Partnerships and collaborations are key to propelling the global business events sector. This is the sentiment as the South African National Convention Bureau (SANCB) heads to showcase South Africa’s business events capabilities at IBTM World in Barcelona, Spain.
Taking place from 29 November to 1 December, IBTM World will bring together over 3000 destinations and 15 000 industry professionals from over 100 countries across the world with the sole purpose to meet and create better business results for the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions industry.
Ahead of IBTM World, the SANCB will partner with IBTM World’s Association Leadership Forum (ALF) to host global associations for an engagement that aims to bring the association community together to partner and share knowledge for the advancement of the business events sector.
“The SANCB is committed to business events and capacity building particularly post the pandemic, ensuring that we are rebuilding and strengthening together as the globe. Through our partnership and collaboration with the ALF, we are demonstrating the strength that comes with working as a collective in achieving a common goal, in this case the goal is to emerge stronger, whilst showcasing our resilience as a business events sector to continue thriving, for the advancement of business events globally and in Africa,” says Zinhle Nzama, Acting Chief Convention Bureau Officer at the SANCB.
The South African delegation, led by the South African National Convention Bureau, comprises of 18 exhibitors including three SMMEs, and will showcase the country’s diverse services.
Nzama said that the SANCB has attended a few other global platforms to showcase South Africa’s business events offerings and it will use the IBTM World platform to further showcase to the global community the strides it continues to make in the business events sector.
“Throughout this year, we’ve made headway on the various platforms we have participated in. The key insight we have found is that the business events community already knows about South Africa, which goes to show that we have done the awareness job, ours is now to bring people to South Africa to host their business events,” continues Nzama.
On the second day of IBTM, Wednesday, 30 November 2022, the South African National Convention Bureau will host a media briefing to provide key and exciting updates to South Africa’s business events sector.
“We want to use this platform to not only reassure the global business events industry that South Africa is open for business, but to also showcase the improvements we have made to our offerings over the past while,” concludes Nzama.
During IBTM, the SANCB will also take the opportunity to invite the sector to Meetings Africa, which takes place from 27 February to 1 March 2023, to come and experience the best of Africa’s business events products and experiences under one roof.
