INDUSTRY INSIGHTS – Part 4

Shaun Bird, general manager of Sandton Convention Bureau

With 2022 fast approaching, as we all wonder where the time has gone, we have all reflected on 2021 and would rather forget and move on from it.

Pack up the kids and the wagon, and head into 2022 with the same hope we had at this time last year, and this time, begging that we do not have that hope dashed again.

Next year, I would like to write this article for the mid-year edition and say: “I told you so,” and not “How did I get it so wrong?”

Enough with the foreboding and fear mongering. I will leave that to the news media. I am not in the business of selling newspapers or online ad-space.

Let’s get down to it…

2022 is going to begin in April… forget the first quarter. Who really knows where this will lead, but I am positive that turn around is upon us, sooner rather than later. I really hope that this statement about April being the light at the end of the tunnel proves false, and the positivity within the industry now continues full steam ahead, with the first quarter being a right stunner.

As an industry, the adaptations we have made have been amazing. I am in awe, every day, of the creativity that has come to the fore. We are entering into 2022 leaner and meaner than ever, and this will be a positive thing. We have become toned bodybuilders, with less fake tan, but more agility.

The market is returning. The regular faces and voices are out and about. 2022, on the balance of probabilities, is going to show a good comeback. In-person events are going to pick up quickly, and this is already clear, as discussions around Q3 of 2022 and further out, are the order of the day.

The need for exhibitions is on the up, along with a growth in corporate confidence. Government continues to spend in the meeting space, and this all bodes well. International travel is still a concern, but the improvement is evident. Slow but steady.

Budgets will be tighter… when are they not? Demands will be higher… when are they not?

The difference is that we have faced the worst and conquered it, so bring on these challenges. Let us all stay safe – and masked – over the festive season.

Lindiwe Rakharebe, chief executive officer of Durban ICC

The Durban ICC is all set to head into 2021 and beyond. While things have been unpredictable this past year, what we know for sure, is that the Durban ICC was ahead of the pack and successfully hosted a number of local and international events. The Durban ICC has also run several international hybrid conferences with several simultaneous streams from various venues which were streamed to audiences all around the world.

The year 2021 was a challenging year for the tourism and hospitality industry. The Covid-19 pandemic clearly had a significant impact on the tourism industry, both globally and in South Africa, owing primarily to the lockdown and travel restrictions that were imposed. When many business activities were halted and supply chains were disrupted, the global economy collapsed.

Looking back over 2021, I realise how far we have come. This year has been turbulent, unpredictable and possibly the toughest year that the business events industry has ever had to face. That said, we adapted quickly, retrained our staff and reinvented the way we hosted events with our clients. Luckily, the Durban ICC had already invested in its online, virtual events platform, prior to the virus outbreak. This, coupled with strong client relationships, enabled us to drive the organisation forward and we are looking forward to a brighter 2022.

The levers driving the business events industry’s recovery over the next year are dependent on the strength and resilience of the national economy. Given the uncertainty in the international market and prevailing travel restrictions, the focus will be on servicing the domestic market for 2022. However, let us not forget the role that we need to play, as an industry, over the next year.

As an industry, we need to be instilling confidence in all our markets that we are open for business, and that the protocols are in place to host events safely and responsibly. As industry role players, we need to focus on hosting responsible meetings. We all need to ensure that our hygiene and safety protocols are in place and that they are implemented effectively and consistently. All our guests need to feel comfortable and safe when they are in our venues for events.

We need to be working together with government through the SA Events Council and the correct channels to demonstrate the importance of the industry as a tool for economic recovery and social change in the country currently. We need to be emphasising the importance of the business events industry and the role it plays in facilitating dialogues and accelerating agendas in the areas of professional, corporate, academic and social development.

The dialogues and engagements which take place at our events are integral to our national economic advancement and societal development in general. This sector is a key element to delivering economic recovery at this critical time in our history and helping us be intentional about the renewal and transformation we want to see in our society.

The sooner that we are united in our efforts to establish the importance of our sector, the sooner we can see our industry opened to greater capacity and playing its critical role in our country’s recovery.

Charles Wilson, chief executive officer of Gallagher Convention Centre

Over the past two years, we have often speculated on the long-term impact of Covid-19 on the events industry. With bated breath, we received our marching orders with the rest of the country during each ‘family meeting’ called by the president in response to the looming threat.

Having experienced the many restrictions, made numerous adjustments to operating procedures, implemented the safest protocols and producing innovative solutions to an intangible threat — the events industry has changed but now looks forward to what lies ahead.

