INDUSTRY INSIGHTS – Part 3

PAGE STRAP VENUE NEWS INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

combination with UFI, published their latest Global Recovery Insights report in October 2021 and it offers the following positive indicators from a survey done with 15,000 participants in 30 countries:

• 62 per cent of exhibitors plan to exhibit at the same shows as in 2019 or more frequently at other shows

• 72 per cent of existing visitors plan to return to attend trade shows with the same or increased frequency

• 45 per cent of exhibitors expect the budget to return within 12 months

• For exhibitors looking to cut budgets, 60 per cent will maintain their spend on design and build, 67 per cent will continue to invest in the same amount of floor space

All indicators show that the industry is set to make a slow but steady recovery in 2022 and it is with great enthusiasm that we look forward to returning to the exhibition floor.

Ellen Oosthuizen, chairperson of the PCO Alliance

2020/2021 have certainly been unpredictable years for the business events and tourism industry. No one could have predicted the strict lockdowns and the struggles that came with it. We all had to switch to survival mode.

Earlier this year there was a ray of light at the end of our gloomy tunnel when our President Cyril Ramaphosa announced an increase in the ‘gatherings’ numbers to 750 indoors and 2,000 outdoors. Finally, we felt we could operate again!

This has given small businesses and the companies in the business events industry an opportunity to thrive again. I don’t foresee these numbers changing any time soon, possibly at the end of 2022. This remains a challenge for some venues that are too small to accommodate these numbers due to the social distancing regulations.

My insight for 2022 is that we need to remain positive. Slowly, but surely, the business events industry will open to the ‘new normal’ with international events leading the way (e.g. Dubai Expo, WTM London).

With Meetings Africa and Africa’s Travel Indaba scheduled to take place again in 2022, I feel hopeful that a trace of normality may return to the business events and tourism industry.

The vaccination drive needs to be supported by everyone in the business events and tourism industry, enabling us to become fully operational again.

Only then will we be able to showcase to all countries that South Africa is event safety-ready and looking forward to welcoming everyone.

In conclusion, I would like to see President Cyril Ramaphosa lift the restrictions further in the business events and tourism industries.

Let’s build up the industry together and adhere strictly to safety protocols. Business events and tourism will revive in 2022.

PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCE ORGANISERS

Pieter Swart, CMP, CMM | managing director of Conference Consultancy South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Each of us had different experiences this year that was. Most of us probably went full circle on the wheel of emotions with varying degrees of intensity. We lived life differently. If I had to pin 2021 on one word, that word would be ‘trust’. This single word defined my relationships, my vision, and my actions. I respond differently to people whom I trust and information that I don’t.

Trust is a loaded word; it is built and therefore requires deep thought. We should interrogate and grapple with data until it makes sense and becomes useful information. Yet trust offers no guarantees. It does however hold the promise of hope.

Trust requires our eyes on the horizon; looking for change and seeking understanding. In 2020 we learned to apply what was believed by some too far-fetched for our reality. This year was mostly spent on refining our approach to the new reality. Our past made us wiser and more resourceful. Let’s seek the developing signals on our horizon. Question what the metaverse means for our future; learn from the present; cast emotions to the side and work with attributes. Trust our instinct; it is hard-earned. I trust that 2022 will bring you renewed hope and deliver on the promise of prosperity.

Denise Kemp, owner of Eastern Sun Events

I was reading a PCMA report at the end of last year and the majority of Americans expected the industry in the USA to have widespread unemployment and economic depression over the next few years. So, what has 2021 been like for us in South Africa this past year?

What was surprising for me was that, for our company, 2021 was a more difficult year than 2020. After surviving 2020, with my company and staff intact, I had been looking forward to an easier time in 2021.

2020 events immediately went virtual with no hope of an on-site or hybrid event. However, 2021 seemed more hopeful with things due to open and we had a few hybrid events scheduled. Because of the fear of a fourth wave late in 2021 our clients either cancelled or turned the hybrid conferences into virtual events. Medical association membership fees were down, and associations were reluctant to lose money scheduling events that may run at a loss.

