We need Solidarity in the South Africa Exhibition Industry. February and March have been very difficult times in the events industry as they will potentially be in the months ahead. The COVID-19 virus has led to multiple event cancellations or postponements around the world including now in South Africa. These cancellations are taking a huge financial toll on service providers. These service providers are our friends, family, partners, and colleagues from around the world.

While the limiting of mass gatherings of people as well as travel restrictions does appear to be a sound strategy there is no doubt that the negative effects will be and have already been felt in just about every industry, especially business tourism related industries and all the peripheral industries it supports.

As South Africa grapples with its own first cases HOTT3D will do its utmost to apply a clear mind and sound strategy to assist with the elimination of this virus so that we can begin to look beyond the noise.

Stand in Solidarity in the South Africa Exhibition Industry

We call on all industry role players to support each other, share knowledge, and most importantly work together to get through this. A head-in-the-sand attitude will not get you through this nor will continue the negative sentiment the media platforms so love to push. We need to rethink how we deal with conferences and exhibitions and adapt to the current situation to push through it.

We need to grind harder than ever before and look for new and better ways of doing business. If nothing else this is an enormous opportunity to change the way we work and interact with our natural resources.

We will do our utmost to keep the workflow going with our suppliers, associations, and partners and will continue to offer a quality product while at the same time doing our utmost to be proactive in protecting our staff.

We are project managers. This is what we do. We plan for worst-case scenarios all the time so now is the time to work even harder at our job. We need to constantly redefine and adjust our business strategy daily, weekly, monthly. Finger on the pulse stuff. Speak to clients, speak to staff, speak to organisers, keep reworking budgets, keep reworking strategy, keep reworking projections and keep the dialogue going within our industry and just keep working. This will pass, but we need to keep going.

For support and to find out how we can stand in solidarity in the South Africa Exhibition Industry, join and follow professional associations like EXSA, SAACI, AAXO