearts and state that we were a major contribu-

tor, as a supplier, to the success of all these events, especially the World Cup 2010. “

For more information visit www.sportsandevents.co.za.

Sally Fink

Dalene Du Preez

4

SPORTS TOURISMWHY Sport Matters? is a web-based initiative started by John Siner. The project com-piles case studies about the international sport events in-dustry. John visited South Af-rica and Kenya to pinpoint the effect of sport in those regions.

Why sport matters in the Cape Winelands?FOR over ten years Origin Wines have taken a percentage of

their profits to upgrade the living conditions of the less fortunate communities where their em-ployees work. Recently they dis-covered the unique power that sport can play in their efforts.

In post-Apartheid South Af-rica, it was still acceptable for employees to be partially com-pensated with the products they make. In this case, it was wine. As a consequence, it was feared that many of their employees had developed dependency. A 2007 research study at their South

African winery near Stellenbosch revealed astonishing results: 95 percent of their adult workforce was addicted to alcohol.

An immediate rehabilita-tion initiative was started with a combination of counselling services and the creation of an organised sports club. “We needed to provide the adults with the opportunity to be ac-tive during the weekend,” ex-plains Origin Wines director Pierre Smit. “They would literally drink from Friday night until they

had to go back to work again on Monday. Sport on the week-end was the perfect solution.”

Activities, leagues and com-petitions were organised for both adults and kids for a variety of sports including netball, football, rugby, and other activities like pool and dominoes. Competi-tions with other towns, training sessions, and leagues began to structure their employees’ lives in a more positive way.

“We were able to take these people from the farm and intro-duce them into new environ-ments,” says Pierre. “South Af-rica is a sports mad country and everyone wants to excel on the pitch. But that meant they need-ed to train and look after them-selves. To live healthier lifestyles and more importantly, cut back on the bad habits in their lives, which in this case was drug and alcohol abuse. Sport was able to do this.”

Why sport matters in Nairobi?VINCENT Ochieng is one of the top triathletes in Kenya. This is remarkable when you consider that he has spent his entire life growing up in poverty. But this is only the beginning of Vincent’s inspiring story.

Vincent is from the massive slum of Kibera in Kenya’s capital city of Nairobi, one of the largest informal urban settlements in the world. Most residents lack ac-cess to basic services like elec-

tricity and running water. Kibera is a mix of different peoples, with limited access to good education and employment. Racial tensions can run high, and young people are faced by a lifestyle of gangs, drugs and crime.

Thanks to his sporting success, Vincent understands that he is a role model and realised that he can be an agent for change. In 2008, Vincent created the Kibera Sport Development Programme to empower youth through sports and to encourage sportsman-ship as a way of life. Each day his organisation runs training sessions for kids that are complemented with education on social issues like HIV/Aids, drug abuse and positive health initiatives.

“We want to change lives, and our foundation provides a way for the youth of this area to spend time in an encouraging way,” says Vincent. “It provides them with something to do and a way out of a life of drugs and crime. At the same time, sport is an important unifying factor. In Kibera we have big problems with segregation and violence amongst the different tribes. Sport is a great way to unite the community as we are open to all kids and we get together and work as one team.”

For more information visit whysportmatters.com.

Sally Fink

WHY SPORT MATTERS?

5

SPORTS TOURISMIN keeping with our theme of sports tourism, The Event spoke to CTICC COO Joey Pather about his recent trip to London to attend Sports Accord, the meeting place for international sports federations.

Why Sports Accord?THE CTICC met with international ski and gymnastics federations with the aim of bringing their conferences to Cape Town. In this way we were exposed to the international sporting fraternity and decided to attend Sports Accord as a delegate.

I had a two-fold approach with Sports Accord. Firstly I looked at the event as an ac-tual conference that can be brought to Cape Town. There’s a gap in 2014 that we can bid for. Secondly, the conference was a link to all the attending sports fraternities.

Who attends Sports Accord?THE profile of the event is unbe-lievable. It was opened by the Lord Mayor of London and at-tended by a host of lords and ladies. The delegate profile in-cludes cities and countries, fu-ture hosts of big games, states, federations, the sporting frater-nity, associations, major sponsors, finance institutes, and a few con-vention centres.

The CTICC was one of two

South African delegates.

How did you find the event?IT was an excellent conference attended by approximately 1900 members of the international sporting fraternity.

The program was a nice mix of how the bidding process works, Olympic work, sponsorship and the business behind sports events. It was a very good learn-ing experience but even bet-ter from a business perspective. Sporting is not just the Olympics and the World Cup.

There is so much more to sports tourism than just hosting games. There’s the bidding pro-cess, meetings, conferences etc. It made very good business sense for us to go down this route. We had to look at how we go about this and decided to change our mindset from our traditional core business, which is conferencing.

As a convention centre we were exposed to the countless indoor sports such as gymnastics, judo, karate, chess, darts, pool etc. that we could host within our exhibition space.

What did you learn that can be applied to business?WHAT was interesting for me was how they approach the Olym-pics. The whole event is broken up into different committees – bidding, construction, hosting, legacy etc. In each case the focus is different, and you can

see how they all work from an individual business point of view.

From a design perspective we might even look at some-thing like bleacher seating for our renovations. If it makes business sense then why not?

We can even market the cen-tre as a venue for base camps and media centres of large sporting events. Our improved in-frastructure means we can play a bigger part of the process.

We have to make sport events part of our long term plans.

Why should South African mem-bers of the events industry attend an event like Sports Accord?INDUSTRY needs to attend to see what’s out there. Sports business is big business. Why shouldn’t a convention centre have this as their mandate? It makes sense.

South Africa is a long haul sporting destination. Because we hosted the World Cup South Af-rica is at the top of everybody’s minds. We have the infrastruc-ture, the services, the track re-cord and the venues.

Durban is already pitching itself as a sporting destination. We’re hosting the Sports and Events Tourism Exchange this month. People want our destina-tion. We have to use everything to our advantage.

Sally Fink

JOEY PATHER ON SPORTS ACCORD

Joey Pather

5

SPORTS TOURISMIN keeping with our theme of sports tourism, The Event spoke to CTICC COO Joey Pather about his recent trip to London to attend Sports Accord, the meeting place for international sports federations.

Why Sports Accord?THE CTICC met with international ski and gymnastics federations with the aim of bringing their conferences to Cape Town. In this way we were exposed to the international sporting fraternity and decided to attend Sports Accord as a delegate.

I had a two-fold approach with Sports Accord. Firstly I looked at the event as an ac-tual conference that can be brought to Cape Town. There’s a gap in 2014 that we can bid for. Secondly, the conference was a link to all the attending sports fraternities.

Who attends Sports Accord?THE profile of the event is unbe-lievable. It was opened by the Lord Mayor of London and at-tended by a host of lords and ladies. The delegate profile in-cludes cities and countries, fu-ture hosts of big games, states, federations, the sporting frater-nity, associations, major sponsors, finance institutes, and a few con-vention centres.

The CTICC was one of two

South African delegates.

How did you find the event?IT was an excellent conference attended by approximately 1900 members of the international sporting fraternity.

The program was a nice mix of how the bidding process works, Olympic work, sponsorship and the business behind sports events. It was a very good learn-ing experience but even bet-ter from a business perspective. Sporting is not just the Olympics and the World Cup.

There is so much more to sports tourism than just hosting games. There’s the bidding pro-cess, meetings, conferences etc. It made very good business sense for us to go down this route. We had to look at how we go about this and decided to change our mindset from our traditional core business, which is conferencing.

As a convention centre we were exposed to the countless indoor sports such as gymnastics, judo, karate, chess, darts, pool etc. that we could host within our exhibition space.

What did you learn that can be applied to business?WHAT was interesting for me was how they approach the Olym-pics. The whole event is broken up into different committees – bidding, construction, hosting, legacy etc. In each case the focus is different, and you can

see how they all work from an individual business point of view.

From a design perspective we might even look at some-thing like bleacher seating for our renovations. If it makes business sense then why not?

We can even market the cen-tre as a venue for base camps and media centres of large sporting events. Our improved in-frastructure means we can play a bigger part of the process.

We have to make sport events part of our long term plans.

Why should South African mem-bers of the events industry attend an event like Sports Accord?INDUSTRY needs to attend to see what’s out there. Sports business is big business. Why shouldn’t a convention centre have this as their mandate? It makes sense.

South Africa is a long haul sporting destination. Because we hosted the World Cup South Af-rica is at the top of everybody’s minds. We have the infrastruc-ture, the services, the track re-cord and the venues.

Durban is already pitching itself as a sporting destination. We’re hosting the Sports and Events Tourism Exchange this month. People want our destina-tion. We have to use everything to our advantage.

Sally Fink

JOEY PATHER ON SPORTS ACCORD

Joey Pather

6

CONFERENCESFROM social media to con-sumer rights, every day will be a school day at the South-ern African Association for the

Conference Industry (SAACI) national conference, taking place from 24-26 July 2011 at the NH Lord Charles Ho-tel in Somerset West (Western Cape).

“THE SAACI annual nation-al conference is the best opportunity and platform

for all members and industry partners to re-group, share in-formation and work towards professionalising and growing our business,” says Nina Frey-sen-Pretorius, SAACI national chair. “As always, within the hospitality sector, it is not all work and no play. So be as-sured, that should you attend the conference, you will be given ample opportunity to informally also discuss business tourism aspects whilst having loads of fun and sample some of the wonderful Cape wines.”

This year’s theme is Learn, Connect, Thrive, and if the programme is anything to go by, there will be lots to learn.

“The programme features some interesting speakers and pertinent and informative topics. A keynote address by Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk will set the ball roll-ing on Monday morning, 25 July 2011, after which different convention bureaux will reflect on the status of the South Afri-can conference industry,” ex-plains conference chair Ried-waan Jacobs.

“Highly relevant topics will be discussed at the confer-ence, including event insur-ance, recognition of prior learning for event managers, and social media as a market-

ing tool. Amanda Kotze-Nhla-po of the Western Cape Con-vention and Events Bureau will give tips to Professional Con-ference Organisers on how to respond to requests for pro-posals and how to present.”

Conference highlights in-clude a welcome reception on Sunday 24 July 2011 hosted by Warwick Wine Estate followed by a Monday morning network-ing breakfast hosted by SA Tour-ism and the gala awards dinner later in the evening.

