Doctors go for Cape Town

The Cape Town International Convention Centre was a long time coming but, just two years after opening, one is certain: it was worth the wait.

The Cape Town International Convention Centre Company (Convenco) was established mid-1999 by the Western Cape Provincial Government, the City of Cape Town and Business Cape to develop a "world-class" convention centre and build it on a free 6.1-ha piece of land belonging to the municipality. The CTICC was to be built on Cape Town's foreshore at the foot of Table Mountain. From here it is only 20 minutes to the airport by car. A team with international experience was brought in to design the centre. Convenco as the owner and holding company was responsible for the launch and establishment of the CTICC. The lion's share of the approximately 75 million euro tab for the construction project was picked up by the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Provincial Government. Construction commenced in April 2001. In November 2002, the management moved into its offices. Five months later, the keys were handed over and a test phase began for staging the events that the centre was expected to attract. On June 28, 2002 Cape Town celebrated the official inauguration with about 10,000 guests, on July 1 the CTICC opened for business - Convenco has since generated around EUR 2 million.
Trade fair and convention professionals were involved from the outset to ensure the centre was run professionally: a management contract was put out to tender way ahead of completion. In early 2000, bids from eleven international companies were evaluated. The operator contract was finally awarded to the Dutch RAI group, whose experience also influenced the design, which was further modified as a result. Together with the architects, the Dutch implemented the international standards for staging trade fairs and conventions that they are used to.As operators of their own sites in Amsterdam and Maastricht it was now their job to stage their own trade fairs and conventions or to organise other people's events successfully in South Africa's secret capital.
The CTICC boasts over 10,000 m2 of exhibition and trade fair space, two auditoriums with inclined seating, one for 1500 and one for 620 delegates, a 2000-m2 ballroom, in which up to 1500 people can banquet, a roof terrace meeting room with a spectacular view of Table Mountain and more than 33 event rooms with space for 25 to 330 people.
The event calendar now lists about 20 fairs for a wide range of sectors, not counting conventions and workshops. The topics of the events are as colourful and varied as the country and its people: for example, a fishing exhibition, wine exhibition, a tourism trade show. But also a trade fair for consumer and industrial goods, an exhibition and conference on oil, gas and petrochemicals and a show on hotel and restaurant supplies and catering, the Hostex Cape, are on the agenda. The GSM in Africa, a conference and exhibition on mobile telecommunications, rounds off the events, as do the packaging trade show Propak, the exhibition for the modern woman and the Christmas present show.
As for the convention business, congratulations were already due after the first year: 32 conventions with an average number of 600 delegates were counted. Another major event is scheduled for the near future: in 2006 around 3,000 cardiologists will meet at the Cape, three years later around 9,000 gynaecologists have plans to meet here for their major convention.

m+a report Nr.7 / 2005 vom 27.10.2005
m+a report vom 27. Oktober 2005