The 2019 Brand Summit South Africa opens its doors

Over and above South African delegates to the summit, others have arrived from as far afield as Russia, Ukraine, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Benin, Rwanda, and the USA; several others will electronically add their voices from places like India, Hungary, Bulgaria, Egypt, etc.

Discussions will look at how South Africa’s evolving country image gets shaped by developments in politics, the economy, civil society, education, health, sports, etc., and how such developments shape country perceptions as seen from here, at home, first of all, as well as from the rest of the African continent and other parts of the world. At the core of these conversations will be the drive to understand the crucial, yet often neglected, link between South Africa’s broad economic performance and perceptions by investors, tourists, fee-paying foreign students, funders of high-level and lucrative multilateral projects in scientific research and other areas.

The summit also comprises an awards evening during which positive country image influencers (corporates, individuals, NGOs, SMMEs, Start-Ups, etc.) will be celebrated.

About the Brand Summit South Africa

The annual Brand Summit South Africa is a “think tank” on positioning options and requirements for country brands, with South Africa at the centre of our deliberations. It explores ways in which South Africa can best position itself to compete favourably against its regional and global peers for FDI, (Business) Tourism, lucrative multilaterally funded Research Projects, fee-paying foreign tertiary students, consideration to serve as a preferred regional base for global corporations and other organisations that bring foreign exchange, skills, expertise, etc.

The Brand Summit offers a non-governmental, politically unaligned and unscripted platform for participants (South African, other Africans, and people from other parts of the world) to analyse the evolving image of South Africa. Our aim is to facilitate open, frank, but constructive discussions about what is working, what is not working, and what has to be done in order to improve the global appeal of South Africa. We believe that the country and the continent’s domestic and global appeal and, eventually, economic performance, are tightly influenced by image, reputation, economic and political policy stability, as well as performance in areas such as health systems, education systems, sports, other social services, etc.

Over the next few years, the Brand Summit South Africa will be merged with the more Pan-African Africa Brand Summit that will be incubated in South Africa before being opened-up to ‘host city’ bids from around the African continent