The only defensible reason to go is to create value you can’t generate from your desk: accelerated deals, stronger relationships across multiple stakeholders, sharper competitive intelligence and content you can use again and again. This demands a ‘portfolio’ mindset and a rigorous selection process.

Start with the three Rs: Reputation, Relationships, Revenue

Before you book, ask three questions:

• Reputation: Will your presence or speaking slot strengthen your brand with the right audience?
• Relationships: Can you make high-value contacts or deepen existing relationships, not just collect cards?
• Revenue: Is there a realistic path to influence your sales pipeline or accelerate existing opportunities in the next two quarters?

If you can’t credibly answer yes to at least two of these, pass on the event.

Quality over quantity

Treat conference selection the way you’d approach choosing your most important customers. Quality trumps volume every time. Start by validating whether the event actually attracts decision-makers in your target industries and regions.

Ask organisers for anonymised breakdowns of attendee mix by role and seniority – you want to know if the right stakeholders will be there, so you can progress real conversations and opportunities.

Then layer in practicality. Does the event platform make scheduling one-on-one meetings straightforward? Meeting density is your leading indicator of return on investment.

Mummy Mafojane, GM FCM Meetings and Events, says you need to consider the logistics too, as visa requirements, flight connections and available accommodation can make or break an event.

“Don’t ignore the impact of long-haul travel on wellbeing or ignore carbon cost for marginal gain,” says Mafojane. “And remember that the best conversations often happen off-programme, so shortlist events with strong satellite dinners, peer gatherings and partner receptions.”

To this point, Mafojane uses Mining Indaba 2026 as an example.

“Mining Indaba 2026 will bring 10,500+ decision-makers to Cape Town from 9 to 12 February next year. But central accommodation goes quickly. Chat to your travel management company (TMC) about booking flights, accommodation and ground transport as soon as possible – before rates rise and rooms disappear. You want to be close to the action.”}

Design success before you board

Go in with concrete objectives at two levels. First, identify the organisations, roles or people you want to engage with, and what qualifies as success – perhaps a follow-up involving multiple stakeholders, agreement on a pilot scope, or an invitation to run a workshop with their executive team. Second, set personal metrics: meetings held with target accounts, opportunities touched, strategic learnings, or any content assets you’ll create.

Believe it or not, the real work starts two weeks before you fly. Use the event app and your network to pre-book meetings, aiming to fill sixty to seventy percent of your schedule with pre-qualified conversations while leaving purposeful white space for unexpected opportunities. Consider being proactive and convening a small roundtable with peers in your industry as intimate forums often deliver more value than keynotes for senior relationships.

Once again, don’t underestimate the commercial impact of being well-rested and relaxed before the events starts, so book smart, book early, stay near the venue, plan for disruptions and have the event programme close to hand.

Convert sessions into conversations

Once you’re onsite, every action should create momentum. Choose your seat strategically to enable quick access to speakers and target contacts. Ask one sharp question that earns you follow-ups. Pay attention to polls, Q&A sessions and booth traffic – these reveal real market pain points. Capture verbatim comments and photos, tagging them to specific accounts for tailored follow-ups later. Even respectfully engaging attendees around competitor stands helps you understand their narrative and the objections you’ll need to overcome. Throughout it all, protect your energy: build in recovery time, stay hydrated, and use quiet spaces to prepare between meetings.

Strike while the iron’s hot

The event doesn’t end when you take off your lanyard for the last time. Within seventy-two hours, send personalised emails to those you’d like to connect with again, route warm introductions to your account teams with clear expectations, and log everything so nothing dies in your notebook.

Finally, atomise what you learned. Turn panel discussions and corridor debates into a point of view you can share with accounts, internal training notes for your team, and short video clips or LinkedIn posts. Invite your highest-value contacts into a continuing peer forum to keep momentum between major events. Share the patterns you observed with marketing and product – the buyer questions, pain points and emerging competitors – so your whole organisation benefits from your investment.

The bottom line

Making every conference count means ruthless selection and disciplined execution. Choose events where your target customers gather, where you can orchestrate dense, high-quality meetings, and where the environment supports both your wellbeing and your commercial momentum. Measure what matters: meetings with the right people, pipeline influence, and deal acceleration. Then recycle the insights and content across your teams.

As Mafojane explains, if you do this well, conferences stop being line items on your travel budget.

“Conferences and events are an important part of your growth strategy,” says Mafojane. “But they do require thought and a strategic approach. Make sure every event delivers – and you never regret a trip again.”

Leading travel management company FCM is inviting industry colleagues to join the inaugural Th!nk event – a first-of-its-kind hybrid forum on 10 May 2022.

Positioned as the antidote to the typical industry conference, Th!nk promises to apply a very different lens to the big topics shaping the future of business travel through lively debate and interactive discussion. An original and thought-provoking programme of carefully curated exclusive content will be co-hosted by top-notch guests from around the world. And to accommodate different time zones, live components will anchor the event and be broadcast over a period of 24 hours.  

“Over the past two years, the global travel landscape has irrevocably changed and so have the challenges our industry is facing too. It’s time to adjust the dialogue to what’s resonating with our customers, the buyer community and industry colleagues, and collectively address the big issues now with a nod to the future. Th!nk will be compulsory attendance for anyone involved in the business of travel wherever they are,” said FCM Global Managing Director Marcus Eklund.

FCM has assembled an exciting line-up of pioneering business leaders, innovators and disruptors from inside and outside the industry to address wide-ranging themes, such as the role of tech in travel innovation, and understanding what the Metaverse means for the industry and much more. FCM’s Consulting arm will unpack insights and data garnered from the company’s global operations, while industry body GBTA will share its latest research findings through a series of exclusive sessions.

Intended to be highly participatory, Th!nk will incorporate a number of opportunities via the event website to facilitate and encourage attendee involvement and comment.  

Th!nk is both global and local too. As a worldwide business with a formidable presence that stretches over 100 countries, FCM has tapped into decades of industry expertise, strong partner relationships and deep knowledge to develop region-specific segments from across EMEA, the Americas, Asia, Australia and New Zealand that reflect topics resonating in these markets too.  

While in keeping with FCM’s business approach, flexibility is key – with attendees able to tune in wherever they are in the world at a time that suits them. In addition to the live broadcast elements, access to 24 hours of content will be available on the Th!nk event website for a limited time to view on-demand.

For more programme details and to book your FREE place at Th!nk, register now: FCM Th!nk

“After the 2020 edition of Africa Travel Week was postponed, we rolled out phase one of our strategy to enter the virtual space with the introduction of our online platform, Africa Travel Week Connect,” says Megan Oberholzer, Reed Exhibitions Portfolio Director: Travel, Tourism & Creative Industries.

“The platform, which focuses on industry news and interactive webinars, is going from strength to strength, and we are now excited to kick-start our Meetings & Masterclasses in September, which is also Tourism Month,” she adds.

The virtual Meetings & Masterclasses will run from September to October. “During the event, attendees can engage in a series of educational masterclasses led by industry experts. And, unlike your standard webinars, these sessions will encourage a two-way conversation between the teacher-hosts and attendees. You will get to meet with our experts,” explains Oberholzer.

Part one of the classes will focus on identifying and successfully marketing to post-COVID target groups such as the luxury traveller, the African diaspora traveller and the LGBTQ+ market. The second part will cover practical steps for implementing safety protocols that international visitors will expect, based on case studies from destinations that have opened their borders successfully.

“In part three of our masterclasses, we will explore how you can effectively use digital tools to market your company,” she adds. This will take place in October.

In addition to the Meetings & Masterclasses series, the travel and tourism community can sign-up to take part in WTM Virtual, a two-day event that will take place from 10-11 November 2020. The virtual show, organised by WTM London, aims to ensure participation and global reach.

“The Meetings & Masterclasses ties into our #MakingTravelHappenAgain campaign and will not replace WTM Africa, Africa Travel Week’s flagship show, scheduled to take place from 07 to 09 April 2021 in the Host City of Cape Town at the Cape Town International Conference Centre,” concludes Oberholzer.

For more information around Meetings & Masterclasses, Africa Travel Week Connect or WTM Africa 2021, please email

In South Africa’s dynamic meeting and conference industry, like many other industries, the x-factor in event management is in innovation and disruption – much of which lies in the realm of finding novel ways to foster connection and collaboration.

