Accelerate Cape Town holds its first successful Annual General Meeting

 Media Release

 Accelerate Cape Town holds its first successful Annual General Meeting

22 August 2008 - Accelerate Cape Town held its inaugural Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Greenpoint Stadium Visitors Centre on Friday 22 August 2008.  Founded in 2007 by a group of leaders of large corporates in the Cape, who were brought together by a common concern over the lack of pace and direction of change in the region, Accelerate Cape Town has now established itself as a voice for corporates seeking to ramp up sustainable, inclusive economic growth in the Cape Town city region. Membership growth in the first year of operation and progress updates from the different projects run by the initiative in the 2007/2008 year were under discussion at the AGM.

Attending this important meeting, which was hosted and sponsored by Murray & Roberts, were member companies who represent some of the biggest business names in the region. Accelerate Cape Town has managed to build up its membership to 29 since its inauguration in March 2007. The 29 corporate companies are: Old Mutual; KPMG; Ernst and Young; Deloitte and Touche; Chevron Inc.; BP South Africa; Webber Wentzel; British American Tobacco SA; Santam; JP Morgan; Pam Golding Properties; Nedbank; Allan Gray; Coronation Investments; Safmarine; Cadiz; Spur; Irvin & Johnson (I&J); Woolworths; Ogilvy; Media24; Investec; Murray and Roberts; Pick ‘n Pay; Close Fund Services (South Africa); Power Group; Sekunjalo Investment Group; ITEC and  Dubai World Africa.  The organisation hopes to grow to 75 corporate members over the next two years.

The AGM provided member companies the opportunity to get to know the organisation first-hand and take part in the dialogue and decisions that affect all members.  The meeting also provided members with a chance to meet the directors and engage in networking and discussions with other top business leaders from the represented member companies.  Tim Bashall, Chairman of Accelerate Cape Town and Executive Director of KPMG said, “We seek to mobilise the combined expertise, influence and enthusiasm of our member companies to drive delivery of a long term socio-economic growth agenda for the Cape region. Changing the image of the Cape from sleepy holiday region to global business destination, characterised as the “Southern Tiger”, is central to Accelerate Cape Town’s existence.  It is only through the continued support and buy-in from the large corporates who are our members that can we achieve this.  Bashall further commended Accelerate Cape Town for positioning itself as a champion for promoting a vision for long-term growth in the Cape region and for its impressive membership increase in the past year.

CEO of Accelerate Cape Town Guy Lundy presented members with an analysis of lessons learnt from comparative cities he had visited around the world during the year in review.  Lundy stated “We have the resources, know-how and a unique culture of being innovative as a city region, and it is important that the people of the Cape embrace what is excellent about the region and leverage that to our best advantage.”

Among the significant achievements during its first year was the coordination of intimate dinner meetings between the CEOs of a number of large corporates and both the Mayor and the Premier, something that had not happened before.  Meetings were also facilitated between corporate leaders and other key stakeholders in the region, including the Vice Chancellors of the four Cape universities, with the aim of establishing ways in which business can collaborate with others to drive long-term growth. Accelerate Cape Town has also actively facilitated information sessions for business opportunities in the 2010 World Cup.

The AGM introduced the members to projects that have been initiated for the next twelve months.  These include the Vision 2030 project, which aims to canvas the views of a significant number of leaders on their vision for the region over the next 20 years.  This project kicks off on 29 August with a session facilitated by internationally renowned facilitators Ben and Ros Zander.  Another key project is the Cape Town International Business Club, which will facilitate high level meetings between foreign business leaders and their local business equivalents, particularly during 2010.  Other projects include Safe Cape, aimed at establishing the Cape as a safe place to live and visit, and Restless Minds, which is looking at ways to attract and retain more African professionals in the Cape.

The Green Point Stadium Visitors Centre, where the AGM was held, lets visitors experience an audio-visual and industrial theatre presentation and provides them with progress and understanding of what the stadium will eventually look like. The centre houses an exhibition of soccer related photographs, paintings and a model of the stadium. Andrew Fanton, Project Director of the Green Point Stadium 2010 project for Murray & Roberts, took the delegates through a guided tour of the stadium construction site and expressed positively that the FIFA deadline for completion will be met and that the stadium would leave a legacy for people of the Cape and South Africa post 2010.