Who owns Gateway for Business?
Gateway for Business is owned and run by Executive Conference Events (ECE), a Johannesburg-based event consulting and management company established in 2022 and working across more than 30 African countries. It is ECE’s first owned platform: a 12-year programme from 2027 to 2038, with a year-round programme and an annual summit in Gauteng.
The big idea
One gateway into the business ecosystem
South Africa has thousands of organisations supporting business: banks, funders, corporates and their procurement teams, government programmes, universities, technology providers, advisers, incubators and mentors.
The problem is usually not that support doesn’t exist. It is that people don’t know what they need, where to find it, whether they qualify, what stage they are really at, or what their next step should be.
Gateway for Business is one place to find the knowledge, people, tools and opportunities to take your next step.
What changes
Five outcomes for every participant
Clarity
Understand where you are and what you need next.
Capability
Gain practical knowledge, skills, tools and confidence.
Connection
Meet people who can help you progress.
Access
Find buyers, markets, finance pathways, technology and expertise.
Action
Leave with a realistic plan and measurable next steps.
Why 12 years
Annual events reset every year. Businesses don’t.
Twelve years is long enough to follow participants across several stages, build a substantial knowledge archive and show measurable economic impact, and short enough to be credible. Four chapters of three years let a business that enters at Discover reach Scale, with each summit a milestone on the way.
Gateway for Business doesn’t tell people who can’t find a job to “just start a business”. It counts it as success when someone finds work, a skill or a network along the way.
Source: Statistics South Africa, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Q2 2026 and South Africa’s Youth and the Labour Market, Q1 2026.
2027–2038
The 12-year roadmap
Four permanent tracks, twelve annual themes, four three-year chapters. Each chapter ends with an independent evaluation.
Foundations: prove it 2027–2029
Economic participation, starting and establishing businesses. Build the model, the community and the content engine; set the research baseline. Themes: Opportunity, Customers, Money.
Growth: grow it 2030–2032
Productivity, people, systems and technology. Add Cape Town and Durban; deepen corporate and procurement programmes.
Scale: embed it 2033–2035
Procurement, capital, exports and expansion. Provincial reach and African market connections.
Legacy and continuity: lead it 2036–2038
Resilience, enterprise value, succession and the next generation. A recognised South African platform with a lasting archive and community.
Research and knowledge
Every year adds to what we know
Each cycle produces permanent knowledge that members, partners and the next cohort can use.
The South African Business Growth Report
Launched at each summit and built from participant data: finance, customers, technology and AI, hiring, procurement and barriers to growth. Published as aggregated data only.
The Annual Playbook
The year in one practical guide: research, the best webinar content, case studies, tools and recommended actions, organised by track.
The Knowledge Library
Recordings, guides, templates, checklists and calculators, organised by track rather than by year, so you can find “help with pricing” when you need it.
Gateway for Business 100
From 2029, one hundred participating businesses showing growth, job creation, procurement success or resilience become case studies, mentors and speakers.
About ECE
Built on what ECE already does
Executive Conference Events has worked in conferences, exhibitions, hosted buyer programmes and B2B matchmaking since 2016, for organisers including Clarion Events, DMG Events, Siyenza Events and Spintelligent.
Who you’ll work with
The team
Didi Liebenberg
Founder and Managing Director, Executive Conference Events. Leads Gateway for Business: strategy, programme, partners and funders.
Yvette van Niekerk
Operations and Partner Delivery Lead. Venue, Marketplace and summit operations, and making sure every partner receives what they signed for.
Partnership team
One named contact for each partner, from the first conversation to the Annual Impact & Progress Report.
Be part of the founding year
Register your interest and we’ll tell you first when the Gateway Growth Assessment, membership and summit tickets open.