South Africa: 'Now in Vogue'

Johannesburg is center of what is likely to be next global opportunity

By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 10/9/2006

It's a far-flung country where tourism and the economy are on the rise, the convention centers are massive and state-of-the-art, tradeshows are growing and profitable, the business language is English, and the entertainment options (countless elephants, lions, leopards, giraffes, rhinoceroses and buffalo) could put most shows in Las Vegas to shame.

Stumped? Think south of the equator — way south, in Africa.

South Africa has nearly a dozen exhibition venues and more than 1,700 conference facilities, according to South African Tourism.

Within the metropolitan area of Johannesburg (or Jo'burg) in the Gauteng province, the country's commercial and industrial center, there are four convention centers: Expo Centre, Johannesburg; Sandton Convention Centre; Gallagher Estate Conference & Exhibition Centre; and the Coca-Cola Dome. Their combined exhibit space totals more than 1.1 million square feet.

Travel about 870 miles southwest, and you're in what is known as the Monte Carlo of Africa, Cape Town (in the Western Cape province), which boasts two tradeshow venues. Its Cape Town Intl. Convention Centre offers 104,464 sq. ft. of exhibit space and will expand to 120,556 sq. ft. by April. The venue also features a 21,528-sq. ft. ballroom, meeting rooms and auditoriums. Cape Town's Good Hope Centre currently features 95,336 sq. ft. of exhibit space.

Other tradeshow venues are Intl. Convention Centre Durban in Durban (in the KwaZulu-Natal province) and the Tshwane Events Centre in Pretoria (Gauteng province). The venues offer 107,639 and 452,084 sq. ft. of exhibit space, respectively.

In preparation for the 2010 World Cup in several South African cities, the country is busy putting on its best face for the world. Among other city service and venue upgrades, five new stadiums are being constructed and five are being renovated.

Some show management firms are already cashing in on South Africa's draw.

London-based Montgomery is a major player in the country's tradeshow industry. The firm has organized shows in South Africa since 1968 (starting out with its building shows), and purchased Johannesburg's Expo Centre in 2004.

Montgomery Director Sandy Angus, who travels to South Africa five times a year, said of the firm's business in the country, "We've been through good times and bad times, and we just stuck with it."

Through its Johannesburg-based Specialised Exhibitions, Montgomery currently runs more than a dozen shows each year in South Africa, including Electra Mining Africa, the country's largest tradeshow and the third largest mining show in the world (according to Montgomery). The show last month spanned 333,681 sq. ft. of exhibit space at the Expo Centre.

Upcoming Montgomery shows include the Natural & Organic Products Exhibition, which runs Oct. 20–22 at the Gallagher Estate, and the collocated packaging and plastics show ProPak Africa, Pro-Plas Africa and Print Expo March 13–16, 2007, at the Expo Centre.

Angus, current chairman of the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management, said Montgomery is probably one of the three largest show management firms doing business in the country — and counts on doing more.

"We hope that business generally will grow in Africa, and we're using South Africa as our base," he said. Montgomery is launching Project Libya in Tripoli, Libya, in December, and may extend the brand to other African countries, such as Angola and Congo.

ITE Group is another London-based firm organizing shows in South Africa. The company currently produces Beauty Africa each July at the Sandton center.

South Africa also has its share of homegrown show management firms, including Thebe Exhibitions & Events Group (formerly South Africa RAI) and Kagiso Exhibitions, both based in the Johannesburg area.

Thebe, an IAEM member, owns the Coca-Cola Dome and in 2007 will organize 10 shows throughout the country, including the business tourism show Meetings Africa. The company organizes Meetings Africa in association with the Johannesburg Convention Bureau and South African Tourism. In February, the annual show attracted 3,000 attendees and 80 international hosted buyers to 140 exhibiting companies.

Kagiso owns and manages the South African Intl. Trade Exhibition, along with auto and agriculture shows. The company also manages the Intl. Franchise Exposition on behalf of the Franchise Assn. of Southern Africa and the travel show Indaba for South African Tourism.

Apart from rotating association meetings (including the 10,000-attendee Intl. Diabetes Federation's World Diabetes Congress in Cape Town in December), U.S.-based show management firms have barely touched South Africa, according to Tradeshow Week research.

Waldwick, N.J.-based Kallman Worldwide did manage the U.S. pavilion at the Africa Aerospace and Defense Air Show in 2004. The U.S. Commercial Service, which encourages U.S. firms' involvement in dozens of South African shows each year, currently organizes the U.S. pavilion at the event.

And although he doesn't organize shows in South Africa, Cherif Moujabber, president of Walpole, Mass.-based Creative Expos and Conferences, has attended several in the country.

Moujabber said, "I think South Africa has the possibility of playing a very important regional role, and has to some extent done so."

If South African Tourism has its way, both leisure and business travelers from the United States will soon have the country on the top of their to-visit lists.

The Sandton-based group recently completed its inaugural South Africa Roadshow, a tabletop exhibition (with more than a dozen venues and tour organizers) and dinner that traveled last month to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tampa and Boca Raton, Fla., Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, to showcase South Africa to travel agents.

South African Tourism was also involved in The Motivation Show last month in Chicago, where it showcased the launch of its BusinessUsual campaign, designed to attract business travelers. The bureau also bought advertisements displayed on about 25 buses used during the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York earlier this year.

Additionally, South Africa's Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism was involved in last month's first TourismAfrica in Geneva, which the World Tourism Organization produced.

"As they say in Africa, you better go big or go home," South African Tourism President Felicia Suttle, a former talk show host, said of her group's new tourism initiative.

"South Africa is definitely in vogue," she added.

And with two daily South African Airways flights from New York and Washington, D.C., the country south of the equator is getting closer than you might think.