A message from the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI):
SAACI is working with industry partners to unify our voice and communicate loudly about the socio-economic value of the exhibition and events sector. The formation of the South African Events Council sees the sector working together to ensure we have a unified voice to engage government under the current lockdown regulations.
Health and safety protocols for our sector have been drafted in anticipation that we will be allowed to operate under either level three or level two of the lockdown. We are working on securing a meeting with the Department of Health to make our case is considered under level three. We are not waiting for level one as currently proposed. Your input will be needed. The draft document, with those from international associations, is on our website for your input, which you can send to ceo@saaci.org.
We still need your help and ask you to share your data on the number of events you have hosted, the economic impact you may have had on the broader value chain of the events sector, as well as the potential job losses. A survey link will be shared and kept open for you to share this information with us confidentially.
A Twitter campaign that will ask you to reach out to your parliamentary officials, a national minister and key decision makers, which aims to raise awareness of our needs and value, will be shared next for you to participate in. We will post the relevant message to be used and share the Twitter handles for the decision markers.
The SAACI branch AGMs will take place on 10 June 2020 and we will share the necessary webinar links for members within the coming week.
SAACI is working on a virtual conference that is aimed at aiding and equipping members for the future. An announcement will be made in the coming weeks.
Please keep safe and follow SAACI on social media or contact us on askus@saaci.org.
