African Collaborations Group (ACG) (www.ACGafrica.com), the leading strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on the industrialisation of sport in Africa through the origination of bankable sport and entertainment district ecosystems, today announced the appointment of Rick Taylor to its Advisory Board.
Rick Taylor is one of Africa’s most experienced tourism strategists, with more than three decades of expertise in destination development and business events, also known as MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Events and Exhibitions). As Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Business Tourism Company, a Cape Town-based international consultancy, he has led more than 100 tourism advisory, strategy and training projects worldwide and has been the strategic architect of national destination strategies and Convention Bureau projects across Africa, including in South Africa, Namibia, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Senegal, Cameroon, Zambia, Togo and Mozambique.
Rick was the architect of Africa’s first Convention Bureau in Cape Town, which has maintained the #1 position in Africa in the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) city ranking for more than two decades. Since then, he has devoted his career to positioning business events as a strategic pillar of tourism, investment and socio-economic development across the continent.
The global business events sector has now surpassed pre-pandemic levels, reaching an estimated USD 1.5 trillion, yet Africa hosts only around 3% of the world’s association meetings. Rick has spent his career addressing this structural gap by helping countries build the strategies, institutions, infrastructure and international positioning required to compete for a greater share of the global business events economy.
A defining feature of Rick’s approach is what he calls “Lalibela thinking” — a 50- to 100-year perspective that sees MICE not simply as an events industry, but as long-term economic infrastructure capable of driving investment, tourism, job creation, skills development and poverty alleviation. His work has helped shape business events infrastructure, convention bureaus and national MICE strategies across Africa.
His appointment to the ACG Advisory Board reflects a core ACG conviction: that large-scale sport and entertainment districts must be conceived from the outset as integrated economic ecosystems spanning sport, entertainment, hospitality, tourism and business events. Convention Centres, conference facilities and other business events infrastructure are essential components of such districts. They can generate high-value activity on non-match and non-concert days, strengthen year-round hotel and hospitality demand, and connect the district to the wider tourism and business travel economy of its host country.
Rick therefore brings to ACG a rare combination of strategic and practical expertise: deep knowledge of African destination development; pan-continental relationships with tourism ministries, national tourism organisations and other public-sector stakeholders; hands-on experience in establishing Convention Bureaus and business events infrastructure; and a long-term perspective on the role of business events in African socio-economic development. These capabilities are directly relevant to ACG’s work in originating and structuring large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across the continent.
“Rick Taylor is one of the most respected voices in African business tourism, and his career has literally built the Convention Bureau architecture that powers business events across the continent. His appointment reflects a foundational conviction at ACG: that sport and entertainment districts are not stadiums and concert halls standing alone, but integrated ecosystems that generate value across sport, entertainment, hospitality and business events. Sport, entertainment and convention infrastructure is district infrastructure. His presence on our Advisory Board significantly strengthens ACG’s capacity to originate projects that combine these dimensions from the outset,” said Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard (www.Pompigne-Mognard.com), Founder and Executive Chairman of ACG.
The ACG Advisory Board provides strategic guidance as ACG originates and structures large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across the continent, aligning governments, development finance institutions (DFIs), investors, sport bodies and infrastructure partners to support the development of financially sustainable, mixed-use district ecosystems.
Africa’s sport economy is projected to reach $20 billion by 2035, yet the continent continues to lack the integrated district ecosystems required to support large-scale development. ACG addresses this gap by originating bankable sport and entertainment district projects, moving beyond single-venue development models towards mixed-use, revenue-generating and financially sustainable district ecosystems.
Through its collaborative model, ACG convenes governments, PPP authorities and regulators, development finance institutions, private investors, developers, designers and engineers, legal and transaction advisors, operators, sport federations and leagues, event promoters, media and broadcast partners, academic institutions and host communities, creating structured pathways from concept to feasibility, bankability and delivery.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Collaborations Group (ACG).
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About African Collaborations Group (ACG):
African Collaborations Group (ACG) (www.ACGafrica.com) is the leading strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on the industrialisation of sport in Africa through the origination of bankable sport and entertainment district ecosystems. By convening governments, private-sector partners, development finance institutions, sport and entertainment stakeholders, and academic institutions, ACG creates structured pathways that transform concepts into investable and deliverable district projects across the continent.