Topics to be covered at the conference include:•Prof Matthew Lester - Two Years Post the Global Credit Crunch. How is Business Tour-ism Looking?•Martin Lewis - Conferences: A Global Outlook•Thembi Kunene - Know what to expect from star graded es-tablishments•Arthur Gillis - Hotels: the Good, the Bad and the Trendy•Services SETA - Recognition of Prior Learning•Maryke van Zyl - The Ins and Outs of Menu Design for Events & Conferences•Sheryl Ozinsky - Responsible Tourism: Fact or Fiction•Gerrit Harjung - ISO 20121 Standard: International Bench-mark for Sustainable Events•Gavin Riley - The Risky Busi-ness of Safety & Security•Peter Cumberlege - Know Your Rights: Consumer Protec-

tion Act•Desmond Langkilde - Event Insurance: A Necessary Evil?•Beryl Eichenberger - Social Net-working: Who Has the Power?•Hein Wagner -The Blind Man with a Vision

The 2011 Conference will also be green. “At SAACI we take greening and sustainabil-ity seriously and are therefore pleased to announce that we are taking measures to reduce the carbon footprint of the SAACI National Conference 2011 in an effort to minimise its impact on the environment,” says Nina.

“A Carbon audit of the conference will be conduct-ed, and the steps taken to re-duce the carbon footprint of the conference will be identi-fied and listed. Our aim is to use the SAACI National Con-ference as an incubator and real life test case on how to reduce the carbon footprint of a conference. These results will be made available to the industry to emulate,” she says.

The SAACI Annual General Meeting will take on 25 July 2011.

For more information visit www.saaciconf2011.co.za

Sally Fink

LEARN, CONNECT, THRIVE AT SAACI CONFERENCE

Nina Freysen-Pretorius

8

GENERAL INDUSTRYIF you have any news highlights to share please visit our web por-tal www.theevent.co.za and load your own stories for consideration in next month’s edition.

SAACI Eastern Cape winnersTHE Southern African Associa-tion for the Conference Industry (SAACI) have announced the names of its 2011 award winners in its Eastern Cape branch.

The awards, which were

started in 1997, recognise indi-viduals who have made an ex-traordinary contribution to the enrichment and development of SAACI.

The Fellowship Award went to Glenn van Eck for his long service and special contribu-tion to SAACI.

Glenn, a SAACI national board member and chairman of the Eastern Cape branch, joined the association in 1999 and is a Certified Meeting Pro-fessional (CMP). Among others,

he was responsible for the up-grading of the SAACI website and was chairman of the asso-ciation’s 2008 national confer-ence that was held in Graham-stown.

The branch’s Young Achiever Award went to Nicole Fowler, who manages her own, newly-formed event management company. She originally joined SAACI as part of the Springbok Atlas corporate membership and has made a huge contribu-tion towards the growth of the

Eastern Cape branch by recruit-ing new members, being innova-tive when arranging networking events and raising sponsorships.

SAACI general manager Adene Pringle says the Young Achiever Award has been in-troduced to recognise a per-son with a pioneering spirit, but also to encourage involve-ment of young industry profes-sionals in SAACI.

Award winners in SAACI’s other branches – Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Ter-ritories – will be made over the course of July.

Regional winners will then compete for the national awards, which will be presented at the annual SAACI banquet during its conference at the NH Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West on 25 July 2011.

The Conference Company win tender for COP 17THE Conference Company has been appointed as proj-ect manager to the Strategic Projects Unit of the eThekwini Municipality to assist the City of Durban with logistical arrange-ments for the United Nations Framework Convention on Cli-mate Change (COP 17) to be held in the cityfrom 28 Novem-ber - 9 December 2011.

CEO of The Conference Company and SAACI National chair Nina Freysen-Pretorius says, “I am totally delighted at the ap-

pointment, and it is a huge privi-lege to be given the opportunity to work with the City of Durban on this prestigious event. It is a lifetime opportunity being part of a very important Climate Change Convention – outcomes from which will go a long way to-wards making our planet a safe and clean environment for future generations to inherit”.

For more informnation visit www.cop17durban.com.

New equipment from GearhouseROBERT Juliat’s Aramis and the latest Colour Changers, in use on Jesus Christ Superstar, is avail-able for hire from Gearhouse Sp-litbeam.

The Aramis is a hardworking reliable and versatile spot with a well established track record for dependability and great perfor-mance on theatrical touring rigs. The Splitbeam team already has this high quality product hard at work on Jesus Christ Superstar and believe that this investment will still be paying its dues for many years to come.

“They have remarkably high light output for such a compact unit,” explains operations man-ager Nasim Bismilla. ““ they are easy to use, so operators love working with them. Their narrow beam angle that makes them perfect for long distance work and they have enough “oomph” to deliver a dramatic effect de-spite a high ambient light level.”

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Nicole Fowler & Glenn van Eck

9

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

10

INDUSTRY EVENTSTHIS year Markex World of Events exhibition celebrated its 25th anniversary as the de-finitive marketing, promotions and special events exhibition in Southern Africa.

BILLED as a one-stop shop for products and services in marketing, branding,

advertising, corporate clothing, promotional gifts and eventing. Markex World of Events has out-

lasted almost every other trade show in the country.

Over 9 700 visitors flocked to Sandton Convention Centre from 7-9 June 2011. Two jam-packed halls were filled with new concepts, innovative ideas and novel ways of promoting brands, whether through promotional gifts, branding, exhibition stands, corporate clothing or events.

“With more attractions than ever before, Markex not only brought buyers and sellers of products and services togeth-

er under one roof, it provided value-added benefits to visitors as well,” says exhibition director Lynn Chamier.

Markex was organised by Specialised Exhibitions.

Attractions included the USB Speakers Pavilion, where the likes of marketing expert Geoff Ram and local speakers Justice Ma-lala, Robin Wheeler, Gary Bailey and Debora Patta gave visitors some insight into their respective areas of expertise.

The AdVantage Advertising

Village was a hive of activity, with visitors enjoying the dining area, with displays of creative talent by ad agencies and the adjacent Loerie Awards Travelling Exhibi-tion. A newcomer to the show, the Pendoring Awards, gave visitors the opportunity to see award-winning Afrikaans work.

Some of the innovative ideas seen at the show were a totally green printing solution, with a biodegradable printer, water-based non-toxic inks and renewable bamboo ban-ner frames from Graphicomp; pocket-based communication and branding ideas from Pocket Media (think Unidentified Fold-ing Object); Belgian chocolate embossed with QR codes that can be read by smart phones to read a tag code and link di-rectly to a company’s Twitter, Facebook or website; innova-tive exhibition stand solutions from a variety of suppliers; and unusual event ideas and out-the-box thinking from event management companies, like the Commonwealth Games concept from Full House Events.

Exhibition and display sup-plier, Scan Display, showcased its Mo5 product at Markex. De-signed by Scan’s German part-ners MoSysteme, the product won an innovation award pre-sented by AIT (the architecture journals) earlier this year at Euro-shop, the biggest international retail trade show.

The Mo5 is the smaller display unit in the Modulbox range. Like the Modulbox, it has a modular structure that opens up to create a functional indoor and outdoor event tool. When closed it folds away into a compact, easy-to-transport unit.

In the Trade Only section, wholesalers and resellers of pro-motional gifts and corporate clothing were able to connect and network in a more exclu-sive environment, and exhibi-tors reported an enhanced show experience.

On the whole, it was a good show for exhibitors.

Nicholas Markovitz from Cre-ative Brands: “The show was extremely focused and we saw many visitors who indicated an interest in buying our products.”

Esther Chizhandel: “The volume of traffic was tremen-dous. I believed that exhibi-tions were a waste of time, and Markex has changed my perception completely.”

Jennifer van Heusden, On The Box: “We were unexpected-ly busy and got two good leads which resulted in quotes on the first day alone.”

Joanne McLeod on behalf of Kids Haven: “Not in our wildest dreams did we expect it so be such a huge success for us.”

Markex comes to Cape Town from 23-25 August 2011 at Cape Town International Con-vention Centre.

INNOVATION A BUZZ WORD AT MARKEX

Markex

12

GENERAL INDUSTRYTHE Safety at Sport and Recre-ational Events Act (SASREA) is a 54-page piece of legislation put into operation on 2 August 2010.

EXSA (the Exhibition & Event Association of SA) is cur-rently running nationwide

workshops which are aimed at dispelling any misgivings about the Act, present the act in man-ageable pieces, and help or-ganisers and venues comply with its regulations.

At the EXSA workshop in Cape Town from 4-5 April 2011, consultant Patrick Ronan said the Act will prevent disasters during mega events in South Africa; such as the incident in Ellis Park Stadium during 2001 where 43 people died. “It’s the

policy of government to at-tract big events to the country but there’s never been legisla-tion to ensure the safety of the people attending those events. Risk assessments have to factor in the unimaginable – the stam-pede disasters.”

“It’s a very good Act which is being looked at internationally by other countries”, says EXSA’S Sue Gannon. It’s been put in place for the safety and security of the public, and to ensure that everyone is compliant with the very strict rules and regulations which the Act has laid down.”

Sue explains that every event or exhibition must have a safety officer. “Most organisers hire their own safety officers who do all the paperwork for them,” says Sue. “Bottom line is that each and every event and exhibition has

to be registered with the South African Police at the National Commissioner’s Office in Pretoria at least six months before their event or exhibition. The venues have to have a certificate of compliance and the organisers have to register their event which will then get categorised into a high-, medium- or low risk event. All parties must have public liabil-ity insurance in place.”

Sue says the Act gives the police extraordinary powers, “Which go over all municipal and local government by-laws. If there is an incident – they will come after you. So all your pa-perwork has to be in good order and compliant with the Act. The criminal penalties applicable are from 5-20 years imprisonment and massive fines!”

There will shortly be two sets of Regulations in place; one flow-ing from the regulatory responsi-bilities of the SAPS and the other flowing from the regulatory re-sponsibilities of the Department for Sport and Recreation.

Wading through a 54-page document is challenging; how-ever it is clearly essential to know your responsibilities; whether you are an event organiser or the hosting venue or stadium.

What is it all about?IN essence, the Act seeks to reg-ulate the following eight basic key areas:

Responsibilities for event safe-

ty and security delivery, risk pro-filing (categorisation) of events, the establishment of an annual schedule of events to prevent the stretching of public sector security and emergency resourc-ing, safety certification and grad-ing of stadiums and venues -fixed and temporary infrastructure, Integrated and timeous event safety and security planning be-tween all relevant stakeholders for medium and high risk events; facilitated and headed-up by the South African Police Service (SAPS), minimum safety and se-curity measures at medium and high risk events and event tick-eting controls and the creation of offences.

Who is accountable?THE primary responsibility to en-sure that proper safety mea-sures are in place at an event rests; jointly and severally; on a controlling body, an event or-ganiser, or a stadium or venue owner, the National Commis-sioner of Police and the SAPS authorized member who has been appointed by the Nation-al Commissioner of Police.

