In November 2013 Reed Exhibitions, the world’s largest and most respected exhibition company and part of the RELX Group, signed a joint venture agreement with the Thebe Tourism Group and Carol to acquire a majority share in Thebe Exhibitions & Projects Group (TEPG). TEPG was renamed Thebe Reed Exhibitions and was owned 60% by Reed Exhibitions, 30% by Thebe Tourism Group, with Carol Weaving retaining 10% as Managing Director.
Three years later and a desire for accelerated growth Reed bought out Thebe’s shares and now Thebe Reed is Carol Weaving
We would like to nominate our MD, Carol Weaving, to sit on your Board.
Carol brings to Reed Exhibitions, a diverse working background in the business, tourism and events industry. Over 30 years, Carol’s career has expanded through many sectors within the industry, and her knowledge and expertise spans across marketing, exhibition management, events, conferences as well as venue and facility management.
After growing up in the United Kingdom and working as the Marketing Manager for a Radio Station, Carol pursued her dream of living in South Africa, and became the youngest Director (age 29) of the Automobile Association at the Kyalami Racetrack which equipped her with the skillset she would soon need to start her own company, International Exhibition Consultants. Carol later sold majority share of this company to Dutch exhibition company RAI, and then proceeded to head up RAI in South Africa.
As the South African economy grew and expanded over her time at RAI, she realised a need to team up with an empowerment partner and proceeded to facilitate a buy-out of RAI’s shares to the Thebe Tourism group in 2004, a subsidiary of South Africa’s first Black Empowerment Company, Thebe Investment Corporation.
Thanks to Carol’s continued passion, hard work, dedication and management, Reed Exhibitions is one of the largest and most successful exhibition and venue management companies in Southern Africa and is now in a position to grow its footprint across the African continent with many new ventures in the pipeline.
The group owns major exhibition titles such as Africa Travel Week – International Luxury Travel Market Africa (ILTM Africa); Incentives, Business Travel & Meetings Africa (ibtm Africa); and World Travel Market Africa (WTM Africa), Sports and Events Tourism Exchange, Africa Automation Fair, Connected Industries, #Buy a Business Expo, Decorex Joburg, Cape Town and Durban, 100% Design South Africa, Mediatech Africa, Small Business Expo, International Sourcing Fair, Value Added Agriculture West Africa, SMART Factories, FIBO Business Summit, Fire & Feast Meat Festival and Comic Con Africa. We also offer strategic venue management solutions and our contract to manage the award-winning Ticketpro Dome in Johannesburg, on behalf of its owners – the Sasol Pension Fund, stretches until 2024.
Carol is the past Chairperson of the Exhibition Association of Southern Africa (EXSA)
and current Chairperson of the Association of African Exhibition Organisers (AAXO). She also served on the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) committee.
http://www.reedexpoafrica.co.za
by Carol Weaving