Rental/staging company Gearhouse South Africa recently joined the AV Alliance, a world-wide network of key industry players, a move which the company believes will improve its international profile and extend its market reach as well as assist local meeting planners who can now easily access the same standard of technical service anywhere in the world through this association.
AV Alliance unites a number of event technology services providers around the world, comprising 29 companies in 25 different countries. Qualifications for entry into the Alliance are stringent, such as being able to offer a full service, being able to work with customers in English and having been in business for at least five years. AV Alliance clients can, the organisation believes, be assured that they can rely on the same consistent quality wherever they are implementing their projects.
“We believe that our involvement with the international network will increase our ability to supply and source services for our clients,” said Gearhouse joint managing director Ofer Lapid (pictured). “In turn, we will be able to refer regional business to the Alliance when our own clients are working abroad. We are extremely honoured to be chosen as the South African representative and to be associated with fellow suppliers of a very high calibre. We aspire to participate and provide services within the alliance and to contribute the experience gained through this interaction to the African continent and beyond.”
The idea of setting up a global network was born out of a customer request. A global corporation tasked the Swiss company, Habegger AG, with providing event technology in 17 European countries. The client’s project portfolio comprised numerous small and, in each case, very local events. Frequently, client projects are too small to be centrally supported. For this reason, Habegger AG decided to set up a European network of partners.
All members are independently managed companies and are among the leading providers within their respective regions. The AV Alliance companies have a combined staff of 2,689, completing 42,000 individual projects each year and have total warehousing space in excess of 199,000 square metres. Today, the AV Alliance comprises companies in 25 countries at 32 sites. Each member rents out audio-visual and lighting equipment. Most also provide rigging and event IT services.
Gearhouse South Africa will cover Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.
A list of members of the Alliance can be found under “Quality Seal” at www.avalliance.com.
