What is the first word that South Africans will say when they're asked if they enjoyed the conference? This question was posed by Michael Broughton of the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa, as a few of my colleagues and I stood chatting to him at the ECR Conference recently. "No" being the correct answer. As in, "No, we're thoroughly enjoying it!" Broughton pointed out that negativity was typical of locals; so much so that even when answering positively, it starts out in the negative. And it's this negativity that has been darkening the ideal of the country's greatest sporting project since the announcement that SA will be hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. But as ECR guest speaker Gary Bailey was quick to point out during his talk, the business opportunities are innumerable. And it's about time that we stopped standing in the wings, muttering about how the show won't go on, and actually start getting involved, in whatever capacity we can. Because, let's face it, in two years' time, the country is going to be awash with thousands of soccer fans the world over. Now, are we going to take the opportunity to welcome these people, offer up some local flavour and show them what South Africa is really capable of (while, it goes without saying, making a small mint from their euros and dollars), or are we going to sit around, shaking our heads and moaning that all these tourists are holding up traffic? As a slightly skewed version of the saying goes, when life hands you lemons, serve up the tequila and salt - you'll certainly earn more out of it than if you just simply make lemonade. However, if you're unsure or unaware of your options, from renting out your house to hosting a fan park, Bailey has scripted a game plan for just this reason - see http://www.gameplan2010.com/ for more information. Laduma-a-a!

Shan Radcliffe, Retail editor retailnews@bizcommunity.com Responses to this column welcomed in our new online editor's column archive.