Event organisers should know: (SECTION 4 of the Act)“Most exhibitions are low risk events,”- Sue Gannon.

Where to start.THE first step for the organiser is to grade your own event which

must then be sent through for ac-ceptance by the National Com-missioner of Police who will cat-egorise its risk. This must be done 6-months prior to the start of the event or 6 months in advance of either commencement of calen-dar year or sporting season.

EXSA recommends that a Controlling Body of a sporting Code for example such as South African Rugby Union (SARU) should assist affiliate event or-ganisers to collate and submit risk categorisation schedules of all of its affiliates to the National Commissioner.

Low risk eventsTHE organiser must ensure that a safety officer is appointed for the event; prepare a detailed written safety plan, ensure mea-sures to give effect to the written safety and security plan are put in place and the local police station is informed of the event details. The information needed for your safety plan is laid out in great detail in Section 4 (9) of the act and includes factors such as the control of liquor; fire safety, spectator age, venue safety, waste control, and many more.

The event organiser must as-sume the responsibilities of a sta-dium owner if the stadium or/ venue owner fails to meet any contracted statutory safety & se-curity responsibilities in respect of the Act such as deployment of private security and safety stew-

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SAFETY AT EVENTS

13

ards; placement of public liability insurance for event and the ap-pointment of an event safety of-ficer, etc.

The event organiser must also fully co-operate with and assist SAPS, the ESSPC and the VOC Commander in the carrying out of their respective functions with regards to the Act (see Section 4 (2) of the Act).

Event organisers should know:THE Act makes a clear delin-eation between the statutory requirements and the role of private security officers and stew-ards to address circumvention of compliance with the Private In-dustry Regulation Act, 2001 (Act No.56 of 2001) in certain quar-ters. The different roles and re-quirements are laid out in detail in section 1 and 4 and is worth a read. For example stewards may not provide a security service as defined in section 1 of the Private Security Industry Regulation Act, 2001 (Section 4(4) (7));

Venues should know:THE stadium or venue owner must ensure that they are in possession of the relevant stadium or venue safety certificates such as; the existing stadium/venue safety certificates, section 8), new sta-dium/venue design safety certifi-cates (section 9), or certificates for alterations/extensions to sta-diums/venues (section 10).

The owner must comply with

the Local Authority safety and security requirements/condi-tions set out in the certificate; applicable National & Local Au-thority building legislation and SABS building design guidelines and applicable Stadium/Venue technical requirements of.

High Risk EventsDETAILS for the application and administrative process of a high risk certificate is contained in Section 11. It is important to note that the event organiser must apply for this certificate within 60 days of being notified of high risk event categorisation by the Na-tional Commissioner)

Current operational chal-lenges:

The following challenges, amongst others, are currently being faced by the SAPS, emer-gency and essential services & other relevant safety and secu-rity stakeholders with regards to the the local hosting of events:•The hosting of multiple events in the same area and during the same period – resourcing challenges•Hosting of events without prop-er/sufficient public liability insur-ance being in place•Failure/resistance of certain event organisers to accept their responsibility to provide ade-quate security at events- “It is a SAPS function” type of approach•Safety and security planning for events is often left to a very

late stage•Failure to consistently apply risk profiling criteria to events•Inconsistent application of safety and security measures for different events whose risk profile is similar•Under-budgeting by event organisers i.r.o. public safety & security at events – viewed by some as an unnecessary, profit limiting expense.•No safety certification for stadi-ums/venues or temporary struc-tures at stadiums/venues/events;•Whilst there have been im-provements - continued use of unregistered/inexperienced and untrained persons/ to provide a security service as provided for the in the Private Security Indus-try Regulation Act•Silo planning by safety and se-curity role-players at events•Insufficient safety & security re-sourcing at events•A focus on reactive rather than pro-active safety and security measures at events

The above is a brief overview of certain aspects of SASREA. For details visit the various sections of the Act applicable to you. Visit http://www.srsa.gov.za/legisla-tion.asp for more information on the bill.

Sue says it will take a few years for all of this to roll-out across the country and into the rural areas. “The Act also cov-ers all local and rural football matches and school functions; in

fact any event where over 2 000 people are expected,” she says. “One comment that the Depart-ment of Sport and Recreation made was that people can use this Act to make sure that their local municipalities are compli-ant with the Act and they would therefore need to upgrade lo-cal facilities and bring them in line with the requirements of the Act. The municipalities and prov-inces now have to comply with the Act and make sure their local residents are safe when attend-ing any function, event, or exhibi-tion where over 2000 people will be present.”

EXSA will be holding their next workshops in East London and Port Elizabeth.

Brad Hook, operations di-rector at Montgomery Africa, says the Act provides a com-prehensive platform and guide-line for the manner in which safety around events should unfold.”Since the act has be-come familiar as a piece of legislation within the industry, all event organisers have started taking safety as well as security a lot more seriously – there is more focus on self-education in event organising institutions. Whereas in the past, this was simply passed on to the service providers and the organiser in general.”

Brad points out some of the challenges surrounding the im-plementation of the Act, “The act was born on the dawn of

the Soccer World Cup in 2010, it was developed almost solely to prescribe minimum standards for the safe running of events at stadiums. Some areas of the act do not allow for any latitude when it comes to smaller events and exhibitions which due to their nature are by categorised as “Recreational Events”, many aspects of the act are not fully understood and this creates a lot of misperception, Legal opin-ion on certain issues is just that, legal ‘opinion’. There are many workshops being run to promote awareness, but the root problem for the exhibitions and events in-dustry is that this act was drafted with football matches in mind – with attendances of 90,000 people. It has a practical appli-cation to events of that size, but becomes a bit too bureaucratic when it comes to smaller events and particularly exhibitions. Gov-ernment has done little to run an effective communication and awareness campaign around the act, fortunately industry asso-ciation bodies such as EXSA have engaged with government and facilitated some of the educa-tion workshops.

Brad says the challenges around the act are many, “how-ever the SASREA is something that needs to be understood and engaged with over a dedi-cated period of time by each and every event organiser.”

Astrid Stark

14

JulyYOU Spectacular Celebrity Awards 201116 July, The Emperors Palace,Johannesburg

World Federation of the Deaf Con-gress17-23 July, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

The Nutcracker19-20 July, Port Elizabeth Opera House, Port Elizabeth

The Loeries Travelling Exhibition19-22 July, Concept Interactive, Cape Town

Mediatech Africa 20-22 July, the Coca-Cola dome, Johannesburg

Mine Entra20-27 July, Zimbabwe International Trade Fair Company, Zimbabwe

SATSA Western CapeChapter Meeting22 July, TBC, Cape Town

Delheim Misa Criolla benefi t gala22 July, Delheim wine estate, Western Cape

Ramadaan Festival22-31 July, Good Hope Centre, Cape Town

Nando’s Comedy Festival22-31 July, The Teatro at Montecasino

Bollywood Concert23 July, Durban ICC, Kwa-Zulu Natal

Jewellex23-25 July, Sandton Convention Centre, JHB

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:Bed on Bricks24 July, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirsten-bosch, Cape Town

SAACI National Conference24-26 July, NH Lord Charles, Somerset West, W. Cape

Institute of People Management Conference25-26 July, Durban ICC, Kwa-Zulu Natal

Lead Without A Title: The New Way to Win in Business and Personally by Robin Sharma26 July, CTICC, Cape Town

Working World Extravaganza East London27-28 July, Centenary Hall, East London

Sports & Events Tourism Exchange 27-29 July, CTICC, Cape Town

Critical Care Society of South Africa Congress27-31 July, Durban ICC, Kwa-Zulu Natal

International Fashion Sale (IFS) 28-31 July, the Coca-Cola dome, Johannesburg

Hobby-Ex29-31 July, Pretoria

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:McCree31 July, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirsten-bosch, Cape Town

AugustTm2x3 August, Sandton Convention Cen-tre, Johannesburg

Artscape Women’s Festival4-6 August, Artscape Theatre, Cape Town

Nando’s Comedy Festival4-6 August, ICC Durban

World Methodist Council4-8 August, Durban ICC, Kwa-Zulu Natal

Baba Indaba5-8 August, CTICC, CPT

Robertson Slow 5-7 August, Robertson Wine Valley, Western Cape

The Wine Show5-7 August, Coca Cola dome, JHB

Decorex Joburg 5-9 August, Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand, Johannesburg

South African Handmade Collection 5-9 August, Gallagher Convention Centre, Johannesburg

The Loeries Travelling Exhibition5-12 August, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, Gauteng

Durban International Fair5-14 August, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Bells Night of the Stars Rugby Dinner 9 August, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Nando’s Comedy Festival9-14 August, The Artscape Theatre

National Boat Show 12-14 August 2011, Coca-Cola Dome

The Green Expo 12-14 August, CTICC, Cape Town

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:Zebra & Giraffe14 August, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

SA Coal Conference 16-18 August, Graceland Casino, Secunda, Mpumalanga

Shop SA17 August, Sandton Convention Cen-tre, Johannesburg

South African Sugar Technologists’ Association Congress17-19 August, Durban ICC, Kwa-Zulu Natal

Eskom Expo for Young Scientists 19 Aug, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:Hot Water21 August, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

Swan Lake19-26 August, Artscape Opera House, Cape Town

Markex Cape 23-25 August, CTICC, Western Cape

Sexpo23-29 August, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Sign Africa24 August, Sandton Convention Cen-tre, Johannesburg

South African Automotive Week Conference25-26 August, East London, East London

The Loeries Travelling Exhibition25 August- 2 September, North West University, Potchefstroom

Rising Stars Careers Expo 26 August, Bensonvale College Hall, Eastern Cape

The Baby Expo MamaMagic 26-28 August, ICC Durban, KZN

James Blunt28 August, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Old Mutual Roadshow28-29 August, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

SeptemberSAACI Western Cape Branch Committee Meeting1 September, Cape Town, Western Cape

EVENT LISTINGS

JULYThe Loeries Travelling Exhibition19–22 July, Concept Interactive,

Cape Town

JAMMS20 July, TBC, Cape Town

Mediatech Africa20-22 July, Coca-Cola dome,

Northgate, Johannesburg

Principles Of Layout And Design - Publications

21 July, PRISA ProComm House, Randburg, Johannesburg

How To Build A Customer Service Strategy

22 July, PRISA ProComm House, Randburg, Johannesburg

SATSA Western Cape Chapter Meeting

22 July, TBC, Cape Town

SAACI National Conference24–26 July, NH Lord Charles,

Somerset West, Western Cape

Sports and Events Tourism Exchange

27–29 July, CTICC, Cape Town

Essential Media Relations28 July, PRISA ProComm House,

Randburg, Johannesburg

FEDHASA Cape Board Meeting28 July, Cape Town

AUGUST

The Loeries Travelling Exhibition5-12 August, Tshwane University of

Technology, Pretoria

Presentation Skills17 - 18 August, PRISA ProComm

House, Ferndale, Randburg

SATSA NG19 August, Cape Town

Markex Cape Town23-25 August, CTICC, Cape Town

The Loeries Travelling Exhibition25 August–2 September, North West University, Potchefstroom

Reputation Management26 August, PRISA ProComm House,

Ferndale, Randburg

HISA 201129-30 August, Birchwood Confer-

ence Centre

For more information, visit www.theevent.co.za/events

DIARISE

Arno Castens and Louise Carver performed at the YOU Spectacular Celebrity Awards 2010. The 2011 Awards happen on 16 July in Johannesburg.