Raylene de Wet, Director of Event Sales at Hyatt Regency Johannesburg, unveils six trends that will likely disrupt and elevate South Africa’s events industry in the coming year.

1. Let’s festivalise – it’s all about the experience!

The days of unending keynotes and death by PowerPoint have long disappeared. Delegates want to be entertained – they want to immerse themselves and engage in an exciting events ‘experience’.

Enter the concept of festivalisation. “This has become the buzz word in the events industry,” says de Wet. “Events – and the planning thereof – should be fun. And, what could be more fun than combining your average event with the elements of a festival?”

De Wet explains how festivalisation has led to the exchange of closed conference rooms for unusual outdoor venues. Keynote speakers now share the stage with live music and comedians. Corporate meeting attendees are looking for transformative experiences that will improve their daily work life.

Today’s delegate prefers authentic local experiences and shows. They want to sample the destination’s characteristic food and beverages, and interact with local residents who are knowledgeable about the area’s history and culture.

• TikTok – it’s time to hop on the bandwagon

Ever heard of TikTok? If you’re over 35 years old, chances are you haven’t. Believe us when we say the time has come to sit up and take notice.

TikTok is a social-video platform that allows users to create and share short, musical videos. Like Instagram or Twitter, users can follow their friends as well as celebrities and influencers. It was the third-most downloaded app in the first quarter of 2019, with 188 million new users. 

For meeting planners looking to boost event awareness, TikTok is the marketing tool you didn’t know you needed – until now. Organisers can share videos leading up to the official announcement, with each post hinting at agenda items or key speakers. They can promote their event by hopping on current TikTok trends, such as popular video formats or songs.

With many young people wary of traditional marketing, TikTok gives planners the opportunity to stray from the beaten marketing path and provide authentic, branded content that younger audiences will engage with naturally on their social feeds.

•  Technology – up, up and away…

Imagine escaping a conference with a few minutes’ meditation on the beach. Augmented reality and virtual reality can give that extra edge to any event by offering unique experiences in a virtual space.

De Wet explains how tech-augmented collaboration has revolutionised the events industry by allowing the world to become smaller. “South African event organisers can invite a speaker who is based in China without having to fly him or her in. With Internet connectivity constantly evolving and 5G on the horizon, we can expect to see more of a blurring of the lines between Visual Events and Physical Events.”

Many audio visual (AV) companies have also invested in equipment that enables interactive note-taking. Although de Wet explains this is not a huge trend in South Africa yet, innovative companies are moving in this direction. “There are also functionalities where speakers make notes which will save automatically to the guest phone through the meeting platform.”

However, as much as technology will continue to shape the meetings industry, so too arises the demand for escaping from technology. With an always-on workforce, it is important to consider private places were delegates can relax and recharge. Mindfulness areas and places to ‘unplug’ are increasingly becoming the new norm.

• Bye-bye, buffet. Hello culinary innovation.

Chicken or beef? What about a salad buffet or cocktail sausages? Step aside, everyone, and make way for MasterChef.

“Sub-par food at your event is a significant contributor to underwhelming event experiences. If you want your event to stand out, consider creative ways of displaying your food and taking your guests on a culinary journey,” suggests de Wet. “By using local flavours and dishes, and presenting them in a modern and creative way, you can really make a lasting impression.”

Bite-sized versions of regular food are always a hit. Nobody wants to walk around trying to mingle while balancing a full-sized steak and chips. So, by scaling it down, you’re not only being innovative, you’re also make your attendees’ experience a lot easier.

• Sit, stand, mix it up…

Where people sit affects everything from how well they engage with each other to how well they absorb information. The truth is that the right seating arrangement can make or break the productivity and problem-solving abilities of delegates at your event. 

Therefore, allow delegates to vary their postures during the event, advises de Wet. “Event planners constantly have to be one step ahead by ensuring that all events are productive and that attendees stay engaged. Several studies have been done on this topic and it’s interesting to see how high tables with high seating combined with couches as well as Standing Meetings are impacting events.”

Planners can create ample private meeting spaces as well as ‘collision spaces’. One way to create such a space is to provide fewer chairs than attendees. With fewer empty seats, movement and interaction is encouraged.

