Gerhard Hrebicek
President, European Brand Institute
“Brands and intellectual property dominate the global economy.
Yet these, are the least understood assets. But the importance of intellectual property rights in particular has become increasingly clear in recent years and in the age of digitization for society, economy and for businesses. Brands provide orientation, convey values, create experiences and contribute to our well-being. They are essential for innovation, new jobs, increased efficiency and are leading to sustained competitiveness. Sustainable Brands create trust and build long term relationships and are therefore more resilient in times of crisis.
This is why the motto of this year's Brand Global Summit is: "In Brands We Trust".
Gerd Müller
Director General UNIDO
“Successful branding accelerates business performance and competitiveness even in challenging post-crisis conditions should motivate us to accelerate the shift to more innovation-intensive and intellectual value-added practices.”
Edgar Baum
CEO AVASTA, Canada
"Brands no longer need to be built by starting locally first – they can be built where their best customers are from, day one. "
Nuria Ackermann
UNIDO PAMPAT project on GI and agri-tourism in Tunisia
"In the framework of UNIDO development projects, regional brands can be effective tools to boost local development, since they lay the basis for territorial marketing, collective actions, public-private partnerships and a strong collaboration among producers and companies. Regional brands can contribute to make a place well-known, increase rural tourism, create new employment opportunities, promote entrepreneurship and boost market access for local products."
Farrukh Alimdjanov
Industrial Development Officer, Department of Digitalization, Technology and Innovation, UNIDO
“Embracing the influence of digital transformation, UNIDO’s “Branding for competitiveness and sustainable growth” module provides a timely response in terms of facilitating a country-, region- or enterprise-level transition to a more robust and competitive digital presence underpinned by strategic brand management. To date, the module helped target beneficiaries maximize intellectual value addition, enhancing their productivity, international competitiveness and market outreach.”
Alexander Biach
Deputy Director, Vienna Chamber of Commerce and Industry
"The origin of brands is an important competitive advantage in our global economy. This is especially true for cities and regions."
Dawn Colossi
CMO of Software AG
"The future has to be sustainable. Technology will be an enabler of re-imagining how we do business, live our lives, power our planet and feed our people. As the Chief Marketing Officer at Software AG, I’ve worked to put these beliefs and core values at the center of what drives our business. So, when ERA (Electric Car Racing) approached us with an opportunity to partner with them on re-imagined motorsport for a sustainable, equitable and diverse future of the sport, we jumped at the chance. Software AG ERA Championship is the world's first all-electric junior formula racing series, showcasing high-tech performance electric motorsport in a competitive environment that guarantees close racing and it uses Software AG’s Cumulocity platform to pull performance data from the cars and present it live to the analytics teams in the pit lane. Learn why that matters and how it is the perfect example of how a 100+ year old industry can transform for the future."
Araksiya Grigoryan
NPC UNIDO light industry upgrading project in Armenia eco-fashion initiative
“Fast fashion’s detrimental effects are becoming increasingly prominent in discussions surrounding sustainability and environmental consciousness. The route towards a more sustainable fashion industry is not easy, which is why it is critical that more people learn what qualifies as a truly sustainable fashion industry model as opposed to the existing streamlined system involving rapid design, production and distribution.
UNIDO project in Armenia, as part of its capacity building efforts, layed the foundation for a paradigm shift towards sustainable fashion promoting environment protection and social responsibility. “
Sarvinoz Junaydova
UNIDO Project in Tajikistan
"In Tajikistan, we created “LA’AL Textiles”- a brand with global outreach and loyal customer base. Brand and reputation management skills provided basis for new methods, increased understanding and wider application of solutions not only to economic development challenges but also to nurturing a diversity of tastes in the fashion industry, which is my guiding principle for advancing branding and collective marketing agenda in Tajikistan."
Sonja Kato
Communicato & Coachings
Moderator
Fred Koblinger
CEO IQONIC Brand Expert
Network
"A risky investment. Against great resistance.
A radical repositioning. Including the death of an icon.
Relevant communication. Motivating consumers to act sustainably.
Success factors for a sustainable transformation of Austria's largest milk processor with amazing results and multiple awards.”
Herbert Kovar
Partner Deloitte Tax
The Covid pandemic and Post-Covid phase demonstrates that businesses with strong and well established brands are more resilient in crises. Reason for this is the ability of a strong brand to generate long-term and sustainable cash-flows. Thus, those businesses can balance out the decrease of crisis-induced short-term cash-flow in a better way.
Trevor Lee
Senior Director, Investment Products Division, Securities and Futures Commission
“As Hong Kong is an international financial and wealth management centre, we strive to offer a broad range of investment products that meets investor demands with appropriate safeguards. In light of developments in the digital asset space, we have been actively considering and engaging with the industry and other stakeholders to put in place a regulatory regime that would enable the authorisation of digital asset investment products in Hong Kong.”
Bettina Rieger
Managing Partner Essentio NFT's
“A brand (or IP) is one of the most important corporate assets. It is important to increase this in the long term and securely, and blockchain technology with all its possibilities can support us in this in a secure way”
Lia Rosida
UN Joint Program "ASSIST" and UNIDO project "Driving capital towards SDG's and enhancing SME's resilience, competetiveness and access to finance in Indonesia"
"To support Indonesia, one of the fastest growing economies in the world, through the “Accelerating SDGs investment in Indonesia” (ASSIST) United Nations Joint Programme, UNIDO aims to improve institutional capacities and access to innovative finance of SMEs in blue sectors, traditional industries, and women-led businesses in lagging regions. UNIDO’s technical assistance is piloted on Lombok, an exquisite island with remarkable potential in traditional industries in textile, agri-food, jewellery, and aquaculture sectors, contributing to improved business performance and market access. To improve access of SMEs to the global market, a development of umbrella brand is imperative, as it allows to properly position their products’ with unique origin-linked characteristics in global value chains."
Fabio Russo
Senior Industrial Development Officer, UNIDO PAMPAT project on GI and agri-tourism in Tunisia
"More and more consumers are searching for authenticity and are willing to pay higher prices for typical food products that are deeply rooted in their territories of origin. For small and medium producers, this new trend signifies a major opportunity. It frees them from having to compete on price with standardized products in commodity markets and rewards them for maintaining biodiversity and cultural heritage."
Nohelia Sanchez
Representative EBI & WBAF Latin America - Argentina
"Digital branding and brand innovation are two pilars of a business strategy capable to survive in this VUCA world. Everyday developments like AI and blockchain have confirmed to all of us, that our business might change, but our brands should remain."
Gabriela Maria Straka
Director Corporate Affairs & ESG Sustainability
"Being responsible to further shaping and leading the agile ESG transformation agenda, my innovation and communications focus is key to foster collaboration across functions. A passionate leadership and strong people focus enables to establish a winning mentality throughout the organization to drive the ESG sustainability agenda."
Stephan Unger
Professor Departement of Economics and Business, Saint Anselm College, Boston, USA
"An increasing Brand Value contributes to a sustainable development of a firm by lowering significantly the financing costs of a firm. Stakeholders benefit from an increase in Brand Value as it reduces significantly the cost of debt and increases revenue, income, EBIT, and the stock price. Moreover it has a positive effect on long term social responsibility. The significant reduction of financing costs allows a collateralization of Brand Value."
Farshida Zafar
Director Erasmus X & Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship
“At the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship we believe that entrepreneurial competencies (knowledge, skills, mindset and attitude) are key to create value, make an impact and build sustainable ecosystems to enhance innovations and find solutions to meet today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. ”
Ciyong Zou
Managing Director, UNIDO