15

Soweto Wine Festival 1-3 September, The Arena, University of Johannesburg, Soweto, Gauteng

Cape Homemakers Expo 1-4 September, CTICC, Cape Town

Sustainable City Exhibition2 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:Louise Carver3-4 September, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

Franschhoek Uncorked3-4 September, Franschhoek

Shoprite Checkers Conference4-8 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Institute of Retirement Funds Conference5-7 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

IFSEC & Facilities Show Africa 6-8 September, Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand

Spar Trade Show 8-9 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

RMB WineX 8-9 September, CTICC, Cape Town

SAPSOL09-11 September, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Wedding Expo10-11 September, Coca Cola dome, Johannesburg

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:Wrestlerish3-4 September, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

Hike by the light - Klapmutskop 11 September- 10 December, Delvera wine farm, Western Cape

Afriwater 13-15 September, Johannesburg Expo Centre, Nasrec

Design in Hospitality15-16 Sepetember, Turbine Hall, Newtown

Business & Franchise Opportunities Expo (BOFE) 15-18 September, the Coca-Cola dome, Johannesburg

Loerie Awards16-18 September, CTICC, Cape Town

SA Shoe Expo16-18 September, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:Wrestlerish18 September, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

Coal Energy Africa19-21 September, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Hydropower19-23 September, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Gideons International in South Africa21-24 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

SA Principals Association Conference22-24 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Joburg Art Fair 22-25 September, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Good Food and Wine Show 22-25 September, Coca Cola dome, Johannesburg

Khoisan Festival22-25 September, Graaff-Reinet, Eastern Cape

SMME Fair23-25 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:Captain Stu25 September, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

Telkom Business Michael Fridjhon Wine Experience27-28 August, Hyatt Regency Johannesburg

White Mountain Festival 29 September-2 October, White Mountain Lodge, KwaZulu Natal

RAGE 30 September-2 October, Coca Cola dome, Johannesburg

Baba Indaba30 September- 2 October, Bloemfontein

OctoberOrion Gala Dinner1 October, Southern Sun Hotel, Grayston, Sandton

Andy Lund and the Mission Men2 October, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

Reliability and Maintenance Week3-5 October, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

The Loeries Travelling Exhibition3-17 October, Stellenbosch Academy, Stellenbosch

IT&CMA and CTW 20114-6 October, Bangkok Convention Centre, Thailand

HR Africa Exhibition & Summit 20114-6 October, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Africa Mining and Marine Conference4-7 October, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Coldplay 5 October, Cape Town Stadium

Homemakers Fair Expo 6-9 October, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Johannesburg International Motor Show6-16 October, Johannesburg Expo Centre, Nasrec

Look & Feel Good Expo7-9 October, Coca Cola dome, Johannesburg

Coldplay 8 October, FNB Stadium Johannesburg

Christian Business Expo8-9 October, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Disabled People International World Assembly8-14 October, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:Dan Patlansky9 October, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

FEDHASA National Imvelo Awards9 October, Johannesburg, Gauteng

IMEX America11-13 October, Las Vegas

Photo and Film Expo 13-16 October, Coca Cola dome, Johannesburg

Diwali Fair13-31 October, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

The Baby Expo MamaMagic 14-16 October, CTICC, Cape Town

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:McCully Workshop 16 October, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

DIARISEJames Blunt will be performing live

at the ICC Durban on 28 August 2011 in Kwa-Zulu Natal.

SEPTEMBER

SAACI Western Cape Branch Committee Meeting

1 September, Cape Town

Effective media release writing1 September, PRISA ProComm


Sustainable City Exhibition2-4 September, ICC Durban,

KwaZulu Natal

Effective Public Relations Planning6 September, PRISA ProComm


FEDHASA Cape Board Meeting8 September, Cape Town

Creative writing for the media09 - 11 September, Free State

Professional editing and proofreading

12 - 13 September, Free State

The Loerie Awards 201116-18 September, Cape Town

SA Principals Association Conference

22-24 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

SMME Fair 23-25 September, ICC Durban,

KwaZulu Natal

How to delegate effectively30 September, PRISA ProComm


OCTOBERSAACI Western Cape Branch

Committee Meeting 1 September, Cape Town

Effective media release writing 1 September, PRISA ProComm House, 108 Bram Fischer Drive,

Ferndale, Randburg

Effective Public Relations Planning 6 September, PRISA ProComm House, 108 Bram Fischer Drive,

Ferndale, Randburg

FEDHASA Cape Board Meeting 8 September, Cape Town

Creative writing for the media 9 - 11 September, Free State



The Loerie Awards 2011 16-18 September, Cape Town

www.thevent.co.za/events

15

Soweto Wine Festival 1-3 September, The Arena, University of Johannesburg, Soweto, Gauteng

Cape Homemakers Expo 1-4 September, CTICC, Cape Town

Sustainable City Exhibition2 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:Louise Carver3-4 September, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

Franschhoek Uncorked3-4 September, Franschhoek

Shoprite Checkers Conference4-8 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Institute of Retirement Funds Conference5-7 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

IFSEC & Facilities Show Africa 6-8 September, Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand

Spar Trade Show 8-9 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

RMB WineX 8-9 September, CTICC, Cape Town

SAPSOL09-11 September, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Wedding Expo10-11 September, Coca Cola dome, Johannesburg

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:Wrestlerish3-4 September, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

Hike by the light - Klapmutskop 11 September- 10 December, Delvera wine farm, Western Cape

Afriwater 13-15 September, Johannesburg Expo Centre, Nasrec

Design in Hospitality15-16 Sepetember, Turbine Hall, Newtown

Business & Franchise Opportunities Expo (BOFE) 15-18 September, the Coca-Cola dome, Johannesburg

Loerie Awards16-18 September, CTICC, Cape Town

SA Shoe Expo16-18 September, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:Wrestlerish18 September, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

Coal Energy Africa19-21 September, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Hydropower19-23 September, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Gideons International in South Africa21-24 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

SA Principals Association Conference22-24 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Joburg Art Fair 22-25 September, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Good Food and Wine Show 22-25 September, Coca Cola dome, Johannesburg

Khoisan Festival22-25 September, Graaff-Reinet, Eastern Cape

SMME Fair23-25 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:Captain Stu25 September, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

Telkom Business Michael Fridjhon Wine Experience27-28 August, Hyatt Regency Johannesburg

White Mountain Festival 29 September-2 October, White Mountain Lodge, KwaZulu Natal

RAGE 30 September-2 October, Coca Cola dome, Johannesburg

Baba Indaba30 September- 2 October, Bloemfontein

OctoberOrion Gala Dinner1 October, Southern Sun Hotel, Grayston, Sandton

Andy Lund and the Mission Men2 October, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

Reliability and Maintenance Week3-5 October, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

The Loeries Travelling Exhibition3-17 October, Stellenbosch Academy, Stellenbosch

IT&CMA and CTW 20114-6 October, Bangkok Convention Centre, Thailand

HR Africa Exhibition & Summit 20114-6 October, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Africa Mining and Marine Conference4-7 October, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Coldplay 5 October, Cape Town Stadium

Homemakers Fair Expo 6-9 October, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Johannesburg International Motor Show6-16 October, Johannesburg Expo Centre, Nasrec

Look & Feel Good Expo7-9 October, Coca Cola dome, Johannesburg

Coldplay 8 October, FNB Stadium Johannesburg

Christian Business Expo8-9 October, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

Disabled People International World Assembly8-14 October, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:Dan Patlansky9 October, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

FEDHASA National Imvelo Awards9 October, Johannesburg, Gauteng

IMEX America11-13 October, Las Vegas

Photo and Film Expo 13-16 October, Coca Cola dome, Johannesburg

Diwali Fair13-31 October, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

The Baby Expo MamaMagic 14-16 October, CTICC, Cape Town

Silver Tree Restaurant Winter Concert:McCully Workshop 16 October, Silver Tree Restaurant, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town

DIARISEJames Blunt will be performing live

at the ICC Durban on 28 August 2011 in Kwa-Zulu Natal.

SEPTEMBER

SAACI Western Cape Branch Committee Meeting

1 September, Cape Town

Effective media release writing1 September, PRISA ProComm


Sustainable City Exhibition2-4 September, ICC Durban,

KwaZulu Natal

Effective Public Relations Planning6 September, PRISA ProComm


FEDHASA Cape Board Meeting8 September, Cape Town

Creative writing for the media09 - 11 September, Free State



The Loerie Awards 201116-18 September, Cape Town

SA Principals Association Conference

22-24 September, ICC Durban, KwaZulu Natal

SMME Fair 23-25 September, ICC Durban,

KwaZulu Natal

How to delegate effectively30 September, PRISA ProComm


OCTOBERSAACI Western Cape Branch

Committee Meeting 1 September, Cape Town

Effective media release writing 1 September, PRISA ProComm House, 108 Bram Fischer Drive,

Ferndale, Randburg

Effective Public Relations Planning 6 September, PRISA ProComm House, 108 Bram Fischer Drive,

Ferndale, Randburg

FEDHASA Cape Board Meeting 8 September, Cape Town

Creative writing for the media 9 - 11 September, Free State



The Loerie Awards 2011 16-18 September, Cape Town

www.thevent.co.za/events

16

GENERAL INDUSTRYTHEATRE can be used to raise money for charity, but what better way to help than to offer essential skills training?

A FUNDRAISING evening staged last month to raise cash for young drama

students confirmed the truth of the old saying: ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.’

Drama teachers Rochelle and Steve Hicks needed to raise

R100,000 to take two township students to New York, so there was only one way to begin. They rang up the stars of several hit musicals and persuaded them to perform for free. Soon they had lined up a cabaret featuring Jonathan Roxmouth and Cito of Jesus Christ Superstar, Angela Killian from Evita, Samantha Peo and Ilse Klink from Chicago, with Harry Sideropoulos as the MC.

