02 | AFRICA BRAND SUMMIT RATIONALE
A VIEW FROM THE VINEYARD HOTEL & SPA, THE 2020 AFRICA BRAND SUMMIT
AFRICA BRAND SUMMIT
THE CONCEPT
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aving successfully hosted the Brand Summit South Africa in Cape Town in May 2018, then in Sandton, South Africa, in June 2019, calls have continued to grow for the event’s thematic and strategic focus to move faster and address Africa’s broader image issues. Destination perception issues at country-level also reappear at continental level, at home and abroad, and inform attitudes about individual countries in Africa, regions, and the entire African continent.
African leaders must also work harder at creating an enabling environment for cross-country and regional trade; growth of the agrarian economy, seamless movement of goods and skills, as well as business friendly customs regimes where companies, especially established brands that work across various borders, do not get subjected to unnecessary red tape and, in some cases, bribe.
Ultimately, perceptions inform investor sentiments and attitudes. They can make or break any destination’s success in generating goodwill, which is the basis for positive engagements with the outside world. Individual countries in Africa and the continent at a broad level continue to fail using all of their resources and potential to benefit African economic development and to position the continent as net exporter of food crops, a magnet for key and rare global skills, a magnet for foreign tertiary students seeking quality higher education whose credentials are respected around the world, as well as a magnet for lucrative foreign exchange earning business in Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events.
In the minds of millions of people around the world, especially those who have never been to Africa, perceptions about Africa tend to be negative, on the whole. Immediate associations with Africa or being African, often stereotypically reference poverty, corruption, laziness, maladies, backwardness, archaic traditional systems and mores that stand in the way of modernity, etc. Such perceptions impede Africa’s full integration into the world economy on an equal footing, as a place of new knowledge creation and innovation beyond it being a mere source of natural resources. To date, the summit has managed to attract the participation of highly respected, ethical, and inspirational
PROJECT CONTEXT
AFRICA BRAND SUMMIT WAS CONCEPTUALISED/ESTABLISHED TO INITIATE, FACILITATE AND HOST FRANK, PAN-AFRICAN CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE CURRENT BRAND IMAGE OF AFRICA AND HOW IT IMPACTS PERCEPTIONS, GOODWILL AND, EVENTUALLY, SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.
