Priscilla Mabhena

The relaxation of the Stage 4 lockdown at the end of August and the safe hosting of the 2021 edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair last month have encouraged many organisers to go ahead with their plans for this year’s events. Some did not hold their events last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and have to squeeze them in the remaining weeks of the year.

This has seen many organisers slotting their events mainly in October and November, creating a crammed-up business events calendar for the remainder of the year. The fact that most professional and business associations like the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe (MAZ) and the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) respectively traditionally hold their annual conferences and award ceremonies during the last quarter of the year has also contributed to the situation.

October is heavily laden with business events as various businesses and organisers are seeking to dispense with their events ahead of the festive season. The Zimbabwe Agricultural Show straddled September and October while Zimtrade its Buyers’ Seminar, Exporters Conference and Exporter of the Year Awards ran from 6 to 8 October. The Garden Club held its Annual Garden Show on 9 and 10 October after cancelling last year’s edition due to the pandemic. The ZNCC held its Annual Congress from 13 to 15 October in Victoria Falls. And more events are pencilled for the remainder of the month and the next.

The CEO Africa Round Table Annual Conference and Awards are set to be held from 27 to 29 October in Victoria Falls while MAZ’s Annual Marketers’ Convention is slotted for 27 to 30 October in Kariba. The Zim-Afro Medical and Health Expo is set for 28 and 29 October in Harare.

November is also packed with events as the SME international Expo, which is traditionally held in October, is set to run from 17 to 19 November. The event was pushed to November as its traditional slot coincided with the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show. Other events that are set for November include the Gweru-based Midlands Weddings and Events Expo which is set for the 20^th of next month. The Intra-Africa Trade Fair, where 34 local companies are set to participate, is expected to run from 15 to 21 November 2021 in Durban, South Africa. Beyond that, the Dubai Expo 2020, which started at the beginning of this month in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, is running until the end of March next year.

The crammed-up nature of the remaining calendar of business events has not been without effect on delegates and other stakeholders. Some delegates and visitors have complained of event fatigue. Doves Marketing General Manager, Joel Gombera complained of too many business events in the remainder of the year.

“A lot of events that were on hold are now being squeezed between now and the end of the year. It’s choker blocker. I can’t keep up. Can there be some form of co-ordination and collaboration if possible?” Gombera tweeted.

Some agreed that there were too many business events for the remaining few weeks of the year. Others bemoaned the fact that while they valued the events, they could not attend them all as some of them occurred simultaneously or within days of each other, creating travel and logistical nightmares.

While other people agreed with Gombera, others especially suppliers and other stakeholders like masters of ceremonies celebrated the business that comes with the events.

“Pressure is on for sure and some organisations feel (that) if they don’t have their functions now they may be affected by another lockdown in December. We just have got to take this chance as businesses, never mind the fatigue,” said Bulawayo-based Cillas Conference Centre director, Priscilla Mabhena. She admitted that the event frenzy was creating business for event venues like hers.

Most of the remaining events are set to be held in Zimbabwe’s business events capital – the Victoria Falls city. This is set to create business for the hotels in the resort city, which have not realised as much business as they would ordinarily do due to the Covid-19 pandemic since March last year.

The overloaded events calendar is, therefore, a blessing to the organisers and other stakeholders as well as a bane to others such as attendees.

One of the silver linings of the advent of the coronavirus pandemic is the way that it has accelerated the adoption of event-related technology to facilitate the holding of meetings online using applications such as Zoom or Google Meetings.

The conferences, meeting have given way to virtual events such as webinars, Zoom meetings and other forms of virtual meetings. While some organisers of business meetings have moved to virtual events, the situation is different in the exhibitions sector. Exhibitions remain in abeyance until a vaccine has been found and lockdown are relaxed. This has raised the question of whether or not virtual events spell the future of the industry or are just a passing coronavirus-related passing fad which will give way back to in-person events again once the pandemic is contained.

Business Events spoke with some players in the local business events industry who held varying opinions on the matter.

For example Sunshine Corporate Communications Managing Consultant, Lenox Mhlanga described virtual events as the new normal which stakeholders needed to embrace. He attributed the resistance to the adoption of virtual business events by some players to the human tendency to resist change.

“When there is a revolution there is fear, resistance, loss of jobs and disruption. The fourth industrial revolution has ‘saved’ the business world because as it is in lockdown, those that have adjusted have managed to continue (holding events),” he said.

Mhlanga expressed the opinion that it would take time before entities involved in business events adopted the technology.

“Businesses will take some time to warm up to virtual events, but with the inception of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and other digital tools, the move should be to invest on and adopt these in order to be competitive in a rapidly changing world,” he said.

Mhlanga counselled businesses in the events sector to take time to understand virtual events first before marketing them to their customers.

“Let’s begin by understanding virtual events, then through training make our clients know the advantages and disadvantages while stocking up on the skills and tools that will give us a competitive advantage. That will buy us time until a vaccine is found and made available,” Mhlanga said.

Corporate communications expert and business events organiser, Chipo Mapungwana held a different view.

“We don’t like online meetings. Once we have learnt to live with the virus or there is a vaccine we will revert to face to face meetings.

Mapungwana also revealed that another reason why in-person events remained more popular was the fact that business events are way much more than merely sitting through conference presentations or manning or visiting exhibition stands. They are also about related experiences such as travel.

“They are more personal and fun to attend and people get to travel,” she said.

Mapungwana also highlighted that even business events sponsors were not keen to partner organisers on virtual events.

“Face to face meetings, conferences and exhibitions are also great for marketers. I have found that corporate sponsors don’t like spending on online events,” she said.

“The only way that sponsors get publicity for online events is online. And many don’t think this is enough. With face to face events, sponsors logos are online, in event brochures, on T-shirts, they get thanked by organisers, (and) CEOs make speeches etc,” Mapungwana explained.

Mapungwana highlighted that one needed to put in quite some work to organise online business events.

“Doing an online event with such intricate details is possible but (but means) very hard work for the organisers. And (online events applications) the likes of Zoom don’t have a marketing platform for such. Last year I used WHOVA for our annual conference and the marketing went great. But this was alongside the face to face meeting/conference,” she said.

ZITF Company Marketing and Public Relations Manager, Stella Nkomo in an engagement with Business Events back in May, explained that players in the exhibitions sector were not persuaded to adopt virtual events as they had always traditionally made their money mainly from the in-person event format.

“The exhibition industry was never keen to go this (virtual) route because our money comes from the face-to-face,”

Priscilla Mabhena of Cillas Conferences was of the opinion that virtual events lacked the face-to-face advantage of enabling one to readily get feedback.

“With face to face body language can actually tell you if someone agrees or disagrees with your opinion during the meeting. You just can’t get that feedback online. Technology still completely has its limits so let’s not rule out face to face conference meetings,” she said.

Although some business events players favour the good old in-person format, they are agreed with the proponents of virtual events that going forward, the two formats could be used together so that they complement each other. The organisers of the Intra-Africa Trade Fair (the IATF), which debuted in Cairo, Egypt in 2018, complemented in-person with a virtual fair which those who could not participate in person could take part in virtually.

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