Under the theme 'Growth through Partnerships', the conference is organised by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) in collaboration with sponsors including Hilton Hotels, Marriott International, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Pam Golding Hospitality, AfrHIC Events Company and Hospitality Investment Partners Africa (HIP Africa). The conference also enjoys the support of the Industrial Development Corporation, Connecting Travel and RateGain Travel Technologies.
HICA Conference Chairman and CEO of the TBCSA, Mmatšatši Ramawela, said, "The hospitality industry across the sub-Saharan Africa region has witnessed record expansion in the past few years and a dialogue on how the industry would evolve in the coming years is important and necessary."
Top local and regional industry leaders include:
• Adv Brenda Madumise, CEO of South African-based, Khomelela Investments
• Arthur Gillis, former Group CEO of Protea Hotels and now Non-Executive Chairman of Marriott Hotels
• Glen Stutchbury, CEO of Cresta Hotels with properties in Botswana and Zimbabwe
• Ken Poonoosamy, Managing Director of the Mauritius Board of Investments
• Marek Zmyslowski, MD of successful Nigerian based online travel agency, Jovago
• Monwabisi Fandeso, Executive Director for Corporate Affairs at SAB Miller
• Roger Gardner, CEO of Sunbird Tourism Limited which operates out of Malawi
• David Claassen, VP of Development, MEA Region, for the Four Seasons Hotel
• Kumash Shukla, Senior VP at RateGain for Asia Pacific and Africa
• Mark Satterfield, COO, Marriott International for Africa and Middle East
• Mark Wayne-Smith, CEO of UK-based commercial real-estate firm, Jones Lang LaSalle
• Neil George, Senior VP for Acquisitions and Development at Starwood Hotels and resorts
• Philippe Baretaud, Senior VP for Hotel Development, Accor Hotels
"Putting together a conference programme that will be appealing to both new market entrants, as well as experienced industry leaders is tough," continues Ramawela. "However one of our core principles in hosting this conference has always been that we want HICA to cater for a broad range of delegate needs."
In addition to the high-profile speaker line-up, the conference programme also includes sessions dedicated to ensuring that delegates derive maximum value from their attendance.
"This includes a newly-repackaged 'needs and leads' session which will see a number of delegates afforded the opportunity to present their hotel development ideas or projects to potential partners. The last day of the conference is essentially a value-add for delegates who have a keen interest on technology and online distribution channels in the hospitality sector. These are all in an effort to ensure that each delegate has something valuable to take away from the conference."
The conference is a premier business-to-business networking and engagement platform for the hotel and broader hospitality sector in the sub-Saharan Africa region. It assembles the region's leading hospitality professionals along with international hoteliers, investors, developers and senior public sector leadership to engage on investment and developmental issues within the hotel, resort, mixed-use, real estate and tourism industries.
Delegates who register online before 31 August qualify for 15% discount on the standard conference registration fee. For more information, go to www.hica.co.za.
