Africa-Press – Cape verde. The second edition of the Leadership Summit Cabo Verde will take place on the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th of May, in the city of Praia, with the theme “Atlantic Leadership – Energy, Tourism and Digital Sustainability”. Filipe Vaz, General Director of Tema Central and co-organizer of the Summit, spoke to Expresso das Ilhas about this year’s edition.
After a Leadership Summit on new digital leadership, the next summit on Atlantic leadership is coming. Let’s start here, what is Atlantic leadership and what distinguishes it?
Last year, together with The Office, we held the first edition of the Leadership Summit Cabo Verde with a special focus on digital transition and all the challenges facing leaders in the face of this new reality. For all countries and organizations, especially in Cape Verde, which has its own archipelagic characteristics, digital represents a unique opportunity that must be well taken advantage of by decision-makers in organizations. This is not the case, in the second edition of the Leadership Summit Cabo Verde, we did not want to leave digital aside, but rather, expand the program to other topics that are also very relevant to the country such as tourism, energy and sustainability. For this reason, the theme is “Atlantic Leadership – Energy, Tourism and Digital Sustainability”. Atlantic Leadership intends to refer to Cape Verde’s geostrategic positioning and the advantages and opportunities that the country can and should be able to take advantage of when located between Africa, Europe and the Americas. It can be said that there are other territories, namely those integrated into Macaronesia, which will have the same advantages, but it should be noted that Cape Verde, unlike these other territories, is an independent and sovereign state which, in itself, gives it a leadership position that, in my opinion, should be assumed even before international organizations.
What new ideas can we anticipate, or are expected to emerge, from the debates on energy, tourism and digital sustainability?
We will bring great national and international speakers to the stage who will certainly allow the entire audience, both current and future leaders, to face the challenges of digital, tourism and energy sustainability in a much more informed way. I would like to highlight the presence of speakers such as Brian Klaas, a best-selling author who will be in Cape Verde for the first time and who has done very relevant work in determining the characteristics of leaders of organizations and states, David Simas who presided over the Obama Foundation and which is currently at Emerson Collective, a project by Laurene Jobs, widow of Steve Jobs, Adriana Reais Pinto, specialist in international policies for digital transition, Margarida Segard, Director of ISQ Academy, Cláudia Coelho, Partner at PWC, who will analyze the risks and opportunities for Cape Verde in the context of sustainable development and investment, Bruno Castro, CEO of Visionware who provides an analysis of the challenges for digital security, Karamba Badio, who addresses these issues from the perspective of financial investment, Harrison Phillips, founder of Banfana who will present the opportunities of digital communication, Alexandre Abade, CEO of Oásis hotels, Miguel Lino Ferreira, professor at Nova SBE who will present his perspective for Cape Verde as a beacon of progress, and Abdel Camará, CEO of the Aliz group and who brings extensive experience in empowering organizational leaders, among others. These international speakers are joined by renowned personalities from Cape Verde, with special emphasis on the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Ministers and Secretaries of State, as well as the magnificent rectors of the main universities and leaders of various public organizations and private sector in the country.
Are these the big themes of the moment? Or are they the main themes currently being addressed in Cape Verde?
I would say that these are the topics of the moment for all organizations, but in Cape Verde they are particularly relevant as tourism, energy and digital are crucial factors for the country’s development. Of course, project financing is also an issue that must always be considered. For this reason, we will launch on May 8th at TechPark a call for a competition to support projects to be developed in Cape Verde which will result from a protocol to be signed between Business Angels from Cape Verde and Portugal and which, in the coming months , will make it possible to leverage local projects that prove to be profitable.
What assessment can we make of the first Leadership Summit in Cape Verde? What lasted? What was learned for this second edition?
The first edition of Leadership Summit Cabo Verde exceeded our best expectations, as we received massive participation from society, great repercussion in the media and very positive feedback from all public and private organizations that were involved. However, the Leadership Summit is a project that continues throughout the year, as we produce relevant content in the production of knowledge for leaders that we disseminate regularly through the Líder website and respective social networks. We also hold several meetings of our groups of advisors to analyze the most relevant issues from the perspective of leadership and we try to create conditions so that, in fact, there are more and better leaders. In the first edition we realized that community involvement is highly valued and important. Therefore, this year we have included several side events in the Leadership Summit program that will take place in Praia, with emphasis on the inauguration of the restoration of the Gota D’arte Association facilities, a literary gathering at the Nhô Eugénio bookstore, the launch of the Leadership and Entrepreneurship competition at TechPark , official opening dinner at the Hotel Oásis Praia Mar, lunch of honor at the Poeta restaurant, in addition to the main moments that take place at the National Assembly on the 9th of May and at the University of Cape Verde, on the 10th of May.
Do you think you are convincing more and more Cape Verdeans to become leaders?
Judging by the feedback we have received, I believe so, but more important than that, is that Cape Verdeans become increasingly aware of the relevance of being and having leaders prepared to face the challenges of the future. In fact, in this sense, during the Leadership Summit we will launch the first postgraduate course in Atlantic Leadership, which will be a joint project between the University of Cape Verde and Nova SBE. This course will certainly allow current and future leaders of public and private organizations to train themselves to promote the sustained and efficient development of Cape Verde.
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