The first-ever Global Leaders Africa Summit will take place at the Dome in Northgate

RELATED LINKS: Johannesburg's 'big four' conference centres JOHANNESBURG has many world-class conference venues. The four biggest, which can each host thousands of delegates, are the Sandton Convention Centre, Gallagher Estate, the Coca-Cola Dome and the Expo Centre, the city's biggest venue, which is not far from Soweto. Read more Conference venues JOHANNESBURG'S conference scene may be dominated by the city's four major venues, but there are more than 40 other top-class facilities for organisers to choose from. Read more Joburg's status as conference hub grows SINCE the city's successful hosting of the rugby and cricket world cups, and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg's reputation as a world-class host of conferences is rapidly increasing. Its showpiece is the Pan African Parliament, in session in Midrand. Read more 2010 Soccer World Cup PLANS are being put in place to host the soccer world's biggest event. The city is setting up groups to deal with specific tasks, integrating the work across its various departments. But the real work should start by the end of June. Read more

Business gurus prepare for Joburg summit International business leaders and management experts have been lined up for the first-ever Global Leaders Africa Summit, to be held in Joburg in June. March 3, 2006 By southafrica.info reporter EIGHT of the world's most inspiring business and thought leaders will be in Johannesburg in June for the first-ever Global Leaders Africa Summit. "The summit will provide a once in a lifetime opportunity for local business and government executives to listen to some of the world's leading minds on various topics, including branding, social economics, land transformation, political and business leadership and more," said Tina Schneidermann, the president of Global Leaders, the company producing the conference. Taking place at the Coca-Cola Dome at Northgate, in the north of Johannesburg, the conference will be a three-day event, with up to 1 500 delegates expected to attend. It will run from 20 to 22 June. Several international speakers have been confirmed, including Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard; Rudolph Guiliani, the former mayor of New York; Hernando de Soto, the president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Peru and author of The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else; Daniel Pink, the author of Free Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind; Scott Bedbury, the former marketing chief of Nike and Starbucks; Clayton Christensen, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School; Tom Peters, a management guru and influential business thinker; and Michael Porter, a Harvard business professor and an expert on competitive strategy. They will be joined by a number of local speakers, namely Charles Villa-Vicencio, the executive director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation; Wiseman Nkuhlu, a former economic adviser to President Thabo Mbeki and chief executive of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, now the chairman of Pan-African Capital Holdings; and Crispin Sonn, the general manager of Old Mutual Personal Financial Advice and Private Wealth Management. "South Africa has all the tools to compete in the new global village – an eager workforce, ready to take on any challenge," Peters said. Welcoming the announcement of the summit, Nkuhlu said: "Africans have grown weary of the hopeless poverty that has characterised their continent for decades, and are taking decisive steps to move away from the problems of the past. "Now there is a new style of leadership emerging throughout the African continent – leaders who are committed to democratic values, transparency and to the principles of economic growth." The Global Leaders Africa Summit is supported by the African Leaders Foundation, an organisation established to harness the effect of the summit across business and government in Africa. Commenting on the establishment of the foundation and the announcement of the summit, Evelyn Mungai, the president of the All African Businesswomen's Association, said it was a noble idea whose time had come. Unlocking people's potential for a better Africa and for a better world was clearly the way to go, she said. Namane Magau, her South African counterpart, pointed out that African leaders had unique experiences to bring to the international world. "Their insights reflect their exposure to global dialogue and challenges," she said. "In the same way other international leaders bring unique experiences from their environments and benefit from the diverse global leadership perspectives. "African leadership perspectives have, however, been neglected in the past." The emerging focus on the development of the continent created an opportunity to explore new models of leadership that were defined as leaders found new answers to changing world economies and political dynamics, Magau added. Source: The official South African portal: southafrica.info Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za