Events Director, Zoe Jones, considers the success of the fourth Global Soft Power Summit.
Brand Finance hosted the fourth annual Global Soft Power Summit on Thursday, 2nd March 2023 at the Queen Elizabeth Centre in Westminster, London and streamed live online, in partnership with BBC Studios, highlighting the significance of soft power through the Global Soft Power Index report.
The full-day programme, managed by the Brand Dialogue team, featured a high-profile lineup of 37 speakers, including The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as keynote speaker, H.E. Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and a special address by Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine.
This Summit attracted 1,500 registrations, with nearly 500 guests attending the event in person at the QEII Centre, and over 800 tuning into the online stream.
The Summit featured a number of focused workshops, hosted by several Brand Finance representatives, as well as external partners, including Middlesex University and the British Council, and sponsored workshops delivered by Brand South Africa and BBC Studios.
In addition to the main conference programme, the designated catering area provided delegates with ample opportunity for networking and allowed for a selection of exhibition stands hosted by our various prestigious partners, including the Foreign Press Association, the Italian Trade Agency, Middlesex University, Corrs Westgarth Lawyers, and Brand South Africa – as well as a Global Soft Power Index dashboard demonstration stand.
At 160 pages, the Global Soft Power Index 2023 report is more comprehensive than any of its previous iterations, featuring invaluable insights, by the Brand Finance place branding team, opinion articles by the Brand Finance international network, client interviews, and contributed articles by speakers and academics.
The Brand Dialogue communications team secured coverage from prominent media outlets that re-streamed the Summit live namely, Reuters, Associated Press, Press Association, CNN, Sky News and The Guardian. Securing the strongest media coverage, the summit has ever seen, which includes Boris Johnson’s keynote speech as well as a deep dive into the Index findings.
David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance commented “This year’s Global Soft Power Summit is the biggest we’ve ever had! We’ve had a great variety of discussions relating to the different pillars of soft power, but I have to say the high point of the day was hearing from Boris Johnson – his speech was extremely interesting as part of the debate about whether Brexit is now fixed.”
Following the success of the 2023 Global Soft Power Summit, Brand Finance has confirmed the launch date of its fifth iteration of the Index, which will take place on Thursday, 29th February 2024 at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre.
For more information about events at Brand Dialogue and Brand Finance, please email events@brandfinance.com or for more information on the Global Soft Power Index 2023 follow this link: https://brandirectory.com/softpower/
This was a tremendous team effort. Well done Zoe, Konrad and everyone involved - this event was truly global in every sense.