Pursue your knowledge in making profit out of a conference, at least as far as South Africa. Nelson Mandela's country expertise in selling an event that until last week listed about 18,000 participants from 191 countries, makes Indonesia look generous with its hosting of the preliminary meeting in Bali, in May-June.
The conference is being held in Sandton City, a new cosmopolitan city in the hub of Johannesburg, resembling Paris, London or New York instead of having an African touch. To reach the venue, all delegates have to pass dozens of malls, cafes, restaurants, and snack centers surrounding them. Everything is available: perfumes, clothes, watches, electronics and luxury cars. Kevin, manager of Imperial Restaurant, a favorite place for Indonesian participants, said his turnover had increased since the conference opened. “It's a fairly big rise," added the man from Malaysia, who has lived in Johannesburg for 11 years.
The sales strategy has been well planned. Hotel discounts, for instance, are given if you book well in advance. Not surprisingly, the rows of luxury hotels like Hilton, Crown, Michelangelo and Holiday Inn in the city center were already reserved 1-2 months ago. Any delay in seeking accommodation, as has been the case with most Indonesian delegates, will force visitors to stay at Rooderport, some 60 minutes from Sandton, or the town of Nasrec, 45 kilometers from Sandton, as environmental activists do. The fee? Rp450,000 a night.
The Johannesburg city administration benefits from the long distances. It provides committee buses. The guests can go by bus after possessing welcome cards alias tickets, worth 600 rand or around Rp600,000. Nothing is free there. Even registration bears the charge of US$150 per delegate. Meanwhile, in Bali they spent nothing on registration, going to or from the meeting, sightseeing of Nusadua by bus... all this was provided to delegates free of charge.
In the evening, taxis are making a good profit by charging 8 rand-around Rp8,000-per kilometer, so that a delegate staying at Rooderport needs Rp200,000 each trip to the conference location. The only rates Indonesian participants have no complaints about are prices of food and beverages, which are about the same as Jakarta.
If you want to be safe and avoid trouble, a firm called Johannesburg World Summit Company (JoWSCo) will take care of everything: accommodation, the meeting place, car hire and conference tours. All of this will be arranged, as long as there's enough money to pay for it.
The most striking feature is the presence of sponsors. With the summit costs of US$50 million or around Rp450 billion-only US$15 million for the Rio conference-the local administration invited companies for sponsorships and joint financing. There have thus appeared, such sponsors as the electricity company Eskom, Telkom, South African Airways, De Beers, the famous diamond producer, and Standard Chartered Bank. The remaining burden is shared by donor countries and the UN. But all the extravagant spending was calculated as being offset by a profit of up to US$100 million for Johannesburg, from the expenditures of participants and tourists.
So the conference goes on, and the money keeps flowing.
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