The Hicks are the founders of Beyond The Stage Door (BTSD), a performance arts school in

Johannesburg. A few weeks ago they also launched drama-come-social awareness classes in Deipsloot, using the arts to help 60 children address issues includ-ing bullying, domestic violence, Aids and self esteem.

Every year a few BTSD pu-pils attend a week long youth theatre workshop in New York, where they work with Broadway actors, directors and choreogra-phers. This year the Hicks wanted two of the Diepsloot youngsters to attend as well, to give them a

real chance of achieving an act-ing career.

That meant raising money to cover the flights, food, accom-modation and spending money of the two boys, Josious Gobe and Louis Munyai.

The Hicks discovered that it takes a lot of work to pull a fun-draiser together, especially since neither of them are in the event management business.

“We are both in the enter-tainment industry, so we used our contacts to get a bunch of really good performers together for a cabaret,” said Rochelle. “We phoned our friends and said ‘will you please give us ten minutes of your time?’ When we told them what the cause was they were great and said they’d be there.”

Next they need a venue, and a parent of a BTSD pupil arranged for them to use the Marco Polo Casino in Sandton for free, as long as they paid for the casino’s catering. “It’s about knowing people who know peo-ple,” said Rochelle. “We teach a lot of kids and their parents have various companies that they own or work for.”

The caveat was that the event happened on a Monday - a quiet night for the casino and the only day the actors weren’t performing elsewhere.

Next the couple had to draw up a running order and collate various backing tracks for each artist, so those with other en-

gagements could come and go as quickly as possible. “Once you have the venue and food sorted it’s fairly easy, but my big-gest challenge was getting hold of all the artists and their material to put the play list together,” Ro-chelle said before the event.

But selling 400 tickets at R250 a head proved unexpectedly difficult and sales fell tragically short of the target. Although there was a decent crowd, only 50 people had actually paid, Ro-chelle said. “It’s all been word of mouth because we didn’t want to spend money on advertising because we wanted to keep all the money for the children. Steve and I know a few people but we don’t know hundreds, so I spoke to some friends who have a lot of friends on Facebook and asked them to pass it on. I don’t know how the world functioned before Facebook. We sent out 2,000 invites to friends of friends of friends.”

Poor ticket sales meant the evening only raised about R20,000. Thankfully Montecasino, which already provides food and tracksuits for all 60 children attending the Diepsloot drama classes, has also promised to help meet the shortfall.

The next morning Rochelle was disappointed, but not de-feated. “We created awareness for the project and that is what is important,” she said.

Lesley Stones

USING DRAMA TO HELP THOSE IN NEED

Josious Gobe and family

17

18

CASE STUDYIS there a secret formula to ticket sales? What do event organisers need to know when it comes to visitor number forecasting.

FEW things can be quite as heartbreaking for an event organiser than

opening the doors to your show or exhibition and watch-ing the theatre or the hall floors remain resiliently empty.

You knew the ticket sales

were low, but hoped people would come along and pay at the door. Yet the crowds stay away en masse, and the actors, exhibitors or speakers are left ad-dressing an empty space.

Too many shows have end-ed in that sad scenario recent-ly. Dreamgirls – a fabulous show bursting with local talent – can-celled its Cape Town run and shortened its Joburg season because tickets simply didn’t sell. “Despite being hailed unanimously by leading local

critics and celebrities as “the finest” musical ever staged in South Africa, poor public sup-port resulted in this very hard decision,” said producer Hazel Feldman, the director of Show-time Management.

May also saw the debut of Rocking the Range, a music fes-tival featuring six bands including Lonehill Estate and the Graeme Watkins Project. It was well organ-ised, with several sponsors and a professional sound and lighting system. Yet when I dropped in mid-way though, perhaps 200 people were there. The weather was cold, which certainly didn’t help. But it was poorly advertised, and ticket prices of R110 were eventually slashed via a discount coupon website.

A month later a charity fun-draiser featuring several popu-lar performers sold just 50 tickets from a target of 400. Partly due to poor advertising, and partly the price of R250, perhaps.

Obviously there is no guaran-teed formula to ensure an audi-ence, but event planners believe there are a few key guidelines that help an event fly, not fail. The most crucial seems to be sticking to well-known brands, because South African audiences are sadly unadventurous.

“If we could know exactly what makes a show work and what doesn’t work we’d all be rich and there wouldn’t be any risk,” says Hazel. “But it’s a very

high-risk business. From a pro-duction, presentation and per-formance point of view Dream-girls was exceptional, but the brand wasn’t as well known from the movie and the origi-nal production as I’d thought it was. If you have a name brand there’s an immediate recogni-tion like the Lloyd Webber mu-sicals and Riverdance, and au-diences respond to something they know. We are working with gut feeling and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. You live in hope and market the hell out of a show and pray the audience comes.”

Everyone agrees that public-ity is crucial, but still no guaran-tee of success. Dreamgirls was advertised heavily and the crit-ics raved, yet the tickets didn’t move. “Dreamgirls is one of those enigmas we will be talking about forever,” says Hazel.

Surprisingly, perhaps, Hazel says ticket price really isn’t the key. “I love the old adage ‘if people want to see a show they will see it wherever it is and what-ever it costs, and if they don’t want to see a show you can’t give the tickets away.’ It’s as sim-ple as that.”

Location is important too, the industry agrees. Theatre au-diences in Cape Town are less willing to give unknown things a try than Jo’burgers, which either makes them more discerning or less adventurous, depending on

your perspective. And Durban seems to be nobody’s favourite. “I don’t do Durban because the audience in Durban doesn’t give a damn,” Hazel says.

The highly successful mother and baby show Baba Indaba has also pulled out of Durban because of poor audiences, and will move to Bloemfontein in-stead this year, says show direc-tor Natalie Naude.

“We were in Durban for four years and kicked off with a fan-tastic show, but there were lots of browsers and not enough buy-ers,” she says. “Then the numbers started diminishing and people weren’t spending and wanted everything for free. The recession hit them very hard. Bloemfontein isn’t going to be as big, but the folk there are going to be spend-ing because they have an av-erage of three children and a good income.” Visitors will also spend because so few exhibi-tions venture to Bloemfontein that there is almost nothing else to spend on, Natalie says.

Pitching ticket prices cor-rectly for an area is crucial, she believes, so entrance to the Baba Indada in Soweto costs far less than admittance to its sister show in Sandton. Knowl-edge of the audience should also influence the content. The Soweto show will attempt to break the Guinness Book of Records for the world’s largest mass breast-feeding event – an

WHAT MAKES AN EVENT FLY OR FALL - A CASE STUDY

Bryan Hill

19

initiative that would never suc-ceed in Sandton.

Natalie says exhibition organ-isers must draw an audience of buyers, not browsers. Another aim is to keep people in the halls for as long as possible, by ensur-ing that food and entertainment areas are housed in the same halls, not outside. Another rule is never to lease space to irrel-evant or duplicated products just to fill the stands, since the audience won’t return if they can’t find relevant items. Nata-lie encourages exhibitors to of-fer show specials, so parents come because they know they can buy essential items more cheaply than in retail outlets.

“Lots of shows don’t let the exhibitors sell and people get irritated by that,” she says. “People are like sponges and want stuff, so you have to make sure they have the op-portunity to purchase.”

One enviable advantage for Baba Indaba is that a constant succession of women fall preg-nant each year, so the target audience is never saturated.

Publicist Collett Dawson says venues must be realistic about the type of audience they at-tract and pitch their events ac-cordingly, Likewise, event plan-ners must chose a venue that doesn’t over-stretch the comfort zone or travelling tolerance of the target market.

The increasing amount of

choice is ironically making many events less successful, says Col-lett. A few years ago a certain type of show was almost guar-anteed to draw the crowds, but that’s vanished now because there are more theatre venues and major concerts to choose from. “A few years ago you could guarantee that some kind of shows would work and others wouldn’t. There was always a classical audience and a revue audience. Now people are so spoilt for choice that they can decide on the day what they feel like seeing,” Collett says. “People don’t plan ahead because there could be five other things hap-pening on that day. That makes planning events in advance so much more high risk,” she says. “Theatre audiences are also getting smaller, which is a wor-ry, so the producers have to go back to the drawing board and find shows that people will go to. It’s irritating that audiences aren’t growing their taste and it’s frustrating that tried and test-ed things will come back for the 50th time and do well. People won’t support new things, yet they’ll go and see Phantom of the Opera even if they’ve seen it twice before.”

Collett says well priced tick-ets and masses of publicity still don’t guarantee an audience because the recession is still bit-ing. “Entertainment is suffering as people are being more strategic

in how they spend their money,” she says.

The Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg is so huge that only spectacular events can put enough bums on seats. General manager Bryan Hill shares the frustration that audiences are so unadventurous. “We are not only a conservative audience, we’re a conservative country,” he says. “Something that works in London or New York doesn’t necessarily fly here because we are not as exposed to the prod-ucts as international markets. So we are quite careful in what we choose for the Teatro as it has to be a well-known brand for lo-cal audiences.”

Familiarity is just one of many criteria, Bryan says. The cost of staging an event compared to the length of time for which it will attract a paying audience is another important calcula-tion. “When it comes to choosing productions there is no exact sci-ence. We are in the casino busi-ness, but we take as much of a gamble with the theatre,” he says. “We can’t always get it right and the shock with Dreamgirls is that we had been talking about it for four years. We thought the Teatro has a reputation for qual-ity that should make people come whether they know the brand or not and I think we mis-judged slightly.”

The availability of local talent is another concern to factor in.

The musical Billy Elliot is playing in London, but Bryan doubts South Africa could field a boy talented enough to play the lead. “That sort of training is a generation down the line,” he says.

He also laments the loss of fi-nancial subsidies the Arts Coun-cil once provided, since that allowed more risks to be taken. Now venues are playing safe by staging feel-good entertainment rather than shows that are chal-lenging. “The sad thing is now there’s no market for those things

to exist side by side. You can sit there with only 50 or 60 other people and ask where are the people to appreciate this?”

Bryan agrees that the reces-sion and the plethora of enter-tainment options are also taking a toll. “We are dealing with a changing economy and balanc-ing ticket prices with how much available spend there is. There is a lot of other entertainment hap-pening that’s sucking the spend-able rands out of the market.”

Lesley Stones

Hazel Feldman

20

GENERAL INDSUTRYIF you have any news highlights to share please visit our web por-tal www.theevent.co.za and load your own stories for consideration in next month’s edition.

Oasys Green Committee launchedOASYS Innovations has estab-

lished a Greening Committee that will drive all aspects of the company’s commitment to be-coming a greener, more environ-mentally friendly company.

Carl Woodland, chief operat-ing officer for Oasys Exhibitions is heading up the committee.

