Business leaders and Mayor Helen Zille agree to create opportunities for local business to participate in 2010
In yet another milestone towards 2010, Mayor Helen Zille and senior business leaders met on 29 November 2007, to deliberate on how local businesses could get involved with opportunities around the 2010 Fan Parks. The business leaders’ participation in the workshop was facilitated by Accelerate Cape Town, an organization led by major corporates in the Cape Region aimed at bringing together key stakeholders to help accelerate the growth and international competitiveness of the region. Around 30 corporates were represented in the meeting. The workshop emanated from a dinner with CEO’s of major businesses and the Mayor, hosted by Accelerate Cape Town in October. The CEOs present then expressed the concern that businesses do not know how to access opportunities around 2010. The Mayor agreed to host a workshop to discuss potential involvement by business in the 2010 Fan Parks Mayor Helen Zille stated that one of the City’s key objectives from the workshop was to discuss how local businesses could get maximum exposure to opportunities emanating from the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Mayor Zille also pointed out that the City needed to deliver a world class event, which would create future investment opportunities and raise the profile of Cape Town as a city capable of organizing world class events. Mr Guy Lundy, CEO of Accelerate Cape Town, said “to date business and government have not worked very closely on ensuring that we maximize the opportunities presented by the World Cup, and business has not been engaged with 2010 because of lack of knowledge. This workshop is a sign that this is about to change. Once businesses become engaged with the event, they will hopefully begin to drive the spreading of more positive messages about 2010 rather than the consistently negative ones we have been exposed to so far.” Lundy also pointed out that we must use 2010 as an opportunity to show the world that Cape Town can be a global hub of innovation and creativity, which means we must approach our hosting of the tournament in innovative and creative ways. Business can help to make this happen. The City of Cape Town’s 2010 representatives stated that the final guidelines on the exact nature of the 2010 Fan Parks, as well as issues around branding and sponsorship of the non-FIFA Fan Parks and Viewing Sites, still had to be negotiated and agreed with FIFA. According to the City, the Fan Parks would be divided into 3 sectors; namely the official FIFA Fan Park at the Grand Parade and the Fan Mile from there to the Stadium, Fan Parks at the Bellville Velodrome, Phillipi Stadium and Athlone Stadium, and 4 smaller community viewing sites at Atlantis, Khayelitsha, Nomzamo and Maynardville. Mike Marsden from the City of Cape Town highlighted the fact that all the host cities have expressed concerns about the stringent nature of FIFA’s proposed guidelines, which would make it difficult for local businesses to benefit. He stated that the final FIFA guidelines were expected early next year and host cities were already engaging with each other on how to put across a collective position that would benefit local businesses. Andrew Boraine, CEO of the Cape Town Partnership and an Accelerate Cape Town board member, stated that the focus needed to go beyond the Fan Parks. Businesses must also look at opportunities in the run up to 2010, non match day activities, exhibitions and displays not necessarily linked to 2010, and opportunities within local environments such as pubs and restaurants. At the workshop the City also announced that Cape Town has agreed to host the final draw for the World Cup in December 2009, subject to the signing of final agreements with FIFA. The meeting concluded with an agreement that Accelerate Cape Town and the City of Cape Town would host further discussions in the New Year to finalize deliberations on maximizing opportunities for local businesses, once the final Fifa guidelines have been released. Issued by Linton Rensburg on behalf of Accelerate Cape Town (0825080990) For more information about Accelerate Cape Town, contact Guy Lundy on 021 4087425 or 083 4400208 or guy@acceleratecapetown.com. Find out more about ACT at www.acceleratecapetown.com.
Date Created: 2007-12-03 |
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