Clive Simpkins
South AfricaN hotels seem to view conferences as pain- in-the-bum necessities rather than desired business even=20 though they market themselves as function and conference=20 venues in addition to their regular trade.=20
Now that we’re pulling out of=20
a depression, the expertise and staffing lag in=20 conferencing structures almost guarantees a traumatic=20 experience for conference organisers and speakers.
I’ve just finished speaking at a series of workshops=20 around the country for readers of a magazine. We did a=20 similar series last year and found that hotel banqueting=20 and conference services varied from mediocre to=20 unacceptable. This year, the organisers tried a different=20 hotel group with virtually identical results.
In Three Cities Hotels last year (with the exception of=20 the Royal Hotel, Durban) and again with Southern Sun this=20 year, there has not been a specific staff member=20 allocated and dedicated to our conference needs. Each=20 time we’ve needed something, we’ve had to go hunting for=20 someone, anyone. And, inevitably, it was only a member of=20 the hotel’s helpful, black, non-management catering=20 staff, who was willing to assist.
Conference management at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town=20 is so slack that a slide projector was set up five=20 minutes after a 6.30am breakfast teach-in for medical=20 practitioners was due to start. It was my second such=20 experience at this upmarket hotel which has an=20 indifferent conference service and an attitude to match.
A refreshing exception to the trend is the Centurion Park=20 Hotel in Verwoerdburg, Gauteng. On arrival, the guest=20 speaker, who’s arrival they’ve taken the trouble to=20 anticipate, is offered a cup of coffee, the daily=20 newspaper and non-stop help by the constantly visible=20 banqueting manager.
Gallagher Estate in Midrand is also a positive=20 experience. Even the guy out in the parking lot knows=20 where the functions are and which room you should go to.=20
In three hotels I visited recently, neither reception nor=20 banqueting staff were able to tell me off the cuff what=20 rooms functions would be in. I did hear them complaining=20 though, that they’d only left after midnight the night=20 before and there they were back at work again at 6.30am=20 the following morning. Management take note.
I called Barry Ronge on Radio 702 last year when he was=20 interviewing a Sun International executive, to tell him=20 that I’d seen banqueting staff at Sun City collecting=20 used drinking glasses during breaks, drying them with=20 table napkins and, to add insult to injury, putting them=20 back in different seat places. So those attending=20
the conference could have potentially inherited=20 germs/lipstick/herpes from an unwashed glass. The same=20 thing happened at the Carlton Hotel.=20
All these experiences indicate something ailing with much=20 of the hospitality industry’s conferencing management in=20 South Africa.
The international marketplace and foreign hotel groups=20 are upon us. Local hotels had better swiftly invest in=20 some training, beef up the conferencing staff allocation=20 a tidge and maybe get some of those helpful black faces=20 into banquet management positions.=20
Most of the current management faces seem to be white,=20 pained and invisible when you need them.