Where the Streets Have No Names

Stampfli and her team were faced with the task of organizing the largest Implementers' Meeting yet — and the largest meeting ever held in Rwanda — and they had to build the hospitality infrastructure literally from scratch. Adding to the stress, they had to manage the operation from thousands of miles away in Washington, where it was tough to see if anything fell through the cracks. A few team members arrived three weeks before the meeting; meanwhile Courtesy hired a representative in Kigali to be their eyes and ears, work with local officials and vendors, help with negotiations, and communicate with locals who only spoke Kinyarwandese, the country's national language.

For starters, they had to figure out how to get 1,700 people from 83 countries on six continents to Rwanda. Kigali International Airport usually handles only a few international flights per week. Courtesy staff worked out an arrangement with the airlines, Rwandair and Kenya Air, to add extra flights.

But where would they house the attendees? The three hotels in Kigali each have only about 100 rooms. Courtesy needed another 1,000. The Rwandan Office of Tourism put out a call to residents, asking them to accommodate meeting attendees in their homes, and with the help of Kigali officials, planners found rooms in more than 100 different venues, including bed and breakfasts, apartments, private residences, guest houses, and dorm rooms, some located miles outside of town — some along dirt roads, some on streets with no names.

Attendees didn't come to Kigali expecting five-star accommodations, but nonetheless, delegates affiliated with the U.S. government, for example, were informed in advance that Kigali is not your typical meetings destination. Says Kenyon, “Attendees were told: ‘You're going to be safe and comfortable. There may be little inconveniences here and there.'”

Some inconveniences were not so little. Attendees were given the option of various property types with the assurance that all price levels would have running water and electricity. However, just prior to the meeting, the staff learned that some units lacked power. The planners set up a tent at the airport to inform attendees about the situation and switch their rooms. A few other delegates also requested upgrades, but staffers could only help those without power.

43 Bus Routes

Just as problematic was shuttling attendees from their rooms to the meetings, as the city didn't have an adequate mass transportation system. Working with city officials, Courtesy developed shuttle routes — 43 of them. Buses had to be secured from public and private transportation companies throughout the region and inspected for suitability.

The bus drivers, whom Courtesy hired locally, had to be trained on their routes. Bus “captains” were appointed to oversee the shuttle operation and ensure, via radio communications with the drivers, that buses were on time and on route. Shuttles picked attendees up in the morning and drove them to the meeting area. They remained in town all day until the shuttles brought them back to their rooms in the evening. “These are challenges that most planners never face,” says Stampfli.

Tent City

Another huge hurdle for the planning staff was finding meeting space. Since there was no conference center in Kigali large enough to accommodate their needs, they had to think outside the box — emphasis on outside. Together with Kigali officials, the team decided to construct seven tents in the city's downtown park, including one giant tent to accommodate up to 2,000 people for general sessions. Other tents were used for meals and breakout sessions.

However, the tents and chairs were not available in Kigali. The big tent was flown in by helicopter from Johannesburg, South Africa, while the chairs were imported from China. Audiovisual services were handled by a local supplier, but the majority of the AV equipment had to be brought in from other countries, including England and Uganda. In addition, a projection screen had to be built for the general session tent because there wasn't one large enough in Kigali.

Breakout sessions were also held at two other locations — the Serena Hotel, which was the headquarters hotel for the group, and the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, a local school. Dining halls were set up at the three meeting sites, but even food service was a problem because there were no caterers in Kigali. The planners called a meeting with the local restaurants to ask them to provide food service.

The giant tent might be an unusual meeting venue but, Stampfli says, “I was blown away when I saw it.” The air-conditioned tent, powered by a generator and wired for technology and audiovisual equipment, not only housed the general sessions, but also some of the 82 breakout sessions.

Kenyon agrees, calling the tent “amazing.” “It was very comfortable and as nice as any conference center that I have been to,” he says.

Nothing could be taken for granted — right down to the smallest details. For example, the planners discovered that corkboard, which is used for poster sessions, wasn't available in Kigali, so the poster boards were made of wood. “If you tried to push in the thumbtacks, it was sort of impossible, so we found a hammer and helped people put up their poster boards,” says Stampfli. On the first day of the meeting, half of the wooden poster boards in the tents fell down because the ground was soggy from rain. “We stood them back up,” she says.

Another glitch was that wiring the tents strained the whole area's electrical capacity, says Stampfli, even bringing down power in Kigali a few times. During the sessions, the power in the main tent shut on and off, on occasion, as the generators were overstressed. But to the hearty souls in the audience, it was no big deal. “The power went off, the speakers went on talking, and then, it would come back on again,” she says. “People did not complain. It was so refreshing.”