The event was an initiative to offer businesses a range of opportunities to enhance local and international connections
The 12th Asia Pacific Cities Summit (2019 APCS) and Mayors’ Forum was held in Brisbane from July 7-10. This was the region’s premier event that brought together the largest number of city leaders and industry influencers. The Summit focused on the main theme ‘Driving Cities through Business and Innovation’. The 2019 APCS program featured internationally renowned speakers who spoke on a variety of sub-themes such as innovation of cities, mobility of cities, livability of cities and sustainability of cities.
The previous Brisbane APCS, held in 2015, attracted more than 1300 delegates from 135 cities, including 93 Mayors, representing a market of more than 134 million people. This Summit also enabled more than 300 business leads and more than 100 targeted meetings in two days. Attending mayors and city leaders at the APCS presented a significant market opportunity for businesses and industries.
Among the keynote speakers at the 2019 APCS were Netflix Co-Founder Marc Randolph, former Chief Scientist for Amazon Dr Andreas Weigend, and Chairperson of Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE), Peggy Liu.
While Marc Randolph addressed the issue of how cities can adopt current best practices to ensure they are bringing innovation to every part of their organization, Dr Weigend shared his expertise and knowledge of big data, consumer behaviours and social-mobile technologies with the delegates at the 2019APCS. Peggy Liu shared with the audience her latest thoughts on sustainable urbanisation to drive resilient and healthy cities.
The 2019APCS was an initiative to offer businesses a range of opportunities to enhance local and international connections, made easier with the 2019 APCS Exclusive App.
Businesses were also given the opportunity to participate in the Meet@APCS Business Program, a dedicated business introductions program, enabling delegates to pre-arrange meetings with other delegates, including local government representatives, potential partners, investors, clients and suppliers.
For the first time, this year’s APCS offered the attending delegates the first look at Major Project Announcement Briefings with presentations from city leaders, chief procurement officers and local government representatives, regarding upcoming major projects, commercial tenders, procurement activities and partnership opportunities with cities across the Asia Pacific region.
The delegates heard first-hand about the latest tender opportunities in local governments in Australia and internationally. Each briefing consisted of 3-4 speakers (Mayor/Chief Procurement Officer/or city representative) from different cities sharing a major project announcement that is a tangible commercial opportunity, requiring private sector involvement.
The 2019APCS also delivered Innovation Alley, which was a dedicated exhibition space for entrepreneurs, start-ups and new business to showcase how innovative technologies could enhance cities’ liveability, mobility, and sustainability. It was an opportunity for start-ups, technologists, and entrepreneurs to showcase their newly found ventures on a global scale to more than 1,000 city leaders, policymakers, potential investors and partners.