The committee will hold regu-lar meetings and discuss prog-ress on any tasks at hand. Every

department and function of Oasys will be scrutinised in order to establish where more environ-mentally friendly products and processes can be implemented, including looking at waste man-agement, energy management, water management, air quality management, recycling, chemi-cals and hazardous materials, as well as transportation.

The Greening Committee is an internal initiative that was put in place by Oasys in order for them to become a greener company. The committee is made up of Oasys staff members and they hold regular meetings that are unfortunately for staff only, as it has to do solely with what Oasys is doing as a com-pany to become greener.

The new committee mem-bers were chosen in January 2011.

The combination of the tech-nology and personal service from the dedicated on-site support team guarantees that at least 60 percent of meeting requests are actioned by invitees before the show actually starts.

Joburg in the running for One World“WHILE the jury’s still out on which city will host the global One Young World Summit in 2012, Johannesburg is a frontrunner in the race, confident that it will be bringing this exciting event to Joburg next year,” says Lindiwe Kwele, CEO of the Johannesburg Tourism Company (JTC).

One Young World (OYW) is a dynamic global platform for young leaders making a sub-stantial difference and tangible impact in their communities. Its purpose is to connect and bring together the youngest, bright-est and best minds the world over, to ensure that their con-

cerns, opinions and solutions are heard. While the first OYW Summit was held in London in 2010, this year Zurich will be wel-coming 1600 delegates from 194 countries to the 2011 gath-ering, which takes place over four days in September.

Cape Town shortlisted for World Design CapitalTHE Mother City has made the final round of the World Design Capital 2014 bid. The city will be competing against Dublin and Bilbao for the title that will be announced in October in Taipei.

Every two years, the Interna-tional Council of Societies of In-dustrial Design (ICSID) selects a World Design Capital, in recog-nition of a city’s effective and creative efforts to use design as a tool for progress.

Zayd Minty, Creative Cape Town coordinator, says, “Pitch-ing for the World Design Capital 2014 title provides an opportu-nity for collective action that could re-invent our city. Our ex-perience of bidding for a major event – the 2010 FIFA World Cup – has taught us the potential for a range of diverse parties to work in concert towards a com-mon goal. Let’s draw on our im-mense local resources, talent and infrastructure, and position Cape Town as a sustainable, in-clusive and creative city to be reckoned with.

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Oasys Green Committee

21

SAT CEO resignsJABU Mabuza, the chairperson of the Board of South African Tourism announced that he has with regret accepted the res-ignation of the CEO, Thandiwe January-McLean, who is leaving the organisation to pursue her own personal interests.

“Thandiwe has been with South African Tourism for a year and a half, and has led the or-ganisation through its most chal-lenging and exciting times. The year 2010 was a momentous year for all in tourism and under her leadership and drive working closely with stakeholders across various sectors. South Africa at-tracted an all-time high of over 8million foreign tourist arrivals,” says Jabu.

“Together with her team, the CEO always demonstrated pro-fessionalism and openness in en-gaging stakeholders to continue the positive momentum and brand positioning that was lever-aged off the success of the tour-nament. She leaves a legacy of having moved the organisation forward to explore new markets and she firmly placed Africa and the domestic tourism agenda at the forefront of South African Tourism’s marketing efforts, while entrenching its core markets.”

He continued: “The personal touch and warmth of the CEO was always felt with all stake-holders, and particularly her staff, and her immense contri-

bution will be missed.”Thandiwe will leave South

African Tourism at the end of August 2011 at which time Tim Scholtz will be acting CEO until the board has completed its re-cruitment process.

Loeries Live Events panelTHE Loeries have announced the Direct & PR Communication and Live Events, Activations and Sponsorship judging panels for The 33rd Annual Loerie Awards.

The Live Events panel consists of chairman: Matt Shirtcliffe from Shirtcliffe and Co. (Auckland), Caroline Pretorius from VWV, DJ Grant from Blue Moon, Katja Schmidt from Potters Hand, Nelia Blumrick from The Event Produc-tion Company, Nick Liatos from M&C Saatchi Abel, Paul Warner from 24 Carrots, Peter Blond from Omage, Roger Tavares from Trin-ergy, Spero Patricios from Launch Factory and Theo Ferreira from Hello World.

The Loerie Awards will take place from 16-18 September 2011 at the CTICC, Cape Town.

For more information visit www.theloerieawards.co.za.

The Event editor named among top young South AfricansTHE Event’s editor Sally Fink was featured as part of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Af-ricans supplement. Apart from being a journalist, Sally also writes fiction under the moniker S.A.

Partridge, for which she received the honour.

Will Walmart affect retail trade shows?WALMART’S entry into South Af-rica is set to have a profound and far-reaching impact on Af-rica’s retail supply chain.

CNN correspondent Paul Tilsley will interview retail expert Simon Mathers at a networking breakfast at Africa’s Big Seven (AB7) where they will tackle the issue.

“African retailers will be forced to up their game,” says John Thomson, managing direc-tor of Exhibition Management Services, organisers of AB7. “Complacency will become a bad habit of the past, and col-laboration in the supply chain will be essential. With Walmart’s lean pricing structures, local retailers will be forced to focus on driving efficiencies and im-proving their processes, whilst implementing innovative pric-ing strategies.”

He adds that the networking breakfast with Simon Mathers will equip retailers and their sup-ply chain partners with essential tools and knowledge needed to overcome these challenges and build robust enterprises.

AB7 takes place from 17-19 July 2011 at Gallagher Con-vention Centre alongside the Southern African International Trade Exhibition (SAITEX).

Subscribe to The EventTHE Event is changing to be-come a subscription-based publication.

We’re distributing 4 000 copies a month free via bulk distribution at event industry organisations and associations; key industry meeting points like convention centres, hotels and rental houses; and at key industry events.

This means we’ll remain the most read events industry trade publication. After five years of carrying the cost of mailing an-other 4 000 copies direct to ev-eryone else, we’re asking for subscriptions to help us cover our rising distribution costs.

Subscribe now for just R22.80 pm to keep receiving your copy, delivered to your door.

Thandiwe January-McLean

22

GENERAL INDUSTRYFRUIT of the Loom chose the Johannesburg leg of Markex which took place at the Sand-ton Convention Centre (SCC)from 7-9 June 2011 as the ideal launch pad for its entry into the South African market.

THE global activewear brand, which exhibited at the trade show in conjunc-

tion with Cape Town-based Bertuzzi SA, its newly appoint-ed South African distributor, was greatly encouraged by the response from visitors.

“The feedback we re-ceived at the Markex show in Johannesburg was fantastic and exceeded all our expec-tations,” says Joanne Lewis, marketing manager of Fruit of the Loom. “We were inundat-ed with enquiries and delight-ed by visitors’ interest in Fruit of the Loom.”

This is a good sign for a first time exhibitor.

Joanne goes on to explain that the company exhibits at many promotional clothing trade shows throughout Eu-rope including PSI, the largest pan-European trade show for the promotional products mar-ket which falls under the com-pany’s mandate.

Fruit of the Loom brings more than 160 years of textile manufacturing expertise to ev-

ery garment it makes. It is a top activewear brand within the European promotional mar-ket, and its Moroccan manu-facturing plant (which serves the African market) currently produces more than 2.3 million T-shirts per week. All Fruit of the Loom garments are designed with decoration in mind, and the ‘Fruit’ label is recognised and appreciated worldwide as a symbol of consistent and reliable product quality and value.

Fruit of the Loom’s manu-facturing expertise was high-lighted in the ‘Guide to Manu-facturing’ theme adopted for its exhibition stand at Markex. Using a combination of educa-tional text, images and materi-als, the company took visitors on a journey through the vari-ous Fruit of the Loom garment manufacturing stages – ‘from raw cotton to finished article’. Each stage was illustrated and explained using colourful graphic boards, which were complemented by actual tex-tile materials that visitors could look at and handle.

Heinrich Reynecke, owner of Bertuzzi SA, was equally delighted by the positive re-sponse from the visitors at Markex. He says, “The show was a fantastic success. South Africa is a hugely important market for Fruit of the Loom and one in which the brand

plans to trade for a long time to come. The fact that se-nior management from the UK head office travelled to Johannesburg to attend the trade show and launch of the brand is a clear indication of Fruit of the Loom’s commit-ment to the South African promotional market. Bertuzzi is proud to work with Fruit of the Loom, and together we are determined to make this venture a success. The positive feedback from the show rein-forced our belief that Fruit of the Loom will do well in Africa and is here to stay.”

Joanne Lewis echoed Hein-rich’s sentiments. She said: “Working with Bertuzzi S.A., we are confident that the Fruit of the Loom clothing range will add real value to the South Af-rican imprint market.”

Fruit of the Loom and Ber-tuzzi S.A. will be presenting pro-motional clothing buyers with another opportunity to visit their stand and view the Fruit of the Loom product range, when they exhibit at the Cape Town leg of Markex taking place from 23-25 August 2011.

For more information visit www.fruitoftheloom.eu.

Sally Fink

FRUIT OF THE LOOM LAUNCH AT MARKEX

Heinrich Reynecke

23

SUPPLIER PROFILE

DESTINATION management company iKapa has a wide mandate that covers tours and travel, luxury coach hire, sports travel, corprorate travel and school tours.

SINCE the company’s humble start in 1994, iKapa Interna-tional Travel Management

Company (ITMC) has grown to become a key player as trans-port provider as well as a full ser-vice Destination Management Company. For over a decade iKapa has been a key transport supplier to a variety of DMC’s, PCO’s and tour operators.

“With the recent and suc-cessful completion of the FIFA 2010 World Cup Soccer where we transported over 90 000 fans, we have also seen an increase in providing transport and ground support services to large conven-tion and sporting events,” says ikapa’s Adriaan Fourie.

South African travel group Cullinan Holdings Limited recent-ly acquired a 56 percent stake in Ikapa Tours and Travel (Pty) Ltd from the Don Group.

The Cullinan Group currently comprises well known South African travel brands such as Thompsons Holidays, Thompsons Africa, Pentravel, Thompsons Leisure, Thompsons Corporate, Visions, Planet Africa Tours,

Thompsons Gateway Tours, and national coach operator Hylton Ross Touring and Safaris

Cape Town is also set to ben-efit from this deal through the de-velopment of a state-of-the-art coach depot close to the city centre. It will house vehicles be-longing to both iKapa and Hylton Ross Tours, a Cullinan subsidiary.

“We have said that we would be pursuing an expansion strategy in 2011 and 2012 – the Ikapa acquisition is in line with this process,” says Michael.

