MARKET NEWS
All ISPCAN congresses also engage youth with a forum of their own design, from which they used social media channels and media attention to tell their stories. Involving youth helps in the process of driving social and governmental change, critical for the lasting legacy of the Congress and bettering the region. ICCA chief executive officer, Senthil Gopinath, said: “ICCA is delighted to have been partnering with BestCities to communicate the importance of the impact of associations and their meetings on all aspects of society: from health and science to advocacy and human rights. All three winners have proven exceptional efforts to address critical issues within their communities and host destinations, and to ensure inclusion
across the globe. It is wonderful to see that all three winners have created awareness for critical issues such as child neglect, HIV and healthy lungs but also managed to develop programmes to include youth in their meetings and activities. Ensuring the education and involvement of new generations across all sectors will help to further progress human kind.” Paul Vallee, managing director of BestCities said: “This year’s Incredible Impacts Programme submissions have been shining examples of innovative thinking and diversity in the meetings industry, demonstrating the impact and legacy we can leave behind us – particularly with the way each of them engaged with the younger generation.”
“Our winning associations should be congratulated on not only winning the grants, but also on being advocates and inspiring leaders to others in the field. We hope to see each association go on and create more inspiring events using the grants they’ve received, which will continue to shine a positive light on our industry.” “We’re also pleased to hear that IAS’ next conference on HIV prevention science (HIV R4P) is taking place in Cape Town in 2020, and ELF have their upcoming annual congress this year in Madrid.” Full case studies on the Incredible Impacts winners can be found on the ICCA Knowledge Hub on www.iccaworld.org/ knowledge/9/Legacy-advocacy and on the BestCities website at www.bestcities.net/ news.
VENUE NEWS
City Lodge Hotel at Two Rivers awarded
four-star classification
The City Lodge Hotel at Two Rivers, Nairobi has been awarded four-star rating from the Tourism Regulatory Authority in Kenya. The hotel “successfully scored 100 per cent on essential items as required by the East African Community grading procedure”, confirms the report.
T
he 171-room City Lodge Hotel at Two Rivers, Nairobi opened on 15 January 2018 and is the group’s biggest development outside of South Africa. It is conveniently located adjacent to the Two Rivers Mall in Runda, East Africa’s largest shopping mall and mixeduse precinct. Key features include WiFi, two 20-seater boardrooms, two eightseater meeting rooms, fitness room, #Café restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and light evening meals, outdoor swimming
pool and sundowner bar. Miriam Obegi, a Kenyan, is general manager and heads up a team of local staff members. The City Lodge Hotel Group now has three hotels in Nairobi, part of its East Africa expansion programme, including the four-star 127-room Fairview Hotel and two-star 84-room Town Lodge Upper Hill, both sharing extensive grounds with landscaped gardens in the heart of Nairobi. All three hotels are in important growth
36 Business Events Africa September 2019
nodes and meet the needs of business and leisure travellers visiting Kenya. Andrew Widegger, chief executive officer of CLHG said: “We are very proud of our team at City Lodge Hotel at Two Rivers Mall, Nairobi for their hard work in ensuring our guests enjoy an exceptional hospitality experience. The hotel’s fourstar classification is important because it reassures business and leisure travellers that their expectations of quality standards and exceptional service will be met.” www.businesseventsafrica.com