The future is not doom and gloom for this ever-resilient industry, made up of the most innovative individuals. As the chief executive officer of Gallagher Convention Centre, I firmly believe that the industry will recover and that we will see this recovery take place much faster than what we previously anticipated while experiencing restriction after restriction.

The industry certainly will have to face some challenges on its way to recovery.

Unpredictable forces such as the state of disaster, the possibility of looming lockdowns, visitor confidence and the role of technology in events, will all affect the events industry going forward.

At Gallagher Convention Centre, we address visitor confidence with a strict safety protocol and clear parameters to create an environment for guests to our property that is as safe as possible.

The hybrid event is here to stay and should be regarded as our industry evolving and growing. Venues will need to be geared to offer this to clients as a standard operating procedure as this is a reality of our operation going forward.

For the sake of events with larger numbers and for exhibitions, we hope to see an easing of the restrictions of numbers to a more realistic 50 per cent of venue capacity. A clearer understanding by the government that purpose-built venues can accommodate large numbers of people safely will significantly impact the restrictions on numbers the industry is posed with great understanding that the bigger purpose-built venue can, in fact, cater for more people, following the safety protocols. The industry is experiencing a trend lately where we see exhibitions taking place in malls, as shopping centres do not face the same restrictions as purpose-built venues.

Reputable venues, committed to adhering to the law, regulating their safety standards and adhering to Covid-19 protocols, venues that constantly evolve to offer a better product in an incredibly competitive market will recover and continue to fulfil their role in the events industry.

Bold statements like ‘the future looks bright’ create the impression of an instant bounce-back. That is an airbrushed reality and not the impression that I want to make. The events industry definitely has a future. As an industry, we will have to change, adjust and reimagine how some things are done. But, for industry players who can do that, there is a future and a faster recovery than what was anticipated previously.

Bronwen Cadle de Ponte, general manager of the CSIR ICC

“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” — Professor John Allen Paulos. These words have never rung truer for the business events industry and we certainly have more exciting times ahead.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has forever, and continues to, rapidly change the landscape and norms of our industry, climate change and the impact of the events industry on global warming is becoming even more of a challenge.

We know that the ups and downs that Covid-19 has thrown at us are far from over. As I write this, many countries in the northern hemisphere are going into their fourth round of lockdowns and severe restrictions, due to new surges in the disease and, if history is anything to go by, so will we.

We are already entering our fourth wave of the disease in Gauteng, and we have no way of knowing whether this disease will continue to spread rapidly and mutate into more devastating strains due to the low levels of vaccination we are achieving. How responsibly we deal with this, to mitigate the negative effects on our industry, is in our hands. Hopefully, as a country, we are now informed and organised enough for a more measured and controlled response which takes the professional and risk-controlled operations of our industry into consideration. We are adept and dealing with Covid-related restrictions and precautions which, hopefully, puts us on a good footing going forward to mitigate the effects of other new communicable diseases which are sure to come, although we are unable to rest on this front and need to try harder to predict and mitigate these kinds of risks.

Our impact on climate change is now top-of-mind and will also be the cause of changes to the event industry the way we knew it before 2020. Our communities will no longer accept the levels of carbon emissions, and other negative environmental impacts, generated by mega numbers of people travelling across the world to gather in one place. This was clearly demonstrated by the adverse reaction of climate advocacy groups to the number of delegates that recently attended COP26 in Glasgow.

I do believe that, in consideration for both people and our planet, our industry will continue to change in significant ways in the coming year. It may be only privileged invitees (one per country or organisation instead of full delegations) who get to attend global events in person, to keep the numbers and negative impact down, while a ‘hub and spoke’ model is employed through the hybrid component of the event to host parallel events on each continent, or in participating countries around the world. Continents such as Africa will need to significantly enhance their internet connectivity for African hubs to participate in global summits going forward as technology is going to be key to whose voice is heard.

One thing is certain, and that is that we do not know how our industry will continue to transform and improve, however we know why it must, and we are able to be proactive in shaping this change.

CONVENTION BUREAU

Rendani Khorommbi, deputy director: Johannesburg Convention Bureau

Once again, we have weathered an unpredictable year of setbacks and surprises delivered via the global Covid-19 pandemic. However, there is an immense feeling of enthusiasm and hopefulness that we are through the worst phase in a period which has brought the globe to a halt - and had a profound impact on industries and economies.

