Meetings Africa township dialogue

On the eve of Meetings Africa tradeshow opening in Sandton, CMW joined a media visit out to Tembisa (Gauteng province), the second biggest township in South Africa, to hear a panel discussion about the MICE opportunities for the country’s huge informal economy that exists in its impoverished townships. Meetings Africa will discuss South Africa’s MICE opportunities, but the fact that it takes place in Sandton, which has one of the richest square miles in the whole continent in terms of the number of billionaires, gives it an elitist feel, the panel Chairman argued – hence the deliberate decision to bring a group to Tembisa and to witness the disparity in wealth and hear discussions on how South Africa can bring the formal and the informal economies together from a MICE perspective, as well as exploring how can it realise the latter’s MICE potential. Meetings Africa runs 26-27 February at Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg.