Preparations for the Mashonaland West Show are at an advanced stage and the Mashonaland West Show Society is ready for the event, a society official has said.
Speaking with Business Events, Mashonaland West Show Society chairman, Godfrey Mavankeni (pictured) highlighted that his organisation was ready for the provincial agricultural exhibition which is set to be held from 8 to 11 August 2019 at the Chinhoyi Showgrounds under the theme: Building the gross domestic product of Mash West.
“We have been busy over the past few months and weeks preparing for the show and we are ready for the event. We are ready to provide a platform for farmers and companies to showcase their products and services to visitors and stakeholders
from the whole of the province,” said Mavankeni.
“As of Friday (last week), 70 stands out of 120 had already been snapped up by exhibitors who include agricultural, financial and insurance business organisations as well as tertiary institutions and government departments among others. More
potential exhibitors continue to make enquiries and pay for space,” he said.
One of the highlights of this year’s show is the inaugural business conference where stakeholders are set to deliberate on agricultural and business issues affecting the Mashonaland West agricultural province.
Mavankeni, who is also a local businessman, promised show-goers that his team had organised a lot of entertainment which included a horse derby. He also indicated that his society had partnered an entertainment outfit, Zambuko to bring
in a number of artists to perform during the exhibition.
Commenting on the future of the show, Mavankeni said that the show society intended to approach the Chinhoyi Municipality with a request for more land to increase the size of the showground to accommodate planned initiatives which are meant to improve and grow the show.
“We are looking for investors to partner us in building an exhibition hall to house exhibitors as we move to transform our show into a modern business event. We are moving from the one week-wonder kind of approach where people would only get reminded of the show and its venue in the run-up to the show week only to forget them again for another year.
“We have employed a full-time society secretariat which is led by a general manager and this has necessitated the need for the construction of an administration office block at the ground. Our desire is to turn the Chinhoyi Showground into a business services centre which provides a counter-attraction to the town centre thereby reducing congestion in the provincial capital,” he said.