“We are looking to acquire additional MICE businesses in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, as well as in other parts of the world. We believe that our financial and travel expertise, extensive coach operations, strong purchasing power from our tour operator divisions as well as support from our related offices around the world, pro-vides a good basis for Cullinan to add value to MICE business-es through acquisition or partner-ship”.

He adds that the iKapa ac-quisition will complement Cul-linan’s existing road transporta-tion offering, and position the group as a leading provider of coach and ground transporta-tion to large-scale events.

“As the MATCH-appointed ground transportation operator in the Western Cape for the FIFA 2010 World Cup South Africa, Ikapa proved that it has the abil-

ity to successfully provide trans-portation for any major event in South Africa.

“The combined buying pow-er that this transaction gives us, lays a solid foundation for us to become a leading ground han-dler for any MICE service provid-er. Together with Hylton Ross we will have the expertise, infrastruc-ture and experience to provide superior-quality ground handling services for any major events or conference in South Africa.

“We are thus delighted to be

bringing such a proven asset as ikapa into the Cullinan Holdings fold,” says Michael.

Hylton Ross, which in 2010 expanded its footprint nation-ally from the Western Cape, and Ikapa will continue to be oper-ated and managed as separate coach transportation businesses.

iKapa ITMC is in a process of implementing a programme to offset its carbon footprint by sup-porting a variety of greening and environmental projects. “We also support various social de-

velopment programmes as part of a growing CSR commitment,” says Adriaan.

“This coming year will see iKapa ITMC attend Meetings Africa, Indaba, WTM, American IMEX to name but a few. We are also due to attend shows in South America, India and Africa as part of our aggressive growth strategy.”

For more information visit www.ikapa.co.za.

Sally Fink

IKAPA AN INDUSTRY FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH

24

VENUESFOLLOWING recent develop-ments, Champagne Sports Resort now boasts 16 conference ven-ues seating up to 1350 delegates.

“THE 40 new hotel rooms and four new luxurious presiden-tial suites enables us to offer

a total of 152 hotel rooms and

91 timeshare chalets of which the majority are three bedrooms (all rooms en-suite),” says Tamlyn Horner. She explains that cha-lets are subject to availability al-though with good notice before peak holiday periods they are readily available.

“We are also proud to an-nounce completion of the new Buttress Conference and Ex-

hibition Centre as well as four new boardrooms,” says Tamlyn. Champagne Sports Resort now offers a total of 16 conference venues including the new state of the art Buttress Centre which seats up to 1350 delegates and banquets up to 850 guests at round tables.

Other venues include the Sentinel Room which seats up to

1000 delegates cinema style and 720 classroom style, the Monks Cowl centre seating up to 550 pax, the Summit Room seating up to 400 delegates and the more intimate venues ranging between 150 delegates down to the private boardrooms seating up to a maximum of 16 people.

“We have also recently com-pleted the Amplett and Turrett conference rooms each seating up to 90 delegates,” she says.

Conference equipment includes the most up to date equipment controlled by Crest-ron hand held controls through the bigger venues and all stan-dard equipment through the smaller meeting areas. Del-egates have internet access in the hotel and the majority of the venues and can utilise the busi-ness centre across from the new coffee shop.

“Over the last 18 months at Champagne Sports Resort, we have been building and refur-bishing constantly to ensure our venue is suitable and capable of running the bigger conferences and congresses of up to 800 del-egates comfortably,” she says.

Tamlyn explains that other recently completed additions to the resort include an extended dining room and largely expand-ed buffet, a new Wellness Centre and coffee shop with adjoining lounge. “Our new buffet and din-ing area comfortable feed up to 700 guests with little queuing and

complemented by an outstand-ing food offering rapidly gain-ing a reputation in the hospital-ity industry.” There are now also eight live cooking stations when all buffets are operational for the bigger groups which makes for a memorable dining experience.

The Wellness Centre includes an upmarket salon and well fit-ted gymnasium. The salon has five treatment rooms, comfort-able change rooms and a relax-ing rest area with cane loungers which look up at the Cham-pagne and Cathkin peaks. The gym is fully equipped for all forms of exercise including general car-diovascular and weight training.

“Considering that Cham-pagne Sports Resort equally has a great reputation as a prime holiday destination we offer a huge variety of leisure facilities in-cluding five swimming pools, five tennis courts, adventure sports putt, basketball, volleyball, bowl-ing greens, kids and teen clubs,” says Tamlyn.

There is now a new Canopy Tours in the valley. Canopy Tours is run by Four Rivers Adventures who also have a teambuilding facility offering archery, quad biking, zip lines and white water rafting for the more adventurous. They also other team building activities which can be brought on site should this be requested.

For more information visit www.champagnesportsresort.com.

CHAMPAGNE SPORTS RESORT GETS A MAKEOVER

Champagne Sports Resort

25

WHEN choosing a skills de-velopment strategy for your company it is important to

look at the diff erent types of work ex-perience initiatives available.

Learnerships:A learnership can be defi ned as a route to occupational or profession-al qualifi cation which is Vocational, Education and Training (VET) with a strong emphasis on both workplace experience and a structured learning component.

The purpose of learnerships is to skill the nation which will lead to relevant industry experience; equip-ping the learners readiness for the workplace. Hence this will contribute to the National Skills Development Strategy – which talks to job creation. Ultimately this will contribute posi-tively to reducing unemployment and poverty in our country, therefore re-ducing crime.

A learnership is a good tool which helps an individual to gain the relevant skills and experience to give them bet-ter employment opportunities.

Learnerships are derived from the various National Qualifi cation Frame-work level qualifi cations that are reg-istered by the South African Qualifi ca-tions Authority (SAQA – levels 1 – 5).

A learnership is available to both employed learners (18.1) as well as an unemployed (18.2) learner.

The “employed learner 18.1” could benefi t by being enrolled on a learn-ership to avoid loss of income that a

full-time study would cost but still be able to receive a full qualifi cation.

The “unemployed learner – 18.2” could embark on a learnership which will assist them in getting both the theory and practical workplace experi-ence. They would receive a monthly stipend / allowance to assist them in procuring transport and other costs to getting them to the workplace and for training. This intervention would keep them occupied in a working en-vironment for a period of 12 months.

A qualifi cation is broken down in the following credits based on each NQF Level:•A qualifi cation is a planned combi-nation of learning outcomes with a defi ned purpose to be able to qualify learners with an applied competence. A qualifi cation is broken down into:•Fundamental - Basic knowledge a learner would need to know in order to be productive in the workplace.•Core - Knowledge you need to per-form the job and be seen as compe-tent. •Elective - Extensive knowledge on all the unit standards to be able to carry out the roles and responsibilities of that specifi c choice of qualifi cation that needs to be achieved.

A qualifi cation is registered de-pending on the NQF Level:Certifi cate: 120 CreditsDiploma: 240 CreditsDegree: 360 Credits

A bursary is given to an employee when a specifi c course of study is con-sidered to be benefi cial to the employ-

ee’s career developmental plan by the employer which could be benefi cial to the employee. The Services SETA would provide the fi nancial assistance to employers who wish to improve the skills of their employees through for-mal courses of study.

A bursary encourages an indi-vidual in career development through further education.

Please note: the process of ap-plying for a bursary is similar to the learnership process.

Internships:AN internship is carefully monitored work or service experience in which a candidate has intentional learning goals and refl ects actively on what she or he is learning throughout the experience.

One of the biggest challenges of learners who have already obtained a qualifi cation in South Africa currently is to equip them with the practical skills needed in the workplace.

The Services SETA needs to com-ply with the NSDS target and engage in a process of introducing intern-ships for candidates who have already completed a diploma or any other national qualifi cation but have not yet gathered the necessary practical ex-perience readying for the workplace. This would include the Services SETA CEO’s interventions to introduce the internship programme to member companies in order to meet the target. This cannot happen without instilling proper processes and guidelines in

place to ensure quality and national recognition.

Characteristics of internships in-clude:•Internships may be part of an edu-cational program and carefully moni-tored and evaluated for academic credit, or they can be part of a learning plan that someone develops individu-ally. •An important element that distin-guishes an internship from a short-term job or volunteer work is that an intentional “learning agenda” is struc-tured into the experience. •Learning activities common to most internships include learning objec-tives, observation, refl ection, evalua-tion and assessment. •An eff ort is made to establish a rea-sonable balance between the interns’s learning goals and the specifi c work an organisation needs done. •Internships promote academic, ca-reer and/or personal development.

Adapted from materials published by the National Society for Experien-tial Education (NSEE).

The Services SETA Internships ProgramTHE Services SETA has a project for Interns who completed their training and still lack the workplace experience before they can be employed.

Internships will be implemented where candidates have obtained a SETA Qualifi cation, diploma or any other National qualifi cation where the practical workplace experience is still lacking.The Internship can be funded or not.

The internship can be completed as workplace experience only, moni-tored by SSETA for quality purposes. With this option, no additional quali-fi cation or unit standards will be allo-cated to the learner at the end of the practical experience, but SSETA re-serves the right to monitor the quality of the workplace experience.

The Services SETA will invite em-ployers to accommodate interns for a period of 6 months.

The internship programme will include specifi ed activities to be com-pleted and evidence to be gathered in a Portfolio of Evidence, for internal assessment after completion of the internship.

Workplace coaches/mentors will assist interns during the workplace experience and the gathering of work-place evidence for their portfolio of evidence (POE).

The interns will be paid a stipend subject to Services SETA’s discretion for a period of six months. It stands as follows: internship value stands at R 18 000 (R 3 000 per month for 6

months). Employers will be allowed to top

up this amount up if they so wish, but this is not compulsory. The payment of the above allowances will be made to the employer and the employer must in turn pay the intern.

If a learner is disabled an addi-tional disability grant of R 1 500 per month is available for 6 months.

The employer shall receive an in-ternship grant of R 1000 per learner for the duration of the internship, pay-able with each payment of the total grant

Please note that if an intern leaves the workplace of the company, the company will only receive a pro rata payment for the months the intern was in the workplace.

Employers will have to complete the funding application form for in-terns and submit it to the Services SETA. The companies will have to complete the attendance register for the interns on a daily basis for the du-ration of the six months. The Employ-ers will have to ensure that the interns complete the POE and that they col-lect the necessary proof of workplace experience.

The Services SETA is in the pro-cess of establishing Service Level Agreements with universities, FET and Colleges to provide us with a da-tabase of graduates.

The provider where the learner obtained their qualifi cation from signs off to say that the intern is ready for the world of work.

The identifi cation of the intern will however be linked to the allo-cated position with the employer, i.e. Secretarial and Admin, and therefore the intern should have an appropri-ate qualifi cation linked to the position the employer would like the intern to complete his practical experience to. All interns are restricted to SSETA reg-istered qualifi cations. Another sug-gestion is that if interns are placed in a department e.g. Human Resources, they should be exposed to all sections within Human Resources. In other words the employer should provide this opportunity that the interns ro-tate within the Human Resource De-partment where at all possible.

