It’s been an extremely tough year for all industries. However, when the essence of your business is bringing people together and hosting guests from across the world, shutting the doors overnight and keeping them closed indefinitely, is a very harsh sentence.
The Century City Conference Centre’s record year came to a screeching halt, the Century City Hotel in the same position.
“In extreme times like these, you are really given no alternative but to reinvent yourself and finding a way to keep on doing what you’re good at, but with a new set of rules”, says Gary Koetser, joint CEO. “In the beginning of lockdown, our largest hall in the conference centre was used to pack the food hampers for Century City Feed-A-Family and our staff was kept busy with the logistics thereof. When lockdown ended and businesses started to require more than one-on-one video calls, we launched a comprehensive and cutting-edge digital conferencing solution.”
Communication with the help of technology has been catapulted by at least 10 years into the future. The restrictions on movement have only accelerated the need for digital solutions, which give event organisers the scope to include delegates or speakers literally from anywhere in the world.
“There will always be a crucial place for face-to-face meetings, conferences, exhibitions and banquets.” says Glyn Taylor, joint CEO “Rather than replacing our physical offering, this timely innovation is an additional service for our clients to select from as consumer needs evolve. Our new virtual conferencing solution also offers a hybrid option with best-of-both-world features of a physical and a virtual event combined. We are supplying a slick, professional video service, supported by two fully equipped, on-site video production studios and a digital platform, all expertly run by the Century City Virtual Conference Centre events team.”
With the opening of the local economy, the Conference Centre is seeing an uptake in hybrid conferences, in addition to the purely digital offering. Hotel guests are also slowly making their return.
“You have to keep running, and when the road ends, you have to create a new one.” says Koetser. “We have learnt so much about adapting our business and are quite excited about the advances in conferencing technology. We’re keeping a keen eye on innovation and can’t wait to expand on the bouquet currently on offer to clients.”
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