As far as continuing in our efforts to secure ongoing business events and business events activities, throughout the past year we have continued our constructive engagements with our industry peers, colleagues and associates, professional associations, professional conference organisers and tourism partners at national, provincial and local level to maximise business events opportunities through collaboration.

This has borne fruit and despite limitations, we successfully hosted the National SAACI Congress this year, which saw the City of Johannesburg signing a Memorandum of Understanding with SAACI to boost business events in the city. Furthermore, we are closing 2021 on a high, by supporting a handful of business events including the JCI Global Congress (hybrid event), JCI National Congress, the global music industry’s ACCES Music Conference 2021 (Music in Africa), South African Society for Labour Law (SASLAW), The South African Facilities Management Association (SAFMA), as well as the 7th edition of the prestigious international Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) conference.

The impact of the pandemic on all of us has been immense. From a Johannesburg perspective alone, prior to it taking hold, our city had recorded just above 4.2 million visitor arrivals, while achieving fifth place in the top 10 city destinations index in the Middle East and Africa. This is according to Euromonitor International 2019. In the rankings, Johannesburg follows Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Mecca (Saudi Arabia), Medina (Saudi Arabia), Cairo (Egypt) and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia).

However, while our world has changed dramatically since March 2020, staging these significant national and global business events with our industry partners is a significant milestone in our efforts to reignite business tourism in Johannesburg.

In line with the prioritisation of achieving increased visitor arrivals in the city and contributing towards our growth targets, the City of Johannesburg’s strategic objective in relation to tourism remains to promote Johannesburg as a leading lifestyle and business destination in Africa, with a global competitive edge, thereby helping to:

Improve seasonality, length of stay and tourist spend during visits to the city. In 2018, Johannesburg witnessed an improved average length of stay of 10.7 days for international visitors and 2.7 days for domestic visitors. Average overall spend per Johannesburg tourist was valued at R8 471.00, reflecting a 7.4 per cent average annual growth and achieving R43,7-billion tourism expenditure in Johannesburg. We need to get back to this growth trajectory and together we are able to do so, through collaboration with business and the private sector.

Improve a diversified tourism offering in the city by means of enhancing tourism supply and catalysing demand to effect tourism multipliers.

Build a positive image for the city amongst domestic, regional and international target markets as basis of good reputation management.

Be an all-inclusive, job-intense, resilient, competitive and smart economy that harnesses the potential of its citizens, using tourism as an enabling key economic sector in respect of the Growth and Development Strategy 2040.

Most notably, Business Events is one of the identified niche development areas in the recently approved Tourism Strategy in April 2021, therefore we are guaranteed more focus in the subsector by the city. A case in point is a collaboration embarked on between the city and SAACI with effect from 20 May 2021.

We are on the right track and look forward to a brighter year ahead!

INCENTIVES/DMCs

Yolanda Woeke, vice president sales and marketing, Dragonfly Africa

2022 certainly looks like it is going to be another recovery year with predominantly postponed incentive groups coming to fruition.

We are really seeing 2023 as the next active year with client confidence coming back for the travel industry as a whole. This is certainly the case for business events travel and with this pandemic being unprecedented with no guidelines or previous statistics and trends to follow, all of this is pure gut feel of what is being said and experienced in our key source markets.

2023, on the business events side, seems to be the year when things will fall back into place. As for FIT and leisure demand, this is certainly bouncing back quicker than the incentive reward side of travel. We have seen clients – as soon as borders reopened – wanting to travel, due to pent up demand and, of course, due to our human wanderlust and the harsh reality of the strict lockdowns. There is also ‘pent up cash’ saved up from the two years of not travelling.

In the incentive sphere, corporates are waiting to see what recovery there is; and they seem to be in a bit of a holding pattern with getting new programmes confirmed for future travel.

We do have to remember that although we as an industry suffered, there are some large global companies that have achieved record years such as telecommunications, retail and, of course, pharmaceuticals — all big players when it comes to offering reward travel to their sales teams. Companies realise that they have to get their sales force motivated and reward travel is certainly one of the most effective ways to achieve that.

I personally believe that travel will bounce back and it will especially bounce back for Africa. Offering naturally physical distancing options, with smaller boutique properties and our beautiful game reserves with wide open spaces. And, of course, with southern and eastern Africa seen as bucket list destinations, travellers will return.

Daryl Keywood, managing director of Walthers DMC

As an eternal optimist I tend to seek out the positive in any situation and although 2021 tried my – and I am sure your – patience, it did have its positives.