With the late cancellation of our physical events this year all the work had already been prepared for the onsite part of the conference and exhibitions and sponsorship had to be cancelled or changed into a virtual model. This resulted in exhibitions having to be relaunched and sponsorship deals having to be renegotiated. With all the compliance issues around medical association sponsorship this was a mammoth task.

It seems that healthcare professionals have become used to participating in virtual conferences and the advantages of not having to leave their practices or hospitals and travel to attend these events. Although the desire is there for physical meetings, I believe that on site conferences will be smaller as some will still prefer to attend virtually. Most healthcare professionals now expect online access to content even if they attend physical conferences.

So, what are we all looking forward to in 2022? Again, most of our conferences are going to be hybrid. This adds a large AV cost to the event and necessitates additional staff to look after the on-site and the virtual sides. Not all association clients are able to afford this. This also comes with the stress and expense of trying to offer world class events during loadshedding.

We have found that clients are requiring more guidance and support from their PCOs. They have no idea as to how things will work out in this “new normal” we find ourselves in and they rely on us to show them the way, particularly on the financial side. I think that this bodes well for experienced PCOs going forward.

The low rate of vaccination in South Africa is also a concern. An international congress was planning to relocate to Cape Town in 2022 when their current chosen country was put back into lockdown. However, there was a concern with the status of vaccinations here and the probable reluctance of international delegates to come to South Africa in 2022.

We are able to only hope that, during 2022, our vaccination rate increases and loadshedding is brought under control. Hopefully then we will begin returning to being able to deliver first rate national conferences and again become a destination of choice for international conferences.

EXHIBITION ORGANISERS

Carol Weaving, chief executive officer of RX Africa

When the sheer scale of the global pandemic became clearer in early February 2020, there was little in the way of formal, comparable data to help the events industry understand Covid-19’s immediate and longer-term impact on our customers and our events.

RX Global quickly conducted a frequent Covid-19 Customer Needs and Mindset Barometer, reaching out to exhibitors and attendees of some 201 events across the globe. This enabled us to determine how to pivot, and just how agile we’d need to be to keep the doors of events and entertainment open.

Noting many participants were open to engaging via digital platforms alongside face-to-face interactions, RX Africa quickly created the platforms that gave exhibitors a genuine opportunity to connect with their attendees using digital event tools that provided remote buying and selling opportunities for attendees and exhibitors. Events as we knew them were disrupted and our RX team embraced new solutions for our partners. Adversity often helps us to foster innovation and with Africa Travel Week we were prompted to rapidly embrace the development of online platforms. This was the realisation of Africa Travel Week Connect, a travel show held virtually for all in tourism and a massive success.

When Covid-19 protocols allowed, we included in-person events, culminating in the exceptionally successful inaugural FAME Week Africa, in collaboration with the City of Cape Town.

A particular highlight was Reel Talent Showcase, which saw over 200 entries from more than 20 countries submitted, providing a unique opportunity for creatives in Africa to display their work and explore possible opportunities with industry leaders.

Given the exceptional events the RX Africa teams were able to bring together throughout 2021, including Africa Travel Week and Decorex, my predictions for 2022 are significantly brighter than this time last year. I foresee substantial use of digital platforms across all sectors of the industry, not only because of potential waves of the pandemic, but also to reduce our carbon footprint where it makes sense to do so.

I predict the now-common hybrid ‘work from anywhere’ model is here to stay for those staff members able to co-ordinate business requirements remotely, and event engagement teams coming together to engage with clients and attendees.

My feeling is that more shows will insist on proof of vaccination before entry is allowed. RX Global’s major 2021 shows Comic Con New York and World Travel Market London piloted this without any problems.

