Contribution to profiling venues, suppliers and service providers

The PCO Alliance Network values the services of our venues, suppliers and service providers. It is important that we build up loyal relationships with our service providers. We have a preferred supplier list that we consult should we require a reliable and honest service provider. Our members also give feedback on the service they have received from venues and suppliers, as it is important to either give them credit where it is due and referrals, or in some cases we need to warn our fellow members of poor services and

Nowadays, we need to google reviews on companies to make sure they are not a fly-bynight. The venues and audiovisual companies are crucial to the success of our events, and we cannot afford to have a venue or supplier let us down in any way – as this will impact on our relationships with our clients.

The PCO Alliance Network continuously updates our supplier list and our commission structures with the venues, suppliers and service providers. To show our gratitude to our service providers and venues, we are known for our annual industry event where we invite venues, suppliers and service providers to thank them for their continued support during the year. It is a fun ‘themed’ networking day and everybody comes dressed up to match whatever the theme is.

The PCO Alliance Network is a very wellrespected body within the industry, and we are often invited to site inspections by venues or we are approached to do an educational by a hotel group. This is often when they have had upgrades or they have new properties on the market. It is an ongoing relationship that we need

In February, we had our strategic session to establish the role of the PCO Alliance Network going forward. Our recent partnership with the EGF (Event Greening Forum) is a huge privilege and we are excited to be involved with them. This will ensure that all members strive for more sustainable events, and we can in turn assist with supporting venues to become more sustainable.

Our Exco has also decided to have an EGF Workshop for our members at our AGM in March. We have arranged this workshop with John Arvanitakis, vice chair of the EGF.

The PCO Alliance Network wants to give back to the industry by giving event management students the opportunity to get their practical experience by working with our members by job shadowing, and actually working on events. This will give them the experience of running an event from A to Z in a practical way. Some of our members have done this in the past and some are engaged with attracting these learnerships.

We pride ourselves on being a professional association that was started by our founding member, Jacqueline Stumke, in 2005. Our membership is by invitation only. Potential new members are interviewed after we have done our due diligence with SARS, CIPC and client, supplier and venue referrals. Once successful candidates are interviewed, we introduce the member to the rest of the team at our meetings. Thereafter, if no one has any qualms about the prospective member, we confirm their membership. We cannot afford to have the good name and credibility of the PCO Alliance Network tarnished in any way. We Honour Our Industry.