Bogotá and #ThePowerOfPeople

During the past few years, Latin America has identified that harnessing the dynamics and impacts generated by the business events industry is a powerful strategy that contributes to the social, cultural and economic development for destinations.

During the past few years, Latin America has identified that harnessing the dynamics and impacts generated by the business events industry is a powerful strategy that contributes to the social, cultural and economic development for destinations.

Here in Colombia for instance, the arrival of a single event in a city immediately activates at least 11 sectors of the supply chain: air and land transformation; accommodation; food and drink; commerce; technology; logistics and assembly; audiovisual; translation; and tourism, amongst others.

This collective impact made us realise that our industry could help our country, so we took the opportunity to increase dialogue with key decision makers. Our goal was to demonstrate that events deliver a tangible and meaningful impact to hosts regardless of the association’s industry and that we could leverage that to the benefit our cities.

In the case of Bogotá, we decided to undertake a campaign to raise public awareness of the industry, while identifying that often, the most wonderful things in history have happened when people come together. We know that we work in an industry that brings people together, so we could use that power to stimulate and encourage the transformations that we would like to see in our own country.

So, the real question isn´t ‘what is the power of people?’. The real question is ‘why the power of people?’.

And the answer is quite simple. Events are a common point where people connect over common goals and pull together over shared purposes. We work in an industry that gathers people and has the power to transform lives; deliver lasting legacies and build cultural bridges. At the Global Forum we’ll explore this thought, highlighting the numerous inspiring individuals who are working to better the industry.  We strongly believe that we shouldn’t delegate our responsibility as citizens to anyone else, because every person has the power to make their own dreams come true. We know that just one person can make a fundamental difference to shape the future. It’s this inspiration we’ll be exploring in Bogotá.  The events industry is a vehicle to achieve wider and bigger impacts and Best Cities as an alliance want to highlight the true power of the people within it. Individually each member city is a global player, but collectively we can achieve even greater things.

We look forward to seeing you in December!

For more information on BestCities Global Forum please click here.