New ICCA Regional Director Africa Esmare Steinhofel introduces herself

As of 1 January 2016, Esmare Steinhofel is ICCA’s new Regional Director Africa. She has been involved in ICCA for more than 15 years.

She introduces herself “I was part of the team that started the Cape Town Convention Bureau. After that I went to work for Starwood, promoting The Westin Cape Town, the largest 5* hotel in South Africa, after which I moved to the Cape Town International Convention Centre where I worked for the last 6 years, promoting the Centre to the international meetings market. I love working with people and always say that people give me my energy.”

For how long have you been involved in the meetings industry? 

I have worked in the tourism and meetings industry for more than 25 years with the last 20 years having a specific focus on the meetings market.

For how long have you known ICCA? 

My 1st interaction with ICCA was in 2000 when I worked at the Cape Town Convention Bureau and the company joined as an ICCA member. I can still remember when I received the database training and could not believe all the information available for researching association leads. I was part of the team that bid and hosted the ICCA Annual Conference in Cape Town in 2004 as well as the ICCA Client/Supplier Workshop in 2013.

What advice do you have for other ICCA members?

Firstly, members have to understand and use all the benefits that ICCA has to offer. Members must use the ICCA member network, for example when bidding for an association conference, contact the ICCA member that hosted the previous event. Big Data is here to stay and the ICCA Big Data Tool will enable members to target their clients more effectively.

What would you like to say to our African members?

As ICCA Africa members we need to collaborate more and a focus must be to increase the rotation of African Association Conferences. As ICCA members we can also assist in building stronger relationships with the association executives. We need to understand emerging trends in the association sector and have to be on top of what our competitors are doing, the industry is always evolving. I am looking forward to working with all the ICCA African Chapter members in the coming year.

More information on: www.iccaworld.com