2 minute read
SAACI NEWS
Leading from the front
As we navigate the second quarter of 2022, we find ourselves leading from the front. This is critical for our industry that many business’ event professionals are actively doing their best to activate in-person engagements for clients, partners, and communities.
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By Glenton de Kock, chief executive officer of SAACI.
As many of us have witnessed, since the beginning of 2022, we need all our business leaders to lead the charge back to planning and attending meetings in person.
Our recovery is fragile, as the macroeconomic forces wobble around us, coupled with the reported fuel shortage and reduction of flights; we need nerves of steel as we roll out business events, trade fairs and exhibitions.
We have witnessed and felt the optimism in the first quarter as we delivered business events, trade fairs and exhibitions while adapting to the necessary protocols, in how we currently do our work. More importantly, we need to motivate our clients, employees, and partners to resume travelling too. We stress this call is made with a clear view that personal and community safety is always considered, as we witness a mini surge in infections over the past weeks.
By encouraging our teams to seize the competitive advantage and begin travelling again is vital to reestablishing connections and reinvigorating our businesses.
No doubt, in-person meetings and events have been more productive and meaningful and are so critical to forming business-building relationships.
However, business travel is making a sluggish recovery, far slower than our domestic leisure travel segment.
This is particularly alarming and there is much work to do, but we believe business leaders can play a key role in leading this sector back to growth. In building recovery from within our local surroundings, we will grow the distribution of our industry’s socioeconomic impact.
We look forward to continuing our work with our partners and stakeholders and hope to see all our industry colleagues, very soon, in-person as our industry continues on its path to recovery.
