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MEETINGS AFRICA
Event professionals awarded
During this year’s Meetings Africa, SACIA awarded its first cohort of professional designations to industry professionals working in event management.
Kevan Jones, executive director of SACIA, said: “It’s a process that has taken over a decade to come to fruition. In recent years, the process has accelerated, and having awarded designations to the qualifying individuals this month, we believe that we have created a robust process that will drive the professionalisation of the events industry.”
To earn a professional designation, individuals wrote an online, multiple-choice exam that tested their knowledge across multiple elements of event administration, event management, event design, event operations, event marketing, and event risk. They also provided a detailed portfolio of evidence supporting their claim of event management competence.
Mr Jones said: “In celebrating the launch of our designations and the success of our first group of designated members, it is worth noting that the long-term success of this project requires an industry-wide buy-in to our programme. We all need to be working toward the same agenda… the professionalisation of the events industry.”
He revealed that of the 25 candidates who undertook formal exams, only one possessed a formal qualification in tourism, events, and hospitality, with the remainder relying on industry experience.
Also awarded was the association’s co-founder, Glenn van Eck, described as ‘pioneer and visionary’.
“Our core business is to professionalise the events industry by offering a tiered approach to the process. Our vision is to become a pan-African organisation. Our next step is to expand across the rest of Africa,” Mr Jones concluded.
