Concordia’s most radically inclusive Summit to date

October 17, 2017

“The world’s never needed conversations like these more,” concluded Matthew A. Swift and Nicholas M. Logothetis, Concordia Co-Founders, at the 2017 Concordia Annual Summit.

Concordia’s seventh Annual Summit, held on September 18^th and 19^th at the Grand Hyatt New York, was the largest nonpartisan forum on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, bringing together over 2,600 of the world’s preeminent thought leaders, influencers, and decision-makers from across all sectors and levels. The goal: to spark dialogue and fuel debate around today’s most pressing global challenges, and to build lasting cross-sector partnerships.

Today, Concordia releases its 2017 Annual Summit Report. The report features summaries of all Plenary and Strategic Dialogue sessions, including key takeaways and quotes, as well as highlighting overall figures for attendees, speakers, press, and more.

As outlined in the report, Concordia continues to build from the Summit, proactively working to advance these issues by incubating tangible partnerships that have long-term social impact. As Matthew Swift commented, “There’s a lot more to Concordia than just what’s talked about in these rooms. It’s what we do from here – it’s what we do with the knowledge, what we’ve learned from these sessions and these speakers, and it’s what we take from this.” The organization’s Social Impact and Strategic Engagement teams are identifying points of contact and facilitating one-on-one introductions between individuals and organizations across the private, public and nonprofit sectors who share goals and bring complementary assets to the table, be it insight, resources, influence, or skills.

Through action-oriented programming, the Summit focused on the power of partnerships in advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), implemented in January 2016 to guide international progress towards achieving lasting, long-term solutions to the biggest challenges facing the world today. Opening the Summit, Nicholas M. Logothetis, Concordia’s Co-Founder & Chairman of the Board, commented: “I believe that today we have a unique opportunity to change the world in our own small way. If not now, then when? If not us, then who?”

Some of the main outcomes from the Summit, as highlighted in the report, include:

An announcement of a new partnership between Mastercard and PEPFAR to control the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
An announcement of an expanded partnership between the International Fund for Agriculture (IFAD) and Mars to increase smallholder farmer incomes and create thriving rural communities in the Mars supply chain globally.
An announcement of the joint estimate by the International Labor Organization and Global Slavery Index during the Plenary Session ‘Turning the Tide: Harnessing Partnerships Against Modern Day Slavery’ in partnership with Walk Free Foundation: on any given day in 2016, 40.3 million people were in modern slavery.
An announcement by the government of Ghana of its intention to pass a Right to Information Bill to improve transparency in the country, during the Plenary Session ‘Toward a New Trust: Serving Public Interests through Transparency and Integrity,’ in partnership with The B Team.
Following the Strategic Dialogue on ‘Food Policy and Our Future,’ Concordia will be submitting a letter to US Congress highlighting specific recommendations for consideration in discussions on the Farm Bill.

Alongside these sessions, and many more, the Summit featured two separate Days of Engagement, where Concordia invited attendees and Members to learn about successful partnerships through action. At the Summit itself, attendees created 1,000 first aid kits for Americares to deploy in its hurricane response efforts. The kits have already been sent to Houston for distribution to victims. The day after the Summit, Members led a Job Readiness Workshop at the Fortune Society, conducting mock interviews for formerly incarcerated individuals as they prepare to re-enter the workforce.

To read the Summit Report and to learn more about Concordia, please visit https://www.concordia.net/newsroom/blog/2017-concordia-annual-summit-report.

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