Tsholo Wesi and Clarissa Carsten, founders of International Convention Solutions (ICS), a leading conference and event management company, have acquired a 51% share in exhibition and event company, the 3D Group.
3D Group was established in 1995 in managing director, John Kullmann’s garage and has grown to be the largest exhibition infrastructure and design stand-building company in Southern Africa.
According to 3D Group marketing and sales director, Conrad Kullmann, the deal is a milestone event for the exhibitions company marrying a dynamic, young BEE business with an experienced, professional group of companies.
“[Wesi and Carsten], who have worked successfully in the local and international leisure and business tourism destination sector since 2007, are a tireless duo with boundless enthusiasm and professionalism. Those qualities alone make them a welcome addition to the 3D Group team. But, they’ll also be bringing considerable new business development skills to the company,” says Kullmann.
Wesi and Carsten are not only joining its board of directors but playing a major role in the day-to-day running of the business.
For their part, Wesi and Carsten are excited about the deal because of the opportunity for skills transfer across all levels of the business.
“Our talent is in networking, identifying opportunities, ideas and delivering on those. But we have always worked with solutions providers to do the physical work – the design, the construction, the build, the breakdown,” says Wesi.
“Now, with 51% of 3D Group as an arrow in our quiver, we’ll be in a position to do just that, and take our offering to the next level. It’s hugely exciting and we look forward to making a real impact in the southern African industry,” she adds.
Accenture launches Liquid Studio in Johannesburg
Accenture has launched a new Liquid Studio in Johannesburg as part of the company’s accelerated investment in innovation in South Africa.
The Liquid Studio is the first of several new Accenture initiatives in South Africa which include expanded investments in training, hiring and strategic relationships in an effort to drive innovation locally. At the Liquid Studio, clients will work side-by-side with Accenture professionals to quickly turn ideas into innovative applications and solutions.
“Business cycle times are shrinking and competitive barriers are disappearing making speed to market critical in the digital world. The Liquid Studio will help deliver innovative solutions to businesses with speed and agility,” said Rory Moore, Innovation lead for Accenture in South Africa.
“The next wave of South African growth and competitiveness will come from continuous innovation, and I am proud that we are working closely with our clients to fuel innovation and solve critical business problems at speed and scale,” Moore added.
The Liquid Studio accelerates innovation by applying rapid development approaches including Agile methodologies and DevOps. This allows clients to reduce development time from months to days and shorten the time to business impact. Clients can also experiment with disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and cloud architectures. The capabilities of the Liquid Studio will be supplemented by Accenture’s alliance ecosystem, start-ups, and others.
“Through immersive workshops, organisations will receive tangible, hands-on experience of how their business can benefit from the most disruptive technologies,” said Willie Schoeman, managing director for Accenture Technology South Africa.
The Liquid Studio in Johannesburg will collaborate with Accenture Liquid Studios in Sydney, Singapore, Silicon Valley, Paris, Milan, London, Kronberg and other locations. It will also work together with Accenture Labs, where Accenture incubates and prototypes new concepts through applied R&D projects.
Voting opens for Women in ICT – Partnership for Change Awards
The second edition of the Women in ICT – Partnership for Change Awards, hosted by MTN in partnership with Kagiso Media and ITWeb’s Brainstorm, is open for nominations from and for eligible female professionals working in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector.
The awards aim to accelerate women’s participation in the ICT sector by celebrating and rewarding women professionals who have made a significant contribution to the growth and development of the ICT sector. In doing so, this initiative hopes to attract girl children and young aspirant female professionals to consider a profession in the industry and enhance the industry’s employer value proposition.
Categories include the Leadership recognition award which recognises senior female executives in the ICT sector; the Innovator recognition award which recognises women who have introduced new methods, ideas, or products that are contributing in one way or the other to the delivery of a bold, new, digital world as well as the SME recognition award which recognises wholly-owned, women-run enterprises that are making inroads in the ICT sector.
This year, the Women in ICT – Partnership for Change Awards has introduced a new category, the public choice award. This category gives members of the public the opportunity to nominate an outstanding female professional in the ICT sector using an SMS platform. The dedicated SMS number will be unveiled in due course.
Mapula Bodibe, executive for the consumer business Unit at MTN SA, says that despite the strides being made by women professionals in ICT, a lot still needs to be done to increase the levels of women participation in the sector: “We dedicate this initiative to the millions of women out there who have, over the years, been the symbols of resilience, fortitude, hope and sustenance.
“The representation of and by women in the ICT is still negligible. Regardless of how bleak the statistics are, there are still pockets of remarkable women leaders in the ICT sector. I wish to appeal to these professionals to use their influence and positions to pave the way for other female professionals to thrive and prosper,” says Bodibe.
Nominations for entries can be submitted until 4 August 2017.
