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AFRICA’S SMARTEST CONVENTION CENTRE
Meetings explores how the Durban ICC has evolved to provide a valuable offering that is relevant to where the MICE industry is currently.
The Durban International Convention Centre (ICC) has always aimed to position itself as ‘Africa’s leading convention centre’ and during this unprecedented global situation, the centre has been focusing on the development of its high-tech virtual event solutions. Having invested in the latest cutting-edge meetings technology, the centre is reinventing itself as the continent’s leading high-tech convention centre.
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“Without moving away from our existing market positioning, we are adding this competitive edge and aiming to also be recognised as ‘Africa’s smartest convention centre’,” says Lindiwe Rakharebe, CEO, Durban ICC.
The centre is offering a range of innovative solutions such as live-streaming events, remote-presentation events, hybrid events and video-on-demand.
VIABLE EVENT SOLUTIONS For the uninitiated, a hybrid event is simply the combination of a traditional face-to-face event with an online component, which extends the reach of the conference to a wider audience using technology like live-streaming.
“The best part is that companies are taking advantage of this kind of event solution, even during the lockdown, by using the technology we have on offer and not having to wait until live events fully start up again. By taking their events online, Some are even able to reach much larger audiences than they would have with their traditional live event,” says Scott Langley, director: Marketing, Sales and Events for the Durban ICC.
Lindiwe Rakharebe, CEO, Durban ICC
“We have already had a phenomenal response from clients to our virtual conferencing solution. We are able to assist clients to run their events from the comfort and safety of their own homes. We also have a range of online event offerings and pricing models to choose from, depending on the kind of event our clients would normally organise. This solution can provide a financial lifeline to organisations that rely on events to generate revenue,” Scott adds.
AREA OF EXPERTISE The Durban ICC has been operating in this virtual space for a while now. It ran its first collaborative hybrid event in September 2019, which was an association conference held at the Centre and was live-streamed to a national audience. Since then, it has held a number of international hybrid conferences with several simultaneous streams from various venues, which were streamed to audiences all around the world.
Commenting on her hybrid event experience with the Durban ICC, Clare Fincham, general manager of the South African Society for Labour Law (SASLAW), said: “When we hosted our association’s 23rd Annual Conference at the Durban ICC last year, it gave us the opportunity to incorporate the live-streaming element for the first time. This allowed our members who weren’t able to be there in person to experience the event in real time and not miss out on the excellent content we had worked hard on arranging.
“Another great feature was that the individual conference sessions were then available to view from the Durban ICC’s website after the event. The members who attended the sessions found them to be very useful and informative, and we were delighted to be able to offer this benefit to our members, and also as an extra revenue stream for SASLAW.”
DELEGATE BENEFITS Virtual events offer a range of benefits, for instance, the digital delegate can: • get all the content of the live event from the comfort and safety of their homes • watch the speakers via the video feed and view any presentations via the picture-inpicture mode • engage remotely with the event in real time via the event’s chat or social media channels • share the content with others in their
organisation directly without having to repeat it themselves second-hand to their colleagues • choose to consume the event content later to suit their schedule • view selected elements from the event programme that pertain to their areas of interest. This is just the latest addition to the ever-evolving range of tech offerings available at the Durban ICC, as the centre has always taken pride in being on the leading edge of the latest developments in this space.
The Durban ICC boasts the country’s fastest convention centre Wi-Fi network, which is also able to support the most concurrent users. It was also the first centre in the country to offer indoor Google Maps and the first to incorporate the ‘whatthreewords’ navigation system into its complex. The centre has also invested heavily in its massive video screens and interactive digital totems in the past year. No wonder it is also being recognised as Africa’s smartest convention centre.
