Africa must move from competing to host international conferences and start creating and owning business events that the world has a reason to attend in Africa, the Institute of African Knowledge (INSTAK) has said.
The call was made at the Sanganai/Hlanganani CEO Roundtable, held under the theme “One Region, One Destination: Advancing Integrated and Sustainable Tourism Growth”, officially opened by Deputy Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Hon. Tongai Mnangagwa on 8 September 2026 in Masvingo.
Representing the Chief Executive Officer of INSTAK, Ambassador Kwame Muzawazi, the organisation’s Recreation Manager Ms Diana Stotombe moderated a session on Unlocking Business Events, where she argued that Africa possesses powerful themes around which globally significant events can be built.These include critical minerals, renewable energy, the creative industries and African economic integration.
“Africa must not only be the venue. Africa must be part of the substance, story and value proposition of the event.”Ms Stotombe said the continent’s greatest opportunity lies in creating events around subjects where Africa has resources, expertise and lived experience.
“The future of African business events should be about creating events that could only happen in Africa.”Such an approach, INSTAK believes, would help attract global decision-makers while ensuring that conferences generate wider economic value through tourism, hospitality, aviation, culture, investment and knowledge exchange.
INSTAK is already putting this philosophy into practice through the development of Liberation City in Harare — an integrated tourism, heritage, cultural and business-events destination anchored by the Museum of African Liberation.The Museum — which is billed to be officially opened as part of the African Union 2027 Mid-Year Summit which Zimbabwe is bidding to host — is complemented by the Heritage Village, an Afrocentric conferencing and cultural destination, and the Harare Sunset Skydeck, providing a distinctive leisure and hospitality experience for visitors and delegates.
In addition, INSTAK will soon open the Robert Gabriel Mugabe Museum in Highfield, which adds an important historical dimension to Zimbabwe’s heritage offering. Together, these attractions demonstrate how business events can become part of a wider African experience, rather than being confined to a hotel conference room.The CEO Roundtable also examined destination competitiveness, joint destination marketing, aviation connectivity, visa facilitation, sustainable tourism, climate resilience, and artificial intelligence and digital transformation.
INSTAK said these issues must be tackled collectively if Africa is to compete more effectively for global tourism and business.The Institute also endorsed the Roundtable’s “One Region, One Destination” approach, arguing that African countries can achieve greater impact through joint marketing, multi-destination tourism circuits and regional business events.
The ambition, INSTAK says, is simple: Africa should not merely host the world’s conversations. It should increasingly create them.