The Convention was hosted in Windhoek, Namibia, and ran from 16 to 27 September 2013. Approximately 3 000 delegates attended, representing 195 parties from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), UN organisations, inter-governmental and civil society organisations.
As with the South African Climate Change Response Expo held alongside COP17 in Durban at the end of 2011, Scan Display provided the infrastructure for the event in an environmentally-responsible manner. For example, the meeting room walls were constructed with a sound-dampening, eco-friendly board. The board is made from widely available minerals which are manufactured in a low energy manner to create a material that is fully recyclable.
The board was held in place with a structure made from aluminium extrusion. Both the extrusion and the ceiling board are re-usable and modular - and their modular design makes reuse very easy and more likely.
LED lighting was used to minimise the energy footprint of the meeting rooms.
Only two truckloads of stock were taken from Scan Display's head office in Johannesburg to Windhoek. The rest of the infrastructure, together with half the labour needed for the event and a number of other service providers such as electricians, was sourced locally in Namibia.
Martin Macphail, the UNCCD COP11 Event Director, says: "Scan Display was one of the service providers who made it possible to build a temporary conference centre to host the UNCCD COP11 event. Nothing was too much trouble for the Project Manager, Aiden Koen, and his team, even with a lot of last minute requests coming through."