At Walthers we were fortunate to partner with our good friends at Uwin Iwin on two exciting incentive projects for local clients that would have travelled internationally. What a thrill it was to be on site, working again and proving that collaboration has the ability to work extremely well. Our team saw business enquiries begin returning and, as I write, our quote requests are up to over half of pre-Covid levels. This gives me confidence that things are, and will, continue to improve.

2022 remains a challenge with many booking postponements from 2020 and 2021. We are seeing short notice interest from non-traditional markets, but for our core UK, Europe and North American clients, 2023 seems to be the year when business finally recovers.

In our team meetings, I often mention that we keep taking two steps forward and one step back. The current surge in infections and lockdowns in Europe demonstrates this and will continue to define our business and will remain with us as part of the new normal.

During a recent webinar with DMC colleagues from around the globe it is evident that the effects of Covid are here to stay. A 2,500 delegate UK programme for Spain in January ’22 has just been postponed to October.

The reason: The company is headquartered in the Netherlands where restrictions have just tightened, and even though almost no delegates are from that country, corporate policy dictates they may not go ahead.

Another DMC colleague is frustrated at having to do the same work for a third time postponing a major project. With reduced resources in their office, changes like these are costing them time and money which they may ill afford. Clients, many of whom are intermediary event agencies are unwilling to pay for changes, something that needs to be addressed in future contracts, for our industry to remain viable. After all, an air ticket change attracts a fee so why not an incentive or conference booking?

All is not bad, however, and having survived almost two years we are looking at a brighter future. Even with the challenges of the new variant, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer.

SUPPLIERS

Patrick Cronning, commercial director of Expo Guys

Wow, an impossible challenge to look ahead at the next few months, it is like saying, “never say never,” but here goes.

It has been the most challenging time of our lives, so nothing really surprises us anymore. We have just gone through the build-up of IATF Durban — and this came through so suddenly and opened in level one lockdown with numbers at an event we have not seen in 20 years, in some cases. What was very encouraging with this build-up, was the cooperation between industry colleagues to get this mammoth task done in the short time allowed. “Thank you, everybody!” So how is this possible? Or should we say that this surely means that nothing is impossible going forward?

Justin Bieber is coming to town in October 2022, so this – as my daughter tells me – is a clear indication we will be back on track, and to be very honest, I agree.

Our communities are starved for live events, exhibitions and the associated social interaction. Venues in our country appear to be booked solid for 2022. The world is back in stadiums, the South African local elections took place with little consequence to Covid-19. So, what are we waiting for, it’s our time to get back out there and do what we love doing.

Craig Newman, chief executive officer of GL events South Africa Group

There is still uncertainty as the new year approaches.

We are operating in hope and trying to stay positive. Unfortunately, destiny isn’t always in our hands.

Government’s decisions in the past has left us in a precarious situation.

At this present time, I’m uncertain as to who has survived in our industry. What I do know is that many suppliers have pursued different avenues to survive. There is a concern that when industry reopens, many businesses in this sector will have shut down.

On an infrastructure perspective, we have already entered various joint ventures and have also begun collaborating in the management of events.

The positive is that Covid-19 has brought our industry together. Currently, we are almost speaking with one voice.

A perception that has been brought to light is that our government has failed to understand our industry and the exceptional value it brings to all sectors and to the greater economy.

It is clear from how our sector was disregarded that our value is completely ignored. We need to bring to light our economic benefit and what our contribution is to the GDP.

Now is the time to build on and move forward, together, through collaboration.

Alexia Swart, managing director of Barmotion

To quote the title of Allister Spark’s book, Tomorrow is Another Country, has never been truer of the events industry in South Africa than it is today. The exhibition industry landscape which graces us in the post-pandemic world is a very different one from that of the buoyant and vibrant industry we knew back in 2019 — and that change makes all predictions perilous.

We have lost many good companies during lockdown, and many are still trying to reestablish themselves with a reduced supplier base and fewer people. We have witnessed good, skilled personnel change their careers and find homes in other industries, and we are not beyond the fear of another lockdown. As we slowly rebuild our industry, we need those who came through it to lead us forward.

Our trade associations, EXSA, SAACI and AAXO must be in the vanguard of the recovery, giving confidence to the industry that only suppliers of repute, experience and commercial strength meet the standards of membership. By the associations doing so, we will hopefully see a tighter industry emerge, where we work much more closely because all our futures are interconnected, and we share common goals.

If this reads a little like a prematch pep talk before a Boks game, it probably should. We are a great industry, and we need to rebuild through mutual support and respect. This is a match we can only win if we are all playing for the same team.