All the above is subjected to Ser-vices SETA’s discretion.

With the Services SETA conduct-ing this programme they will be pro-viding the interns active learning en-vironment and an opportunity to ac-quire skills to make them employable.

For more information visit www.serviceseta.org.za

Sally Fink

Customer [email protected]

Head Offi ceTel: 011 276 9600Fax: 011 276 9623

BloemfonteinTel: 051 430 6223Fax: 051 430 8771

Cape TownTel: 021 425 0417Fax: 021 425 1575

DurbanTel: 031 207 1761Fax: 031 207 1766

East LondonTel: 043 743 5410Fax: 043 722 9587

KimberleyTel: 053 833 7447Fax: 053 833 7452

NelspruitTel: 013 752 2207Fax: 013 752 6434

PolokwaneTel: 015 296 4858Fax: 015 296 4729

Port ElizabethTel: 041 582 2033Fax: 041 582 2040

Training and education highlights

www.serviceseta.org.za

INTERNSHIPS VS LEARNERSHIPS

26

TECHNOLOGYLeading international MiCe bu-reaus and suppliers from all parts of the world have agreed to ex-hibit at iT&CMa and CTW 2011 from 4-6 October 2011.

IT&CMA and CTW will cele-brate its 10th year in Thailand in 2011. Event organisers along

with destination partner TCEB will be pulling out all stops to com-memorate this milestone.

Akapol Sorasuchart, presi-dent of TCEB said, “We are con-fident that Thailand will continue

to appeal as a MICE and tourist destination. Bangkok will always be a dynamic and exciting MICE city with new facilities to use and activities to do. The other cities in Thailand are also continuously developing and improving MICE facilities and bettering access to cultural, historical and entertain-ment attractions. IT&CMA and CTW is our long standing partner in our efforts to promote Thai-land as a MICE destination and we will continue to support this partnership into 2011. Delegates to IT&CMA and CTW 2011 can expect to experience more of

Thailand’s hospitality and enjoy all the diverse features that we have to offer.”

The 2010 event was con-sidered a great success, with smore than 13,000 business ap-pointments which took place between 304 Exhibiting compa-nies and 483 MICE buyers and corporate travel managers over three days. “This figure does not include the other business leads and opportunities that our del-egates realised during the many official networking functions” added Darren Ng, managing director of event organiser, TTG

Asia Media.MICE organisations already

on board for the 2011 event in-clude returning exhibitors Brunei Tourism Development Depart-ment, Dusit International, Egyp-tian Tourism Office, Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, Ministry of Culture & Tourism Republic of Indonesia, Laguna Phuket, Ma-laysia Convention and Exhibi-tion Bureau, Seoul Tourism Board, Silversea Cruises and Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bu-reau (TCEB). Hard Rock Hotels and Starwood Hotels and Resorts will be participating at IT&CMA and CTW 2011 for the first-time.

The reasons exhibitors give for returning to IT&CMA and CTW include the leads and exposure they get from the event being in addition to the chance to in-teract with a high quality and quantity of attending interna-tional buyers. Christine Kim of JW Marriott Seoul said of the 2010 event, “I was able to extend our contacts from all over the world. I am also satisfied with the op-portunity to promote our prop-erties.” Feedback following the 2010 event showed that more than 90 percent of exhibitors be-lieved they would receive orders in the next 12 months, and more than half of them expect their orders to range from $250,000 to above $500,000.

95 percent of buyers and corporate travel managers have indicated an interest in

participating in the 2011 event. International buyer Jacob Abraham Van Hal of S.T. Tours (1996) European Branch was pleased that his schedule was “packed with full appointments on both days” while Leah Vil-larta of Robert Bosch Inc com-mented added “… the event has surpassed my expectations! I’ve renewed contacts and it’s really a perfect way for net-working and learning the latest industry trends and news.”

IT&CMA and CTW 2011 will be held from 4-6 October 2011 at Bangkok Convention Center, CentralWorld, Bangkok. Incen-tive Travel and Conventions, Meetings Asia (IT&CMA) will bring together MICE suppliers and buyers in a 3-day exhibition showcase coupled with inten-sive business appointments. Exhi-bition features include products, services and solutions relating to meetings, incentives, conven-tions and events. The Corpo-rate Travel World (CTW) Asia Pacific is a conference driven by corporate travel and enter-tainment content. Influencers, planners and decision-makers of corporate travel functions in their organisation attend the annual conference to keep themselves abreast of the latest trends and knowledge. Sessions are led by prolific industry veter-ans. 2011 will see the 19th and 14th installment of IT&CMA and CTW respectively.

IT & CMA CELEBRATES TEN YEARS

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in The Event do not necessarily represent the official viewpoint of the editor or the publisher, while inclusion of adverts/advertising features does not imply endorsement of any business, product or service. Copyright of this material is reserved. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, The Event and/or its employees may not be held liable or responsible for any act or ommission committed by any person, including a juristic person, referred to in this publication. It and they furthermore accept(s) no responsibility for any liability arising out of any reliance that a reader of this publication places on the contents of this publication.

• PUBLISHER: Film & Event Publishing

• ADDRESS: 57 2nd Avenue, Harfield Village, Claremont,Cape Town

• PHONE: +27 21 674 0646 • FAX: +27 21 674 6691

• PUBLISHER: Lance Gibbons ([email protected])

• EDITOR: Sally Fink ([email protected])

• COPY EDITOR: Kate Hodges ([email protected])

• INHOUSE JOURNALIST: Siya Ngcobo ([email protected])

• DESIGNER: Jess Novotná ([email protected])

• SALES EXECUTIVE: Ilana Bernstein ([email protected])

• HEAD OF PRODUCTION: Dani Jibrail ([email protected])

• OFFICE ADMINISTRATION: Nadia Samsodien ([email protected])

August booking deadline20 July 2011

August material deadline22 July 2011

Opening Ceremony 2010

27

EVENT REVIEWS

REVIEWSTHE inaugural South African Association for the Confer-ence Industry (SAACI) Amaz-ing Adventure took place on 31 May 2011.

SAACI Western Cape, in partnership with the V&A Waterfront, Adventure

Works, Cape Town Internation-al Convention Centre (CTICC) and iKapa put together the first ever “Amazing Adventure”

teambuilding and networking event, for Cape Town based members of the association.

It could have been an episode of the reality TV se-ries The Amazing Race. 26 in-dustry members of the MICE industry donned their most comfortable shoes and made their way to the CTICC for a fun-filled afternoon of puzzle solving, team challenges and mind games.

The Race kicked off with participants dividing into

teams and then taking part in a scenic kayaking trip along the canal between the CTICC and the V&A Waterfront. This was only the first leg. Teams then had to solve cryptic rid-dles to locate checkpoints around the V&A Waterfront.

“The Blind Paddle was hi-larious with certain teams spi-ralling out of control,” says Adventure Works and SAACI member Barry Futter.

“Giant puzzles, crazy photos, shuffling of nuts and beautiful necklaces made the afternoon a great success and made friends of strangers! What a great team building event!”

The event culminated in a networking function and a much welcomed glass of wine.

Cape Town-based Adven-ture Works specialise in putting together adventure and team building activities for corpo-rate clients and association.

For more information visit www.saaci.co,za

Sally Fink

THEBE HELMS BOFE EXPO

PREVIEWSTHE Business Opportunities and Franchise Expo (BOFE) takes place from 15-18 September 2011 at the Coca-Cola dome.

THEBE Exhibitions and Projects has reunited with the Eskom Foundation for the 2011 Busi-

ness Opportunities and Franchise Expo (BOFE) sponsored by Stan-dard Bank, in a partnership that will provide opportunities to aspir-ing entrepreneurs and small-to-medium enterprise owners.

“Entrepreneurs and the country’s small-to-medium en-terprises (SMEs) are the true catalysts of economic growth. There is no denying the impor-tance of the role that they play in our economy,” says Carol Weaving, managing director of Thebe Exhibitions and Projects.

The 2010 event saw an out-standing turnout of visitors and the 2011 expo is expected to raise the bar, targeting over 10 000 guests who will be looking for leading business, investment, and franchising opportunities.

Haylene Liberty, CEO of the Eskom Foundation, says 2011 marks the tenth year of collabo-ration with the Business Opportu-nities and Franchise Expo. “We have run alongside the expo for the past decade, but we of-ficially became partners of Busi-ness Opportunities and Franchise Expo in 2010 in a well matched Private/Public Partnership.”

Now in its third year, Eskom Foundation presents the 2011 Eskom Business Investment com-petition (BIC), which aims to rec-ognise, honour, reward and de-velop small business owners. It is open to small-to-medium sized, black-owned enterprises in South Africa in the agricultural, manu-facturing, and trade/services sectors. The 27 Finalists - one from each sector representing their province - exhibit at BOFE as part of their prize.

“In terms of the foundation’s strategy, the support provided to small-to-medium businesses through the enterprise devel-opment programme, the Es-kom Contractor Academy and BIC, not only assists with their

growth, but helps create further employment opportunities,” ex-plains Haylene.

She adds that at the same time, it creates an increasing pool of SME and black, women-owned (BWO) suppliers from which Eskom and other large corporate players can draw when procuring goods and ser-vices. “Actually, sourcing goods and services at this level makes for good corporate citizenship in itself,” says Haylene.

Research from the 2010 Busi-ness Opportunities and Fran-chise Expo revealed that 72 percent of its attendees were interested in buying a business, while 62 percent of the visitors who attended the show have funds readily available to invest.

“South Africa has already proved to be resilient during a wave of recessions globally. By nurturing entrepreneurs and busi-ness owners, the country will put itself on a growth path that will ensure sustainable economic development and, improved sys-tems for all who live in this robust environment,” says Carol.

Carol Weaving

REVIEWSTHE Vodacom Funny Festival took place from 13 June–10 July 2011 at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town.

ORGANISED by Eddie Casser Public Relations, the Vodacom Funny Fes-

tival took place at the recently revamped Baxter Theatre.

Comedians included both the established and the new, such as Alan Committie, Kalki

Henenberg, Miss Ro, Eugene Khoza, Shimmy Isaacs, Full House, Carl Wastie.

The show has been running for a steady five years and main-tains good ticket sales despite tough competion from rival com-edy tours such as the Nandos Comedy Festival which just goes to show that South Africans love to laugh at themselves.

For more information about the show or for the latest on the Baxter renovations visit www.bax-ter.co.za.

Alan Committee

SAACI members puzzle over a challenge

the event july 2011

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