AST week the battle lines
were drawn between rival
trade show organisers
when Meetings Africa blocked
Thebe Reed Exhibitions Group
representatives from entering
the show, despite their
applications being approved
online prior to the event.
SA Tourism, which organises
Meetings Africa, said the
decision was taken in light
of Thebe Reed’s attempts at
“ambush marketing” during
the show, while Thebe Reed
accused SA Tourism of
employing “bullying tactics” to
muscle out competition.
The decision seemed to be
linked to two events that took
place on February 24, the
day before Thebe Reed was
stopped from entering the
show.
The rst took place during
an International Congress
and Convention Association
(ICCA) workshop where Carol
Weaving, md of Thebe Reed
Exhibitions Group, was invited
to speak. She used her
allocated time to promote
the upcoming IBTM Africa
exhibition, which forms part of
Africa Travel Week taking place
in Cape Town later in the year.
The second was a cocktail
event hosted by IBTM Africa
at a venue directly adjacent
to the Sandton Convention
Centre where Meetings Africa
was being held. The timing
of the function clashed
with Meetings Africa’s gala
dinner networking event. One
news website, International
Meetings Review, published an
article about the event, asking
whether it could be construed
as “outboarding” – when a
company that should be a
sponsor of an event opts to
host its own competing event
without consent of the original
organiser.
Sugen Pillay, business
development director of Thebe
Reed, said the decision to
host the cocktail function
had been based on the
fact that two IBTM Africa
representatives from the UK
would be in SA for Meetings
Africa, so they decided to
use the opportunity to meet
with potential exhibitors and
network. “We were under the
impression that the Meetings
Africa gala dinner would only
start at 20h00 and the timing
of our function would have
allowed them to still attend
the event, but later we found
out that there was a pre-dinner
networking event that would
clash with ours,” he said.
Sugen also defended Carol’s
presentation during the ICCA
meeting. “It was an ICCA
meeting, not an SA Tourism
meeting,” he said.
When Sugen asked why
Thebe Reed representatives
were not allowed into
Meetings Africa, he said he
was given the response that
it was because they were
“competitors”.
“A government agency
cannot compete with
the industry. We live in a
democratic society,” said
Sugen. He argued that there
was space for more than one
business-tourism-focused
show. “SA Tourism sees IBTM
Africa as a threat to the future
of Meetings Africa, but we see
the two shows as completely
different events. IBTM Africa is
a closed-type of event with just
50 buyers and 50 exhibitors,
while Meetings Africa is a
large-scale event,” he said.
But SA Tourism ceo, Thulani
Nzima, said the decision
had nothing to do with anticompetitive
behaviour. “It
boils down to the fact that we
should respect each other’s
place in the market – we
have never abused Reed’s
platforms and we expect them
to do the same for us. This
is a deliberate misuse of our
platform.
“They have used the fact
that they are an exhibition
company to walk the oor with
a sales team openly coercing
people,” said Thulani. “We
understand that Reed’s show
will help promote our country
but we are already at an event
where we are promoting the
country and we don’t want
exhibitors to be distracted
from their main purpose of
being at Meetings Africa,
which is to meet buyers.”
Thulani said he hoped he
would able to talk to senior
management at Thebe Reed
to nd a solution going forward
as it was “not worth an
adversarial relationship”.
