Summit activities will begin with dedicated media and delegate tours on Tuesday, 2nd June, followed by a series of themed Master Classes on Wednesday, 3rd June, and culminate in the two-day core Brand Summit Africa on Thursday 4th and Friday 5th June at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The 2020 event will expand its reach beyond South African borders and assess reputational risk for cities, regions, countries, and the African continent. It will all be done with the purpose of understanding things that inform perceptions about Africa and finding solutions to reduce and mitigate destination reputational risk.
All of this will be done under the slogan of “recapturing the South African narrative and interrogating Africa’s brand potential”. South Africa is specifically mentioned because it is the host country. This will change over time when different African cities/countries win the bid to host this regional summit.
Last year welcomed the attendance and participation of the UN Program for African Economic Development - In 2020, the whole United Nations System in Africa will be represented at the summit, with UN Resident Coordinators in South Africa and Burkina Faso, respectively, Nardos Bekele-Thomas and Metsi Makhetha, speaking at the summit.
The speaker and panellist line-up include:
Keynote speaker, Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba, is excited to open proceedings, commenting: "I look forward to joining great minds as we strive to redefine Africa and set her on the path of transformative economic growth."
Set to present on the food value chain space; why it matters, its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, CEO of Grobank, Bennie van Rooy, says: “Food security across the continent will remain a critical issue for current and future generations. We have to develop strategies to turn this continent from the current net importer into a net exporter of food commodities. In order to achieve this, we need to develop and strengthen strong partnerships between the public sector, commercial agriculture, development finance institutions, smallholders and subsistence farmers. Grobank trusts that its activities will contribute to the global effort to achieve SDG 2 – Zero Hunger. We look forward to exploring these key issues further during the various events that are part of the summit.”
Nardos Bekele-Thomas, the UN’s Resident Coordinator in South Africa, will talk about why a healthy social justice is important for socio economic and political stability and, ultimately, the country’s image, as well as the importance of sustainable development goals. Bekele-Thomas is looking forward to taking part in the series of thematic discussions to analyse the link between perceptions about Africa and ‘being African’, on one hand and, on the other hand, holistically developing the Africa we aspire to be part of.
“I am particularly delighted that social justice will surface as the subject for discussion, as it is tightly linked to what must be done for Africa to realize the Sustainable Development Goals. Without social justice no citizens of any country can be happy, positive, productive and constructive contributors to their nations’ development. Happy citizens make happy societies and prosperous nations,” says Bekele-Thomas.
Delegates will arrive and register for the summit on Monday, 1 June, after which they will be taken on two full-day thematic tours on Tuesday, 2 June; one exclusively for the media and the other one for general delegates. On Wednesday, 3 June, there will be a selection of masterclasses to attend, with topics such as country communication, reputation management, Women Influence Community Forum Global, Education, and artificial intelligence in the African context.
Day one of the core summit, 4 June, will look at key aspects needed to understand and shape Africa brand perceptions; looking at the role of PR, destination brands and the impact of perceptions on destinations, day-to-day practicalities and challenges, an overview of corporate SA and how it can/should be transformed, and the political landscape.
The awards ceremony will take place on Thursday evening.
Day two of the core summit and the last day of the 2020 Brand Summit Africa Week, 5 June, will focus on the food value chain, social justice, the importance of education and its development, the Global Benchmark and how MICE events can be used to enhance the African brand, and how tourism and business tourism can be encouraged.
“We have a full programme with truly powerful global influencers in various fields, in 2020. We have all intentions to produce another summit report with firm recommendations that will be shared with decision-makers across Africa, particularly the African Union, that we hope will help instigate for constructive change in the way we do things,” said Solly Moeng, Founder and Convenor of the brand summit.
