MEETINGS Africa is gearing up to welcome delegates and exhibitors with a programme that offers a host of speakers and educational seminars focused on the business tourism market.

The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, will officially open the show at the Sandton Convention Centre on Wednesday, February 25. International trends expert Daniel Levine will be presenting a talk on “Tomorrow Today”, focusing on the five social trends that will propel South African business travel through a struggling economy. Meetings Africa will showcase a series of educational seminars over the two days. These include the Industrial Development Council presentation on Tourism Funding Criteria while the Society for Incentive Travel Executives (SITE) will look at a variety of Incentive Case Studies. The BEE Council Presentation will address the topic of tourism BEE codes. The Department of Trade and Industry will focus on its new incentive tourism support packages available to the industry. In the build up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, tourism comes under the spotlight and two guest speakers will be addressing this topic. Hannelie Du Toit from the Tourism Enterprise Programme will focus on moving towards 2010 and beyond from an SMME perspective and Sugen Pillay, Global Manager: Events at South African Tourism (SAT), will talk on positioning South Africa as a global events destination post the 2010 FIFA tournament. A seminar targeted at corporate meeting planners will also be presented by SITE on how local corporates can maximise their budgets with better return on investment and sustainability offerings. An addition to this year’s programme is a discussion by an international panel of experts, which will look at ‘Global trends and the world’s economic outlook’. The session will be facilitated by Paul Flacket, MD of Imex, and will include guest speakers Moeketsi Mosola, CEO of SAT, Thomas Overbeck, chairperson of SAACI, Enrico Zuffi an Association Consultant from Switzerland, and Daniel Levine, trends industry expert from the US.