Brand Summit SA set to take place in June

Brand Summit South Africa successfully inaugurated in Cape Town in May 2018, and now partnered with the City of Johannesburg, as host city, for the next three years until 2021, has the pleasure of announcing additional professional partnerships with the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA) and City Nation Place Ltd.

The other professional partner, on a global level, is The Davos, Switzerland, based at the World Communication Forum (https://www.wcfaglobal.com/founders-executives-vp-ambassadors) whose founder and president, Yanina Dubeykovskaya, attended and spoke at the 2018 Brand Summit South Africa event.

The 2019 Brand Summit South Africa event will be hosted at The Forum, in Bryanston, on June 6 and 7.

The inaugural event was opened by South Africa’s Chief Justice, Mogoeng Mogoeng, who delivered a resounding keynote address anchored on the spirit of and values enshrined in the preamble to South Africa’s Constitution.

He had local and international delegates, including media, glued to their seats devouring every word he uttered.

His entire address served as a good basis to start conversations about the potential that still resides in the country South Africa could still be, if led and managed properly.

Gary Leih, a highly respected brand specialist and founder of Leih’s Truth and Propaganda, delivered a paper on the importance of country branding.

Other speakers at the inaugural summit were Prof Thuli Madonsela (former public protector of South Africa), Bonang Mohale (CEO of Business Leadership South Africa), Kganki Matabane (CEO of the Black Business Council), Mteto Nyati (CEO of Altron), Simon Sussman (chairperson of Woolworths Holdings), Themba Maseko (former CEO of the GCIS), Neeshan Bolton (executive director of the Achmat Kathrada Foundation), and other prominent leaders in corporate South Africa, media, politics, education, sports, community development, social justice, etc.

Delegates came from as far afield as Nigeria, Ghana, France, Ethiopia, Namibia, Kenya, Russia, and Switzerland, with others sending video recorded messages from Beijing, New Delhi, Budapest, Moscow, etc.

Unable to travel to Cape Town on the summit days due to last minute health matters, Mavuso Msimang, respected ANC veteran and chairperson of Corruption Watch, also sent a supportive video which was screened to summit delegates.

“The partnership with PRISA (www.prisa.co.za) and City Nation Place Ltd (www.citynationplace.com) is a natural one for this event,” said Solly Moeng, summit convenor.

“Much of the content of the summit’s programme revolves around issues of country brand/destination reputation management, which includes public relations and communication management, stakeholder engagement, reputation management, destination marketing strategies best practice, etc.

“Professionals in all these areas of activity have a lot to contribute and to learn from the planned discussions.”

Speaking on behalf of PRISA, executive director Victor Sibeko said, “For us, Brand Summit South Africa will provide an ideal opportunity for our members to move from theory to discussing a real, evolving brand, a country brand.

“Public relations and communication management professionals, who make up the core of our membership, often get called upon/commissioned to help brands engage their stakeholders through effective strategic communication.

“Such calls for interventions increasingly use complex communication tools and platforms; they also have to show measurable outcomes.

“A discussion on South Africa, the country brand, is very close to our hearts and will be exciting to analyse from various touch points.”

City Nation Place Ltd creates forums around the world for sharing expertise to promote best practice in place branding and place marketing strategy.

Bringing together national government teams, city marketing boards, mayoral teams, destination marketing organisations, and investment promotion boards, City Nation Place forums have become the go-to events to learn how to develop and implement a collaborative vision of the brand strengths and ambitions of a country, city, region or place, to drive economic development.

The annual City Nation Place Awards also benchmark and celebrate innovative and effective place brand strategy and place marketing campaigns.

“City Nation Place is delighted to be partnering with the South Africa Brand Summit.

“It’s our mission to help places around the world develop a more cohesive and collaborative approach to place brand strategy and the South Africa Brand Summit contributes to this – bringing together government and the private sector to share ideas for the positive development of South Africa, the country brand, on the world stage,” said Clare Dewhirst on behalf of her organisation.

Absent from the 2018 summit, now introduced into the 2019 programme, will be a brand-new discussion panel consisting of “Leaders of the Future”, dynamic speakers under the age of 35 who will share their views about and expectations of South Africa, the country brand, in the context of fast-evolving domestic, regional, continental and global dynamics.

Particularly interesting will be a discussion about what they understand by the “fourth industrial revolution” and how they think South Africa should best prepare for it.

In addition to an expected bigger African and global delegation, the 2019 keynote address will be delivered by the much-respected Kenyan, Prof Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba, associate professor of public law and founding dean of Kabarak University School of Law, Kenya.

Sisa Ntshona, CEO of SA Tourism, will also speak at the 2019 summit.

For more information and to register as a delegate or nominate a South African brand for the awards, go to www.sabrandsummit.co.za.

You can also email to info@sabrandsummit.co.za or call 021 671 4356.

Follow Brand Summit South Africa on social media: Twitter: @BrandSummitSA and Facebook: BrandSummitandAwardsSA.