The future is all about innovation, agility

The future – both immediate and longer term – will require all organisations to do a “whether check” before embarking on large projects or events to see whether the world is open to travel, and whether a hybrid event is most appropriate. It would be a big mistake to undermine a virus by wishing it away – but equally inappropriate not to implement the precautions we are able to and learn to live within the framework of the best of medical knowledge.

Africa Travel Week, headlined by WTM Africa and ILTM Africa, was held – in hybrid format – in April 2021, and World Travel Market Africa (WTM Africa) and the International Luxury Travel Market Africa (ILTM Africa) will be adopting a hybrid format for the popular travel and tourism trade shows in 2022, allowing exhibitors to connect with buyers both at a live event and a two-day virtual event.

The hybrid format ensures a significant return on investment and buyers and exhibitors are able to benefit from 22 per cent more meeting time slots than what was previously available to them.

WTM Africa will be held live and in-person from 11 to 13 April 2022, alongside ILTM Africa. As Africa’s only inbound and outbound premier travel and tourism trade show, the event will once again bring together exhibitors and buyers from across the globe to connect, exchange ideas, share news and discuss innovation within the travel and tourism sector.

The three-day live event in the host city of Cape Town is open to all travel trade professionals. Visitors may look forward to attending conference sessions with speakers from around the globe, face-to-face networking, the African Responsible Tourism Awards, press conferences and more.

Decorex 2022 will be unveiling an exciting new approach to its shows and will continue driving the successful online marketplace, which was launched to connect exhibitors with their clients.

Africa Automation Technology Fair will be an in-person event in 2023, and RX Africa has built a virtual network which will keep this community engaged until they meet in person.

While 2020 will be remembered for the shock and horror Covid-19 thrust on us,

I believe it will also be remembered for being a year that gave rise to immense human resilience and encouraged true creativity in our quest for immediate and long-term solutions. The power of live events has been amplified with digital offerings and RX Africa is embracing this innovative way of doing things.

Devi Paulsen-Abbott, vice president, dmg events

When Winston Churchill is claimed to have said: “If you’re going through hell, keep going,” he must have had access to Dr Emmet Brown’s DeLorean time machine and chosen to visit South Africa in 2021.

Twelve months ago, South Africans were waiting with bated breath for the vaccine to hit our shores, expecting 2021 to be kinder to us and to be following our peers across the pond to see scaled live events being hosted.

However, our resolve was further tested at the start of the year, with level five lockdown measures being implemented. Cue in supply chain constraints due to civil unrest, load-shedding, and of late the unprecedented ‘hung’ municipalities post our November local government elections to disrupt our lives further.

And if that wasn’t enough, pretty much every South African – myself included – cannot help themselves from peppering their prose with a plethora of eye-rolling, annoying buzzwords and/or interchanging nouns and verbs, that would have had Mrs Smith, my Grade 12 (in my day matric) English teacher in a stupor i.e., pivot, zoom, hybrid and new normal.

With the surprisingly low vaccination levels in South Africa, some sort of lockdown will probably be with us into 2022, so the exhibitions and event industry may remain in flux for a little while longer.

Despite all of this, though, and with each passing week, the light at the end of the very long and dark tunnel does seem to get a little brighter.

As we look at ramping up, with regard to eventually hosting live events again in 2022, we have an opportunity to build our industry back better.

There is no doubt that people will always want and need to get to together in person. But we are going to have to work very hard to convince visitors and exhibitors alike to do this at our events. Being able to demonstrate the value and, of course, mollifying any concerns around safety will be our number one priority in 2022.

We will need to refine or redefine many of our events’ purposes which will in turn gear us for several adaptions to our approaches, business models, strategies and focus.

Most of us are going to have to do all of this with far less money, time and talent, so focusing on the basics is crucial. In other words, cut the frills, trim the fat and direct all efforts to delivering on the core fundamentals — flawlessly.

What we did pre-Covid is not an option for any of us. There is no going back to what used to pass as ‘normal’. Building ourselves back better means not accepting complacency or nostalgia. The risks and opportunities are too great, the stakes too high. We have to be prepared for inevitable change.

