SAEC NEWS

SAEC – facing challenges together

“Perilous” would probably be the word I would use to describe 2020. It has been a year of challenges, panic and despair for many. Our industry got side-swiped and the end is nowhere near in sight.

By Tes Proos, chairperson of the South African Events Council

The great positive for me is how the industry has rallied together to try and make the best of a bad situation. No less than fourteen event associations teamed up to form the South African Events Council. It was my privilege to lead this team since June 2020 and it has been heart-warming to feel the energy and effort from all the individuals who signed up to help rescue our sector.

A very comprehensive Covid-19 protocol guidelines was written and published in June 2020. This was distributed to all key stakeholders including the Ministry of Tourism, SAPS, Nedlac, Department of Labour and various regional government authorities including Western Cape, KZN, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

Our task was to lobby for earlier reopening of our industry, and we succeeded with small steps. We have ongoing engagement with the Ministry of Tourism, SA Tourism, the South Africa National Convention Bureau, Department of Labour, Department of Sports, Arts and Culture as well as the Tourism Business Council of South Africa.

We put on two proof-of-concept events to show government, clients and the industry that we can successfully operate events with all Covid-19 protocols in place. More recently, the Restart Expo event was held at the Johannesburg Expo Centre to show how exhibitions will operate under Covid-19 protocols.

In addition, we are lobbying for the extension of TERS funding as we know, realistically, that we will not have any significant business until at least Q 2 of 2021, if not later. In the meantime, there is still a good chance that more businesses will close and more lives and livelihoods will be impacted upon.

The current second wave we are experiencing on a global scale is certainly causing mayhem in our industry. The greatest challenge we will be facing for the next few months, is the fear factor amongst our clients. It is going to take hard work to get confidence back. We need to collaborate across borders in order to harmonise protocols, minimise quarantine factors and educate our industry, across the board, to effectively apply those protocols. Otherwise, until a safe vaccine is freely available, our industry faces a very real chance of collapsing.

That said, in December 2020 I presented at a workshop in Kigali, Rwanda. The day before the event, the government declared that all delegates at any sort of gathering must undergo a rapid test prior to access. All delegates in my group were tested the night before and all tests were negative. The workshop was held at the Marriott Kigali and I was impressed with their application of Covid-19 protocols at all levels. That, and knowing the fact that all delegates were Covid-free, truly provided a sense of safety. Perhaps this is the way to go, to help events restart with confidence?

In the meantime, our sector is experiencing a massive brain-drain as we lose thousands of highly experienced individuals as they lose their jobs and close their businesses. By the time events are ready to make a come-back, we may have lost these people permanently to other industries. We are already experiencing massive declines in service levels from our suppliers with little or no response from enquiries, due to many working short time, from home and without the support of their office and management infrastructure.

Communication is key and training is critical. We need to ensure that those teams that are still operating be motivated somehow. Existing skills should be honed and new skills developed. Multi-tasking within our workforce is more important now than ever before but are we asking too much while they have to do three times the work at a fraction of the salary? This is where leadership will emerge, so pay attention to your team’s performance and recognise those who go the extra mile as these could be our future leaders.

Tes Proos