Navigating the global agenda: maximise your use of multilateral platforms

Last week we hosted two roundtables focused on how organisations can leverage global events in their public affairs and strategic communications approaches. Here are the main learnings.

More and more conferences and events

COP16, on biodiversity, concluded last week, and international stakeholders are now gearing up for the climate change COP in Baku, which starts later this month. And that’s on top of the United Nations General Assembly, many other Conferences of Parties, G20, G7, the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, the Munich Security Forum, Climate Weeks, OECD and World Bank core events, thematic forums of Intergovernmental Organisations. The landscape is rich, perhaps too rich?

Is it practical or viable to participate in a global conference or forum every week? Some organisations do. However, the proliferation makes it harder and harder to justify the value of both the time and monetary investment.

No cookie cutter or “be seen” approach works

There is no universal strategy to approach these global agenda events. They can be great vehicles of advocacy, or grand money-wasters. Also, they are not all made alike, and things change.

The sheer level of conflict in this decade, for example, means an event like the Munich Security Conference is now much higher up the priority list than it was even a few years ago, with the disruption of global value chains making security a major issue.

“COP” is often just associated with the climate change Conference of Parties (COP29 this year). However, there are other smaller and more focused COPs, and emerging gatherings which might be relevant for your organisation. And established policy gatherings, such as United Nations General Assembly or World Health Assembly, are growing outside civil society and the standard corporate programme. In some cases, one event runs in parallel or very close to, another event, such as New York Climate Week, which is during the UNGA.

Navigating complexity: Key factors to success

1. Follow the themes of the events. Your messaging and communications should link with the event’s theme and core discussion. “Free riding” on high profile events is extremely difficult as the organisers are skilled in ensuring narrative consistency.
2. Decide where to put your effort. There is a certain level of greedflation around the global gatherings with costs of everything, from space rental and accommodation to auxiliary expenses growing exponentially. Also, a growing number of events forces focus in terms of time and effort.
3. Work on one global agenda for advocacy and impact. Many organisations try to work with strategies with multiple owners for multiple global gatherings. At best this approach brings duplication, at worse lack of consistency and conflicting narratives, which only confuses your audiences.
4. Align business imperatives with communication approaches. Global events are a great place to manage the invisible: nurturing relationships that matter and forging partnerships that last. Therefore, it is critical attending these events is not simply seen as a communications exercise, but it is truly integrated in strategic business planning.
5. Build synergies between various engagements. By aligning efforts, we can build consistent multi-touchpoint strategies which allow us to take our stakeholders through the funnel of influence and strengthening strategic approaches.

The final success factor is being ready and well prepared. The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos remains the event of events in the corporate and civil society agenda. And now is the time to get ready for January 2025.