Online campaign for Sports and Events Tourism Exchange

Announcing the partnership, SETE Conference director, Sugen Pillay, said, "Maximising our online presence is part of our marketing and PR strategy. Identifying the appropriate social media platform and choosing from one of the many channels available to ensure that our messages are targeting the right audience is crucial and in this way the specialised nature of the iSportconnect community is an ideal match.

"The ability to communicate with a captive audience is crucial and the user-friendly way in which the site amalgamates all relevant and useful information renders it a powerful tool in the sports business industry."

The online platform brings together thousands of sports business professionals worldwide. With a wide range of applications, it combines business and social networking, detailed insights into the latest sports business news and market data, listings of business events and executive jobs and market analysis, to provide a one-stop shop for the sports business community. Existing LinkedIn and Twitter profiles can be synchronised and updated from the site, which also has iPhone and BlackBerry applications. It has no introductory fees, and has no limit on communication.

Its marketing and partnership manager, Xavier Cureau said, "We are very pleased to be contributing to the SETE event, as this will further expand our image in South Africa and we look forward to promoting a major event from Africa across Europe, USA and the Middle East."

Viral support boosts race event

To see how an effective social media campaign can contribute to the success of an event, one needs only look at one of Africa's biggest horseracing events, the upcoming Vodacom Durban July (7 July 2012).

Dave Macleod, Gameplan media managing director, said "In its 116th year, the race poses numerous challenges when communicating to its extremely diverse audience of potential clients, who each have very different expectations of the event. The core racing community thrives on a nourishing stream of online racing communication, betting and studying form online and takes a major race meeting like the Vodacom Durban July in its stride.

"However, they are outnumbered on the day by the tens of thousands of socialites and fashionistas, who need to be reached and inspired to attend this event every year. Social media and Facebook in particular have succeeded in entrenching their loyalty. Research done in 2009 showed that just under 20% of the race day attendance came from outside of KwaZulu-Natal, in 2011 that figure had grown by 50%, much of which is attributable to the viral 'July Fever' that was cultivated on Facebook. The event Facebook page is alive with daily banter from its core 6 500 followers. Beyond that figure, 60 000 Facebook users a week browse the content of the page and virally the core community that "likes" the page reaches 2 111 244 people through their viral connections."

SETE attracts international interest

This year's second annual SETE exhibition will feature a number of high profile international and local exhibitors, as well as more than 60 international buyers who have been attracted by South Africa's solid reputation as a viable location for events.

The two day SETE conference has a line-up of respected and influential speakers who will engage and exchange ideas that will ultimately enhance South Africa's sport, tourism, and event industries. As one of the quickest growing types of global travel, the sports tourism industry is estimated to have contributed over R6 billion to the South African economy last year.

For more, go to www.sportsandevents.co.za, the Facebook page or follow @SETE_ZA on Twitter.