• Energising delegates will remain a priority

From mindfulness to movement and healthy meal options, wellness will continue to be a key focus in 2020.

Delegates are often bombarded with information in a short time span, which can leave them feeling drained. To prevent this from happening, organisers need to find new and innovative ways to keep everyone energised and engaged.

“Slot in a few meditation ‘bubbles’ during your conference to allow delegates to relax for a few moments, or distribute regular healthy fruit snacks to keep energy levels from crashing midway through the day,” suggests de Wet. “Or shake things up by introducing a happiness coach to get your attendees smiling and engaging with their colleagues in different, original ways.”  

Each of these six trends in the global meetings and events industry has already made its way to South Africa, according to de Wet. “It can be daunting for local event organisers to keep abreast of the trends, which is why it is important to find the right partner to help you deliver these unique experiences,” says de Wet. “You need the right people in the right places.”

The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg team is always one step ahead of all the latest trends and is the perfect partner for your next event. Contact us to discuss the exciting possibilities we can offer your company

Meetings and events play an important part in Radisson Hotel Group’s ambitious five-year plan. The launch of Radisson Meetings represents an important milestone in reaching its goal of becoming the market leader in this segment and customers’ first choice for their meetings and events.

Eric De Neef, Executive Vice President & Global Chief Commercial Officer, Radisson Hotel Group, said: “Radisson Meetings represents our commitment to deliver a personal, professional and memorable service to our guests, and to respond to changing market trends and expectations. We are investing in our meeting venues at our 1,100+ hotels worldwide, in training of our teams, and in technology. A state-of-the-art IT infrastructure and distribution platform are core elements helping us to deliver our brand promise. Finally, all Radisson Meetings are carbon neutral – we are the only hotel group worldwide to automatically offset any carbon footprint at no cost to our customers.”

THE FOUNDATIONS

Placing customer needs at the heart of its offer, Radisson Meetings is built on three core pillars: personal, professional and memorable.

Radisson Meetings makes every meeting personal through its team of meetings and events professionals, who are trained to take a solution-focused approach and to design solutions around each client’s individual requirements. Excellent customer service is one of the factors that matters most to event planners when selecting a venue. That is why Radisson Meetings promises a dedicated point of contact throughout the planning process who will provide support and recommendations, as well as on-site on-demand support at the touch of a button during the event.

Radisson Hotel Group is committed to making a multi-million investment across its portfolio in new audio-visual technology and improved facilities. This investment will help the group deliver on its promise to provide a professional and consistent quality service across its entire portfolio. Implementation has already been completed in 55 properties across 11 countries in EMEA and will be progressively rolled out globally across the group’s portfolio by the end of the five-year operating plan in 2021.

To help event planners deliver memorable events for their attendees, Radisson Meetings provides an impressive portfolio of venues, tempting menus and other extras that will surprise and delight.

With the launch of Radisson Meetings, Radisson Hotel Group automatically offsets the carbon footprint of every meeting or event taking place at our hotels worldwide, at no cost to attendees or organizers. To do this, Radisson Hotel Group has teamed up with FirstClimate, one of the largest carbon offsetting organizations in the world.

For each meeting, the carbon footprint is calculated and then offset through First Climate by supporting projects that combat climate change and have a positive sustainable development contribution in Peru, Kenya, and India or invest in wind energy in Turkey and the USA. All selected projects are Gold Standard or Verified Carbon Standard certified. Furthermore, Radisson Meetings focus on ongoing efforts to minimize food waste and eliminate single-use plastics.

Radisson Rewards for Business, the group’s loyalty program for event planners, is also an important component of the Radisson Meetings concept. Members can earn valuable points toward rewards for all bookings at all Radisson Hotel Group brands.

EVENT HORIZONS: A BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS

To support the goal of providing valuable industry insight to their clients, Radisson Hotel Group commissioned Longitude, a Financial Times Company, to carry out a survey entitled ‘Event horizons: a blueprint for success’. This report – based on a survey of 607 event planners in 12 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and qualitative interviews with industry executives – explores the challenges facing event planners and uncovers the behaviours that lead to sustained success.