Leading Venues: Mind the MICE
As the world has clearly been returning to normal, so various leading venues have been contemplating, brainstorming, planning and implementing new ideas for their post-Covid events environment. In fact, by the looks of things, venues are excitedly and hopefully reinventing the wheel, considering different ways of accommodating the crowds.
Various venues seem to be exploring additional event hosting avenues. For instance, wedding venues are opening themselves up for impressive art exhibitions, while hotel spaces are setting the bar high when it comes to energy saving, renewable energy, sustainability and more. Not to mention the technology that now has to go into large exhibition spaces to accommodate delegates attending events virtually.
Shepstone Gardens
A popular wedding venue, Shepstone Gardens will show its event hosting colours in a whole new light this May. They are bringing together artists and exhibitors from across the continent for the RMB Latitudes art experience. In essence, the three-acre property will celebrate art from Africa with an overarching theme of co-emergence.
Shepstone Gardens is a family-owned venue fit for life’s best occasions. Whether it’s a wedding, an art fair like the upcoming RMB Latitudes Art Fair, or even a corporate event, the sure know what they’re doing.
Voco The Bank Johannesburg
Voco The Bank Johannesburg (which forms part of IHG Hotels & Resorts) has just expanded its MICE offering. They’ve opened a new conference venue on the third floor of the in-house coworking space, Workshop17 The Bank. This venue is not your traditional classroom-style conference centre. Alterntively, it’s an aesthetically designed venue that comes in a fully flexible, ergonomic, 173-square metre space, offering the latest tech and on-site AV. Ultimately it can be used as a cocktail space, conference space or even an intimate workshop or masterclass space.
The bonus: voco The Bank Johannesburg uses mainly renewable energy sources – like the solar farm on the roof – to power the building. In addition, they also have a heat recovery system, which reuses the waste heat from the HVAC to heat water for the hotel.
The event space complements the existing Workshop17, consisting of a café and working bar, private offices, meeting rooms and members’ lounges.
Are you a business traveller?
Here are the reasons why voco The Bank Johannesburg is the perfect Joburg base to work from:
- Each room has large workspaces with international adaptors, USB ports and fast Wi-Fi.
- Workshop17 is right there, offering co-working, office, meeting and events spaces.
- The hotel follows global sustainable practices.
- Bathroom amenities are mainly plant-based.
- The hotel and all its additional spaces observe recycling guidelines.
- It’s right in the buzz of Rosebank.
Time Square
Being the top choice for large concerts and exhibitions, Sun International’s Time Square is the leading Gauteng-based venue for happenings of that calibre. It’s a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose venue equipped to host large scale events, concerts, exhibitions and conferences.
Furthermore, Time Square is a mere 30-minute drive from O.R. International Airport and boasts all the bells and whistles when it comes to a venue of choice. That includes two large banqueting venues, conferencing options, an experienced on-site conferencing team, adaptable boardrooms, the 8500-seater SunBet Arena, free, high-speed Wi-Fi, entertainment, connected IT infrastructure and accommodation.
Time Square recently also hosted a section of Africa’s richest poker tour, with an impressive poker room, poker tables, guests from all over the globe and a guaranteed pot of R5 million for the winner.
Upcoming events at this leading venue include:
- Backstreet Boys (19 and 20 May)
- UB40 featuring Ali Campbell (3 June)
- George Ezra (15 July)
- Trevor Noah Live in South Africa (12 – 15 September)
For more leading venues, including the Durban International Convention Centre, Two Oceans Aquarium and ANEW Hotels’ conferencing options, click through to our digital magazine’s Easter Issue, where you can read all about it and more.
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