Planning for success for a Leaders’ Summit

Peter Docwra Co-Founder, Executive Events Solutions

Leaders’ Summits are complex events for any country to organize. Whenever the world’s most powerful leaders are brought together for a G7, G20 or UNFCC Council of the Parties (COP) you will find a sharp and focused network of individuals operating behind the scenes to ensure a smooth process for all attendees.

The logistics for any leaders’ summit is vast and require a specific set of skills to safeguard privacy, satisfy protocol requirements and ensure the utmost level of security.

Months, if not years, of effort precedes any meeting of world leaders to shape the agenda and organize the logistics. Experience has shown that the real challenge for event organizers is create a comfortable environment where leaders and their delegations are not distracted by technical problems or poor logistics. That way leaders can focus on shaping global policies and have robust discussions on topics like climate change and pandemic recovery.

The bottom line is that success for a leaders’ summit requires meticulous planning. A successful meeting of world leaders requires military-level precision and a strategic savvy of the political and cultural landscape. Events that bring together world leaders are also characterized by a higher level of scheduling, protocol, security, and contingency planning than other major events. For summits involving world leaders, you often only get one chance to get it right.

But despite best efforts, things do go wrong. Longer than expected meetings, failing to reach consensus, greater interest in how domestic audiences will interpret the meeting outcomes, pandemics, natural disasters, inclement weather and of course logistics or technical problems during the meeting are just some of the scenarios organizers will face.

The current crisis with Russia and Ukraine is a case in point, which will undoubtedly add to the demands on policy and logistics organizers of the G7, EU, G20 and APEC. Programs and agendas will need to be adjusted to provide time for leaders to debate the crisis, delegations will be asking for numerous bilateral and side meetings and a sizeable media presence will also be seeking access to leaders and their delegations. It is a safe assumption that any country organizing a leaders’ summit will need to deal with planning knowns and unknowns from the outset. Experience has shown that the following points will help deliver a successful summit.

• Start the planning as early as possible For any gathering of leaders planning should commence at least three years prior to start. This allows adequate time to undertake detailed logistics planning, develop the events schedule, select venues, recruit and develop a dedicated workforce, select commercial vendors and develop contingency plans. Once the presidency year starts, you have little capacity and time to undertake the level of planning expected for an international event.

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Select the city and venue early

One of the most important early decisions for organizers is the location of the summit. The decision is often balanced between the desire to show case a city or region, the capacity of a city to accommodate thousands of additional guests, the security environment and practicalities of travelling to the city or region. There is no right or wrong answer to selecting a venue. Mapping out every step of the journey from arriving at an airport to travelling to hotels then to the venue will generally help in making the best decision on location.

• Simplify governance arrangements

The planning and execution of multilateral forums is a complex undertaking for any country involving many governments, non-government, international and commercial stakeholders. Minimize the number of committees and working groups and establish clear roles and decision-making arrangements.

• Recognize the dependency between policy and logistics

The reason that leaders come together for summits is to consider and progress global policies. The logistics is the enabler. Policy is the content. Planning between the policy and logistics teams must be a unified effort. Almost every policy planning consideration will have a logistics implication.

• Invest in quality and proven technology

The key technologies needed to support a successful presidency are a capable registration and accreditation system, a proven virtual platform and simultaneous interpretation. Credible and cost-effective solutions exist. Take the time to evaluate what is available and lock in the necessary technical support as early as possible. It is worth remembering that these systems will be the ‘front face’ of events during the year.

• Build and retain the workforce

Select key senior staff with established event management experience who can plan and deliver in a highly demanding and changing environment. These events are more challenging and complex than run-of-the mill projects, so your planning team isn’t just a project management office. Consider incentives to keep the workforce for the entire presidency. Losing staff equates to a loss of corporate knowledge that cannot be quickly replaced.

• Be agile

Events are different than normal government or project work. Decision making needs to be more agile for processes including procurement, issues resolution and media management. Implement processes to change logistics arrangements based on feedback and lessons learnt from other similar events throughout the year.

• Capture lessons learnt

As with any events there will be lessons for future hosts. Commit resources to capturing what worked well and what needs to be improved. Leaders’ summits are unique activities and any insights for future hosts will be well received.

A last point: leaders’ summit are usually short events – less than thirty hours in most cases. To maximize the time that leaders are together always design the presidency year starting with leaders’ summit and working backwards. For example, a desire for a more intimate and less formal leaders’ summit will help officials and ministers shape their work throughout the year. The timing of the summit will also help officials schedule their work accordingly. ■