The fifth 2010 Central City Partners Forum was held on Monday 21 September at the Green Point Stadium Visitors Centre, marking one of the last events of its kind to be held at this venue before it closed at the end of the month.

With the Visitors Centre’s walls covered in the history of soccer in the Western Cape and indeed in South Africa, and with many famous faces depicted in its photographs, the venue was a fitting space in which to get Forum members thinking about how they could become ambassadors for 2010 in the Central City.

Andrew Boraine, CE of Cape Town Partnership, gave a presentation on understanding the significance of hosting successful mega-events, while Pam Naidoo of the City of Cape Town’s 2010 Operations team outlined FIFA’s plans for the Final Draw to take place at the CTICC in Cape Town on 4 December and broadcast live to over 700 000 million viewers across the globe.

With the intention both of inspiring other organisations and companies, and providing tools for citizens to use themselves, two highly successful activation campaigns were presented. The first of these was the Laser Group’s ‘Proud Supporters’ campaign, which CEO Phil Hayes reported had already enjoyed success and recognition across the country for the past year. The second campaign was Cape Town Tourism’s own recently launched ‘Live it! Love it! Louder!’ campaign, presented by Lianne Burton, Executive Manager: Marketing Services, Cape Town Tourism.

Ending on a particularly high and vastly entertaining note, Forum members were treated to George Dearnaley’s take on ‘The FIFA World Cup Fan: understanding who’s coming to town’. Having experienced a number of FIFA World Cups and other international soccer events for himself, Dearnaley is today Soccer Business Manager for Media24 as well as a former Bafana Bafana striker, and had the audience enthralled with his insights on what FIFA fans expected from a Host City.

In conclusion, Boraine gave an update on the joint Cape Town Partnership/CCID/Dreamfields initiative, noting that the first DreamEvent was scheduled for Saturday 10 October, from 08h00 until approximately 15h00, at Cape Town High School (on the border of The Company’s Garden). He thanked sponsors that had come forward to date to support teams (namely, Century City, Claremont Improvement District Company, CTICC, CTP & CCID, GrowthPoint, The Laser Group and Weber Wentzel) as well as Cape Town Tourism who would be sponsoring a group of diski dancers on the day. Sponsors were still being sought for safe transportation, meals and refreshments for the primary school teams and interested parties were asked to contact CTP’s 2010 Project Coordinator, Carola Koblitz, on 021 419 1881 or email carola@capetownpartnership.co.za.

Further dates to diarise included:

• Thursday 29 October (morning): CTP AGM and a “Life after 2010” conference;
• Wednesday 25 November: Central City Partners Forum – retail, restaurant and trader activation campaign;
• Friday 04 December: 2010 FIFA World Cup Final Draw.

Full reportbacks on the presentations delivered at the Forum follow:

• Hosting Mega-Events – Citizen activation and becoming a 2010 ambassador
• The 2010 FIFA World Cup Final Draw
• The Laser Group’s Proud Supporters Campaign – developing an innovative, countrywide activation
• Live it! Love It! Louder! Cape Town’s Citizen Activation Campaign for 2010
• The FIFA World Cup Fan: understanding who’s coming to town

Alternatively download the synopsis and read it in conjunction with the presentations below:

Related posts:

1. Cape Town Tourism’s Citizen Activation Campaign
2. Hosting Mega-events and Citizen activation
3. The 2010 FIFA World Cup Final Draw
4. 2010 Central City Partners Forum II
5. Long street party venue for Final Draw