Meetings Africa 2013 to showcase Africa to the world

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Exhibition area at Meetings Africa 2012

© South African Tourism

Meetings Africa 2013 is being hosted by the South African National Convention Bureau (SANCB) and will showcase Africa’s diverse business events product offering. 

Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo, executive manager of SANCB, said the strategy is to make Meetings Africa a truly African showcase, to grow the capacity of the collective African business events industry and transform regional Africa into one of the world’s business events powerhouses. The theme of this year's event is 'Advancing Africa together'. 

‘We want to work with our business event partners on the African continent and want more global and African associations to use the great resources we have in Africa to bolster business event hosting and delivery,’ she said.

She added that Meetings Africa offered the industry and exhibitors an opportunity to see the best of South Africa’s and the continent’s business events industry under one roof: ‘It’s the perfect platform for business events industry professionals to meet, network and create mutually-beneficial business partnerships.’

Kotze-Nhlapo said she’d like to see Meeting Africa becoming the premier Africa platform for business events. ‘Meetings Africa needs to be the Africa show like GIBTM in Abu Dhabi is the Middle East show,’ she explained.

The 2013 event will see more than 50 African association buyers, 200 international hosted buyers, and 200 local corporate and government buyers in attendance.

International Conference and Incentive Travel Research (ICR) was appointed by SANCB to evaluate and screen international hosted buyers for Meetings Africa 2013 to ensure those that attend have a real interest in bringing their business events and incentives to Africa.

Several changes have been made to the Meetings Africa format to ensure buyers and exhibitors get as much as possible out of the event. SANCB has introduced a dedicated Seminar Day on 18 February 2013 -before the actual trade exhibition starts - to enable buyers and exhibitors to attend the various targeted seminar sessions.

The Meetings Africa Association Day will also be held on 18 February 2012 and is a must-attend event for African Association leaders. It is designed to energise and engage association executives. Among its aims are to build the national and pan-African association communities and promote their engagement with international associations.

A new event at Meetings Africa 2013 is the Decision Makers Forum that will be held on 19 February 2013. It’s a platform for key decision makers and industry leaders to engage to better understand the pivotal role business events can play in generating economic prosperity in South Africa’s cities, municipalities and provinces.

Buyers and exhibitors can once again make use of the highly effective Meetings Africa Business Matchmaking^TM system to pre-schedule appointments online to ensure their time at Meetings Africa 2013 is productively spent. The Meetings Africa Golf Day will take place on 21 February 2013, providing networking opportunities in a different way for corporate executives, hosted buyers and exhibitors

In 2010, 10 000 association meetings rotated around the world. South Africa attracted just 86 of those and Africa just 304. The SANCB would like to see 135 association meetings taking place in South Africa annually by 2020, attracting 81 000 delegates.