THE Absa Soweto Festival 2006 will provide an invaluable platform for small businesses to showcase their products and services to the booming consumer market of Soweto as well as the growing number of companies aiming to broaden their supplier base to include black-owned businesses.

A comprehensive package of benefits has been assembled to enable small, medium and microenterprises (SMEs) to participate in this year’s festival. These include:

Exhibition stand plus design and decoration. Each SME will be given an exhibition space of up to 9m² plus subsidisation of the design and decoration of their stand.

 Marketing pack. A marketing pack consisting of business cards, note pads, pens, lead forms and a basic marketing flyer will be supplied to each participating SME.

 Seminar training programme. A series of seminars run by the Gordon Institute of Business Science will equip the SMEs with the fundamentals of business knowledge in the areas of marketing, finance, sales, product development and hiring the right people.

Mentorship programme. A mentorship programme is being developed with Business Partners.

“Sponsorship opportunities exist for companies that already work with SMEs to help them participate in the festival,” says Toby Chance of Adele Lucas Promotions, organisers of the festival.

“This is an ideal way for companies to gain enterprise development points on the trade and industry department’s BEE scorecard because it demonstrates real and lasting investment in the development of small businesses.”

The festival wants to contribute to the long- term development of Soweto’s economy and community.

Adele Lucas Promotions is working with the local economic development unit of the City of Johannesburg to select the participating SMEs.

The event, at Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, runs from September 22-25, to coincide with the long weekend for Heritage Day.

The festival draws together business, SMEs, youth, community organisations, consumers and other sectors of Soweto.

It will comprise an exhibition featuring 300 stands, four days of live entertainment, a fashion show, beauty pageant, sports events, a careers village and arts and crafts.

Any SMEs keen to participate contact Mzwandile Lumka at (011) 932 0268.