South Africa: Cape Town’s commitment to quality gets results

Each of the ten partners in the BestCities World Alliance demonstrates the same outstanding qualities, efficiencies and high standards expected as membership criteria.

BestCities is the initial world alliance to put in place a certification program – with standards certified by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA).

Together with nine other partners, Cape Town & Western Cape Convention Bureau undertakes a rigorous internal and external audit each year and has been rewarded with recertification each time.

As highly regarded and individual cities in their own right, each partner as well brings their own incomparable strengths, knowledge and experience to the alliance which has helped BestCities to become the world’s most recognized and influential world alliance of convention bureaus.

“BestCities recognizes that as a whole we are only as strong as each one of our parts and we celebrate the individual best practices that make each one of our ten bureaus a dynamic and vital partner in our alliance,” says Jane Vong Holmes, Managing Director, BestCities World Alliance.

A BestCities partner for ten years, Cape Town & Western Cape Convention Bureau has shown unwavering commitment to uphold the standards of BestCities’ Quality Management System (QMS), which monitors services provided to conference planners, taking great pride in consistently achieving compliance in their annual audits.

“Working with certified convention bureaus means that clients are assured a defined set of quality services inclunding destination expertise; bid assistance; convention planning; building attendance; on-site event servicing and post-event support; and post-event evaluation,” says Cheryl Mulder-Verbruggen, Cape Town & Western Cape Convention Bureau.

“We put a lot of time and effort into the LRQA audit because certification provides us with a major competitive edge and as well attests to our ability and commitment to provide the highest service standards for our clients.”

Salome Meyer, Project Manager, 17th Reach to Recovery International Breast Cancer Support Conference held in Cape Town early in 2013 is just one client who has experienced the benefits of BestCities’ Quality Management System initial hand.

"The Cape Town & Western Cape Convention Bureau provided support and guidance throughout the bidding process. Their expertise in putting together the bid document was invaluable. They ensured that all the stops were pulled out for the bid site inspection. And even next we’d won the bid, they were right there ready to help boost delegate numbers. We are particularly delighted to discover the services provided by the Convention Bureau since we are a non-profit organization, which is dependent on volunteers to do our work.”