2 days to go until the hosting of the Africa Brand Summit

6 Oct 2020

Having successfully hosted the Brand Summit South Africa in Cape Town in May 2018, then in Sandton, South Africa, in June 2019, the event's organisers have responded to calls for the event's thematic and strategic reach to expand further into the Pan-African space. The 2020 Africa Brand Summit is their response to the calls.

After months of planning, it is finally time for the hybrid Africa Brand Summit to host its guests, with the face-to-face part being hosted at the Vineyard Hotel & Spa, Cape Town, South Africa, and others live-streaming from across Africa and the world. It will all happen on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October.

The event includes a Gala Awards Dinner that will be hosted on the evening of Wednesday, 7 October. Over the past month, an independent judges’ panel has gone through and adjudicated over 60 award nominations in 10 award categories and suggested a shortlist. The winners will be announced at the Gala Awards Dinner.

Due to the Coronavirus, the Africa Brand Summit 2020 was almost cancelled, but organisers decided to work with others, including willing sponsors, to push the boundaries and ensure that the important objective of initiating, facilitating, and hosting frank, pan-African conversations about the current image of Africa (continent’s brand image) does not get compromised. The ultimate aim of the summit is to eventually establish an Africa-based global destination image ‘research and advisory service’.

On Wednesday morning (07.10am) we kick off with our first session, The Food Value Chain Space, and speakers who are experts on the subject include Bennie Van Rooy, CEO: Grobank, who will share his insights and propose solutions for this important topic.

Following The Food Value Chain Space, the next session unpacks Social Justice, with speeches by Professor Thuli Madonsela and Dr Nardos Bekele-Thomas (Head of the UN in SA). Moderated by Dr Marlene Le Roux, CEO: ArtsCape, this session will include experts such as Bongiwe Mlangeni, CEO: Social Justice Institute of SA, Craig Kensely (Community Chest), Prof Catharina Schenk (University of the Western Cape), and Mandisa Kalako-Williams, a Community Development Consultant.

If Social Justice does not interest you perhaps the session on Country/Continental Communication of global crises: The case of Covid-19, will. The two sessions will run simultaneously and, as with all our sessions, there is a stellar lineup of speakers, including Dr Owens Laws Kaluwa World Health Organisation, moderated by Regine Le Roux (Reputation Matters) and Victor Sibeko (CEO: PRISA).

The final session of the day, from 2pm-3.14pm, focuses on the Role of the Media in Shaping Perceptions About Africa. Speakers on the topic include industry experts Gugu Ntuli, SABC’s Group, Executive: Corporate Affairs & Marketing, Busisiwe Ntuli (Radio TransAfrica), Maurice Mate (Channel Afrca), and Tola Babalola (Nigeria Media Expert). It will be moderated by well-known media personality and Founder of Champion South Africa, Ashraf Garda.

The evening of Wednesday, 7 October, sees the official opening of the Africa Brand Summit and the hosting of the Gala Awards Dinner, co-hosted with Total South Africa whose MD & CEO, Maria Kane-Garcia, together with other executives, will speak and hand over the awards to the winners or their representatives. Other supporters of the Gala Awards Dinner are Distell and Zari.

Thursday, 8 October, starts off with a discussion around The State of South African Cities, Moderator: Phumlani Majozi, Senior Fellow at African Liberty, will ensure a fascinating questions and answers from speakers and guests.

The second session of the day, Growing Africa's share of the Global MICE Market, includes leaders such as Sisa Ntshona , CEO: SA Tourism, Mr Cuthbert Ncube; Executive Chairman, African Tourism Board and Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO: Tourism Business Council of South Africa. Moderator Rashid Toefy, DG: Western Cape Department of Economic Opportunities, will facilitate this discussion whose aim is to find ways for African destinations to attract a bigger share of the lucrative global MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events) market.

The parallel discussion African Business Must Play Its Part, is moderated by well-known Global Speaker and Venture Investor, Vusi Thembekwayo, with well-known industry spokespeople such as Busisiwe Mavuso (CEO: Business Leadership South Africa), Hanan Morsy (African Development Bank), Shiv Vikram Khemka (SUN group), Terry Booysen (CGF Research Institute), Gàbor Hegyi (Capital Communications), and Saul Molobi (BrandHilla Africa).

Registration link: https://app.glueup.com/event/25231/register/

Livestreaming links will be loaded on this page: https://africabrandsummit.co/hybrid-summit-livestream/

This annual event would not have come as far as it has without the support of partners in business, government, civil society, academia, local and international sector and professional bodies, media, and other sectors of society, who have all been valuable co-creators.