Recently, the Brand and Digital Research (BDR) Hub held its fourth symposium at the Cape Town Hotel School Restaurant. The event aimed to share its latest research findings.

Over 60 delegates attended the successful symposium, including representatives from various international and local universities, Marketing Department staff, industry partners, and other dignitaries from CPUT.

The symposium featured excellent presentations from guest speakers, including master’s students Ayabonga Mxunyelwa and Boitumelo Sephaka, Dr. Harlan Cloete (Chairperson: KC 107.7), Prof. Dr. Holger J. Schmidt (Koblenz University), Sven Wolf (Founder of Black Wolf Agency), Andiswa Mrasi (Manager of Strategic Initiatives), and Sithembile Ntombela (CEO of Brand South Africa).

The event also included a well-received panel discussion.

This symposium provided valuable networking opportunities for academics and industry partners while offering postgraduate students exposure to the industry and a platform to showcase their research.

The BDR Hub's mission is "to advance brand and digital marketing knowledge and skills in higher education and business through technology-led education, research, and innovation for the benefit of society." Currently, the Hub is engaged in 20 active and has completed 26 research projects related to brand management and digital interactive media. All research aligns with the sustainable development goal of fostering economic growth and international competitiveness.

Written by CPUT News
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CPUT recently welcomed members of its new council at a gala dinner at the Cape Town Hotel School Restaurant.

During the dinner Vice-Chancellor Dr Prins Nevhutalu presented the university’s profile, history and organogram as well as its strategic imperatives stressing that council’s role is integral in taking the university from good to great.

His plan includes boosting the current 17% of staff members with doctorates to around 30% in five years’ time. He also outlined the university’s seven Research Focus Areas and announced that five more research chairs have been approved by the previous council.

He said the university’s priorities for the future will be addressing academic challenges, improving the quality of service to staff and students as well as devising more focused fundraising initiatives.

NEW COUNCIL: Outgoing council chairman Mbulelo Bikwani with some members of the new council attended a welcoming dinner at the Cape Town Hotel School Restaurant  

He said the university should reduce its utility bill, student debt and student drop-out rates, but increase pass and throughput rates.

Registrar Nikile Ntsababa presented an overview of the university’s governance structures and explained their respective functions.

Ntsababa emphasized that the council is the highest decision-making body in the university, while the Senate is the highest decision-making body on academic issues and that the Institutional Forum advises council on issues affecting the institution.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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One of the most famous policemen in Cape Town was the guest of honour at the Cape Times Business Breakfast hosted at the Cape Town Hotel School Restaurant yesterday. 

While his crime-busting skills may be what he is most famous for these days, Major General Jeremy Veary was addressing the gathering in his capacity as a newly published author after his book Jeremy Vannie Elsies recently hit bookstands.

Written in Afrikaans, the biography chronicles his early years growing up in Elsies River where he morphed from a gangster to a Robben Island detainee and later a policeman in the Nelson Mandela detail.

Addressing the gathering, Veary says writing in Afrikaans was an obvious and authentic choice because it was the language of the people in that area at that time.

“My mother never spoke English unless she was absolutely forced to,” he says.

“To truly capture the essence of that time and place I had to write in Afrikaans.”

The book is expected to be translated into English at a later stage but Veary admits this will be a tough task.

“I do not envy the person who will have that task and I hope that the essence of the story will remain, even through translation,” he says.

The event was attended by a number of high-profile guests including Judge Siraj Desai, Cape Times editor Anees Salie and other anti-apartheid struggle stalwarts.

The Cape Times Business Breakfast is hosted in conjunction with the Cape Town Hotel School Restaurant on CPUT’s Granger Bay Campus and is the second in a series of five planned. The first speaker was Mayor Patricia De Lille.

Written by Lauren Kansley
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Patricia de Lille proved to be a hot ticket speaker at the first Cape Times Breakfast hosted at the Cape Town Hotel School Restaurant in Granger Bay.

A mix of Cape Times subscribers and editorial staff, media from various outlets and social justice groups gathered to listen to the politically embattled mayor talk about spatial transformation.

Introducing the mayor, Independent Newspapers Regional Marketing Manager Vernon Adams welcomed the Cape Town Hotel School into a new partnership. The Cape Town Hotel School forms part of CPUT’s Faculty of Business and Management Sciences’ portfolio.

Adams pointed out that the Cape Times Breakfast was notable not only because of the topics of discussion raised by speakers but also for the way the venue showed that Cape Town was a place of empowerment.

He drew everyone’s attention to the waiters who are all CPUT students: “It is an accomplished team,” said Adams.

Welcoming de Lille to the Granger Bay Campus Head of School: Sports Events Tourism and Hospitality Management Mandisa Silo said the mayor’s presence had brought a bit of excitement to the campus, “but we are used to that.”

“We prepare our students for greatness,” said Silo.

De Lille started off by alluding to her forthcoming court challenge to interdict the City from declaring a mayoral but she quickly shifted gears to first enumerate Cape Town’s achievements as a sought-after tourism destination and World Design Capital of 2014.

She spent the bulk of her time working through what changes would be wrought in 11 areas around the City according to the City’s Transit-Oriented Development Strategic Framework which dovetails with the national government’s Integrated Urban Development.

 “To correct the apartheid spatial planning we need to first acknowledge our history.

“The emphasis is now on building a more inclusive and equitable city,” said de Lille.

She called it an indictment on government leaders that we have not done more to reverse that planning over the past two decades but pointed out that this Strategy, adopted by City of Cape Town in 2016, will change how the city is oriented, creating growth and development opportunities around transport hubs.

 Once the Q&A session was opened things got heated with representatives of social justice organisations challenging de Lille on various issues around development of high density housing.

Adams eventually reluctantly had to call an end to the Cape Times Breakfast which by then was running over scheduled time.

*The Cape Times Breakfast will host four more events at the Cape Town Hotel School Restaurant.

Written by Theresa Smith
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