ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE “The front end is amazing, it's visual, it's on-brand, and it creates the right experience of the objectives of the meeting. But the back end is where the magic is,” says Kevin Jackson. “The way we collect data, the preregistration and the delegate communication mean the avatars aren't just robots, we're giving them personalities as well; history, interests, social media profiles and objectives. “Without this, we've just got a lot of pretty robots walking around a gorgeous room. With it, we have engagement and a personal experience.” This additional layer of information will be of massive importance with the World Indigenous Forum, which has the added complexity of attracting delegates from over 90 countries and as many different languages. The conference programme, which included over 30 speakers from 15 different countries, was simultaneously translated into English and Spanish. The forum also gathered a “Council of 90” leaders from those countries with recognised indigenous communities, in the run-up to the event. The meeting will be the first to convene representatives from every culture and created a manifesto for the global indigenous community around economic development, indigenous rights, land rights and climate. Finally, and most importantly, the World Indigenous Forum brought together thousands of <strong>meetings</strong> between indigenous businesses and entrepreneurs and investors interested in impact investment, ethical business and reinvestment models. The meeting was also attended by prominent indigenous leaders and trailblazers as well as renowned figures of the business community, all interested in the economic regeneration of the indigenous world. “We are often seen as incapable of representing ourselves or having “The world's indigenous communities are owners of highly innovative businesses” self-agency. Coming from stagnant cultures, the world's indigenous communities are owners of highly innovative businesses and are astute entrepreneurs; culturally and consciously rich, ethical and with a deep understanding of the finite balance between nature and productivity. We have high standards for investment and expect dignity to be placed foremost,” says Tamara Lakomy, Chairwoman, World Indigenous Forum. “The role of the forum is to facilitate open discussions that allow western and indigenous businesses to better understand the amazing economic potential of forging alliances and cutting out middlemen.” While the main objectives of the forum are to create a marketplace for investment, the place of sustainable and ethical investment will be front and centre from a content point of view. Indigenous people are crucial to the growing efforts by consumers, businesses and governments in reducing C02 in the atmosphere, and with ethical investment a key part of the forum, the organisers have grand ambitions for the impact the event will have on the planet. “More and more businesses and brands are going back to nature, looking at green initiatives, investing in ethical companies and bringing ancient cultures and learning into their brand values and staff incentives,” says Kevin Jackson. “Indigenous businesses come with these values ready-packaged and completely authentic. An investment in this kind of business is an investment in the natural world and the ability of those societies that have been frozen to achieve economic justice and freedom.” The World Indigenous Forum has lofty ambitions both in terms of its objectives as an event, to and for its attendees, but also the innovative platform it has created. It means that, whereas in the past, the event would not have been able to happen, it can now exist and add value to the many indigenous societies around the world. *Source: World Bank, Indigenous Peoples, 2020. **Source: Blueprints, blueprints.org; the International Monetary Fund estimated emerging/developing market size is $33.52 trillion. Blueprints believes that Indigenous cultures represent 10 per cent of this growth, allowing for, out of the 90 countries with indigenous societies, many sit within mature markets as well as emerging ones. 44 | MEETINGS INTERNATIONAL | BIR No. <strong>26</strong> 2020
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