Exhibitions & Events News South Africa

Brightest minds in CX to gather at CEM Africa this August

The CEM Africa Summit will be returning to Cape Town after a purely virtual edition last year. Taking place on 23 and 24 August at the Century City Conference Centre, the event will play host to some of the country's premier consumer brands including McDonald's, Vodacom, Nedbank, Spar, Dischem and Superbalist.
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Customer experience (CX) executives from top organisations on the continent will be present to attend keynotes, educational workshops, panel discussions and live Q&As to assist them in creating bullet-proof customer experience systems for their enterprises. Speakers and moderators will represent leading businesses, best-in-class consultancies and dynamic brands that epitomise outstanding CX.

The format of this year's in-person event is as follows:

Day 1, 23 August: A full day of educational workshops delivered by industry specialists.
Day 2, 24 August: A conference featuring keynotes and panel discussions by leaders and experts in CX.

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“It is no secret that the African market is leading the digital transformation in customer experience, which has grown into a very specialised segment of consumer marketing. Our 2022 programme is practical, pragmatic and pro-active,” says Shannon Mackrill, cofounder of the CEM Africa Summit.

Mackrill continues, “Bringing together the brightest minds and most capable CX operators, we boast a can-use-it-now agenda and specialist line-up spread out over two days. Attendees will walk away with a solid game plan to map out or refresh their companies’ customer experience strategies and activities.”

Expert speaker lineup

The line-up of confirmed expert speakers so far include:

• Qaalfa Dibeehi (dean of customer experience leadership, Majid Al Futtaim, UAE)
• Julia Ahlfeldt (customer experience professional, RSA)
• Charlie Stewart (co-founder and chief executive, Rogerwilco, RSA)
• Janine George (CPTO, Carrol Boyes, RSA)
• Kamohelo Potloane (CX officer, Rand Water, RSA)
• Moses Duma (head group customer experience strategy and governance, Old Mutual Group, RSA)
• Wendy Houlson (group CX service manager, Spar Group, RSA)
• Brigitte De Gama (CHRO, McDonald’s, RSA)
• Anton de Wet (CCXP) (chief client officer, Nedbank, RSA)
• Errol Van Graan, (chief CX officer, Vodacom, RSA)
• Brenda Zuma (customer service and operations manager, Superbalist, RSA)
• Lynne Blignaut (group loyalty and customer rewards, Dischem, RSA)

CX myths, data and customer expectations

Some of the topics that will be discussed in depth at the CEM Africa Summit include:

• Myths of customer experience: This keynote session will address some common myths of CX transformation and provide a provocative course-corrected perspective.

• Customer journey management: From designing, measuring, managing and implementing fixes and improvements to closing the feedback loops.

• Data-driven marketing for better customer experience: Undoubtedly, data-driven marketing is the future. A single bad experience is enough to deter visitors from becoming customers.

The panel discussions will unpack the leading role that the African continent is playing in the digital transformation in CX, mapping the customer journey and exploring the delivery experience, how to keep up with the constantly evolving expectations of customers, and unlocking valuable customer loyalty in competitive industries.

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CEM Africa can once again count on specialised industry support for this year’s edition. Nice systems is the lead sponsor, Avaya and Novamind AG are diamond sponsors, while Diamond, Freshworks and Zoho boast platinum and Rogerwilco and Insider silver partnership status. The media partners for the event are Hypertext and Blankpage.

CEM Africa is the largest CX event on the continent and is organised by Kinetic Events, which is a partner of The Vuka Group.

For more info and to register for the event, visit the dedicated CEM Africa Summit website. A special early bird price is available for registrations before 30 June.

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