As Sir Churchill also said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”

VENUES

Robert Hatton-Jones.

Wayne de Wet.

CTICC

Insight provided by the CTICC's general manager: commercial, Robert HattonJones and chief financial officer, Wayne De Wet.

Looking back at 2021, how has the CTICC fared over the pandemic?

The restrictions on international travel and the Covid-19 regulations in place limiting the amount of people allowed at gatherings for indoor events and meetings severely curtailed the CTICC’s traditional large-scale business events. This reduction in business, especially from our core global markets, affected the financial performance of the CTICC. Unfortunately, this impacted us operationally, and although they were held off for as long as possible, retrenchments of some of our staff had to be implemented. We transformed as much as possible to a remote working environment.

Clients were not booking events too far in advance due to the unknowns regarding the regulations. However, during this period, the sales team managed to secure fifteen international bids, which will take place over the next five years, commencing in 2022.

One of our core areas of focus was maintaining the Centre’s infrastructure as best as we could, given our limited cash resources. This approach was necessary so that when regulations allowed us to open, we were in a position to operate at capacity with immediate effect.

What are the most significant changes you saw over 2021?

At the CTICC, the most significant change we experienced was adapting to the ever-changing regulations. In 2020, we did our best to navigate the pandemic and its implications on our business. We put in place initiatives such as our C19Care® protocol, Covid-19 screening App, postponed events and focused on securing our forward book. In 2021, we moved from hosting digitalonly events to hybrid and small in-person events. We focused more on domestic and regional business opportunities such as smaller meetings, the provision of co-working spaces and venues for exam marking and graduation ceremonies. Our most significant change is that our traditional business events space model has adapted to us becoming a multipurpose space for our local business community.

Looking ahead at 2022, what kind of year are you predicting in terms of business events?

The market is showing signs of recovery, and internationally many large-scale events are already taking place in markets such as the USA. For the CTICC, our forward book is looking strong, as there is an intense desire to meet in-person again. That said, we predict a 30% drop in conference sizes from pre-pandemic levels, as hybrid events are here to stay, and many businesses are still limiting the long-haul travel of their employees due to the pandemic. Travellers and companies are also seeking ways to reduce their carbon footprint and, as travel is a significant contributor of global CO2 emissions, delegates are often choosing to opt for online events, or choosing events that offset their carbon footprint.

What industry trends may we expect?

As a business, the CTICC has looked at several trends to see how they may be adapted to our business so that they may be taken advantage of next year.

These include:

The move to hybrid events, although globally there is a move back to in-person events. The value of a hybrid event such as increasing delegate numbers, ability to fill sales pipeline, networking opportunities due to AI etc., is evident. Therefore, many conferences will continue to use this model.

Although social distancing measures are being relaxed internationally, there will be a continued focus on safety, by many organisers. Optimised use of space, ensuring the health and safety of delegates, safety signage etc., will become the norm.

Venues increased their focus on environmental and social sustainability – sustainable practices will become the norm, as clients seek partners with measurable and impactful sustainable offerings and business operations.

The acceleration of technology – seamless digital experiences and personalisation for delegates has also been accelerated over the past year, and this trend will continue.

What opportunities and challenges do you anticipate for 2022?

As a business, the CTICC is taking into consideration the following opportunities and challenges:

Opportunities:

• Take advantage of constrained travel demand.

• Capitalise on investments made in technology in 2021.

• Move from a functional-fit business events space to a multi-purpose business space.

• Regional travel.

• Sustainability.

Challenges:

• Impact that the changing regulations have on our clients confidence to book events too far in advance.

• Limited air access from key source markets.

• Limited uptake of long-haul travel in the near future.

• Impact the pandemic has had on the supply chain and the ability of businesses within the supply chain to operate at total capacity over the short-term.

• Pricing expectations by clients.