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LESSONS LEARNED
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LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Despite some real challenges, the business events sector has come back stronger and more determined. Katie Reynolds Da-Silva speaks to the experts to find out what lessons they’ve learned and are taking into 2020 with them.
Minister Kganyago, Business Development Manager, CSIR Illustration designed by rawpixel.com via Freepik
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n 2019, the South African businessevents sector saw incredible success despite myriad challenges – a weakened rand, political instability, and investor uneasiness to name a few. But we once again proved that as a nation, we are stronger together. With a renewed sense of collaboration, national pride, and excitement for a new decade, the industry has reenergised and reinvigorated itself. A few of our country’s businessevent experts share their lessons learned, and their mindsets for 2020.
Minister Kganyago, Business Development Manager, CSIR Business events in turbulent economic times has been a challenge to say the least.
Price wars have been erupting from corner to corner causing service quality to decline enormously amongst those who aim to service the industry delegates. What we learn from this situation is that things can get worse and perhaps instead of looking at the glass half empty, businesses within the industry should start to see the glass as half full and embrace the atmosphere as an opportunity to become even more innovative, an opportunity to reinvent their business models to suit the current economic environment. An opportunity to find out how much of collaboration can be brought into for added value to exist, how much of industry contributions can they make in order to break through the clutter. Gone are the days of faceless profit-making organisations. In 2020, decision-making
processes should be even faster given the fast-paced business environments due to technological advancements of 4IR that continue to affect consumer needs and wants. Otherwise, keeping a positive outlook in the midst of these turbulences, can go a long way for businesses.
Kim Weber, Business Optimisation Manager, Century City Conference Centre & Hotel We’re moving into an era of revolution where today’s decisions, both operationally and strategically, are made with a future guest in mind. Agility is more important than ever before. Not only has it assisted us in adapting to the macro climate but to ensure our customers’ needs are anticipated and then exceeded. This
