One + October 2010 - (Page 60)

South Africa is now poised for instant stardom as a meeting, convention and incentives destination thanks to the recent 2010 FIFA World Cup. Gooooooal! BY ROWLAND STITELER THERE’S NOTHING LIKE WORLDWIDE TV COVERAGE TO AN AUDIENCE OF 30 BILLION PEOPLE OVER 30 DAYS TO PROPEL A DESTINATION INTO “OVERNIGHT” SUCCESS. That’s what happened to South Africa as a result of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Series, which brought the world to the country both via TV and—in the case of almost half a million international visitors—literally. And South Africa is now poised for instant stardom as a meeting, convention and incentives destination. But as any major international star will attest, overnight success—certainly sustainable success—takes years to achieve. Over the years, South Africa has found success in shortnotice opportunities, the ﬁrst being the World Cup of Rugby, hosted just one year after the nation embraced democracy and majority rule in 1994. That key sports event (which South Africa’s team won, incidentally) served as the launching pad for a decade-and-a-half of infrastructure and expertise development, which eventually led to the FIFA World Cup. “If you consider that international macro events, and that includes major sports events, have only been coming to South Africa since the 1995 Rugby World Cup, then we are still relatively novice in the international arena in hosting those 60 one+ 10.10 ALEX BÜHRMANN macro events,” said Pieter Swart, CMP, CEO of Conference Consultancy South Africa. “We’ve had to build signiﬁcant capacity. And we’ve gotten together with international leaders in hosting these events; so it’s a vast array of stakeholders involved.” What Swart describes has taken every bit of the 15 years since South Africa ﬁrst leapt onto the world’s event stage. Hundreds of millions of dollars have gone to infrastructure, but that success isn’t just a bunch of shiny new hotels. It’s new highways and airports and broadband width—and alliances and partnerships around not only South Africa, but around the world.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of One + October 2010

One + October 2010
Contents
Energy of Many
Impressions
Design Thinking
Agenda
Thoughts+Leaders
SPIN Zone
Overheard
SoundOff
Signs of the Times
Focus
Top Spots
Connections
Irrelevant
Kill Your Résumé
Exceed Expectations
Live in Person
Snack Attack
Skin Deep
Playing God?
Gooooooal!
Untangling the Value of Social Media
Local Favor
Personality Order
Datascape Architect
Thriving Exhibits
Your Community
Making a Difference
Until We Meet Again

One + October 2010