from the CEO’s mouth, tell us more about
the facility?
The facility like I said is really impressive. The auditorium can
sit 400 people comfortably. We want it to be open so that it
can be used to stage many other things including plays, drama,
and concerts. It’s on 2 floors, so based on those 2 floors we have
got a mix of rooms which can be opened up, to afford delegates
great interaction including break-out facilities. We have got
more rooms in another floor that can serve people for board
room type discussions.
Very soon the convention centre is going to be connected to a
dining facility to give the convenience of break out conferencing
with the state of the art audio visual facilities and ease of access
to very high standard catering. So in essence, I think in terms
of appointment of the facilities, they are appointed to the
highest standard in the world.
Just to ask you to add something, security
has been a concern in the country, would
you just mention something about security
when it comes to the Convention Centre?
I think for us it’s one of the most secured venues because
Hospitals by their nature are secure because we value privacy
of our patients and our customers and we restrict entry because
of restricted visiting times. There is parking which is well
guarded in one campus and we have got electronic devices for
registering people entering the grounds and going into the
building. I would say that it’s really well catered for in terms
security; so if anybody is in the premises they don’t need to
worry about such concerns.
To move on, I want to understand the unique
proposition for the centre, I just want to
understand what delegates are looking for,
is there value add to it for instance let’s say
my colleagues come to the conference, can
they have a value add of getting a Hospital
tour?
One of the things we need to be able to tap in is when people
are here, particularly when they are travelling from abroad, is
to give them a guided Hospital tour to see some of the state
of the art facilities we have like our new maternity, our new
Critical Care Unit, what we are doing with our North Wing
as it were. These are the things that we would like and that is
going to enhance Kenya as a preferred destination as well as a
centre of excellence.
The other value add would be offering some basics to delegates
like having their blood pressure checked, and asking basic
questions like if you had a cardiac arrest; if you are watching
your diet; and if you are you exercising among others.
We also have a fitness centre right next to our convention
centre that is open to all our staff, all the consultants, anybody
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MAL25/18 ISSUE
The whole thing about conference
tourism is actually to make Nairobi
and other cities destinations for
conferencing, and by destination
it not only means investing in
conference facilities in hotels,
but developing end to end
infrastructure so that people
can conveniently
fly in and
out of airports, there is ease of
transportation to venues and
creating entertainment hubs,
social hubs, cultural hubs as well as
shopping hubs that actually attract
people.
who works in this campus. It is open at a very subsidized rate so
those are the things we are looking at in pursuit of loading value
adds to our promise.
Wow, that’s wonderful, could you just give
us an example, besides internal trainings
are there other events that you’ve done at the
centre?
They are many. Non Communicable Diseases Conference was
there at the centre, we’ve had the Plastic Surgeons in Kenya
conferences, we have an Annual Cardiac Symposium, we have
Infectious Diseases Symposium, the list is long. Then one of the
parastatals, NASCOP has been coming here regularly, this is their
preferred centre for all their meetings that they are having, so as
people get to know more about the centre, then we are going to
have more attraction to it.
To finish off, I just want you to give us your
experience when you felt like “we did the right
thing”,
At the convention centre?
Yes, at the convention centre?
I think people are impressed by the professionalism of the entire
centre. When they come in the registration is usually very well
organized and how we have done that is we have actually asked
our Hospital team to take ownership of all the meetings that
are held there so even if an association comes, an association is
independent of us, since it’s been held at a convention centre
delegates are here, we have told our team to join them in the
planning and we have seen rapid improvements from some of the
meetings that have been held so far.