Three Invaluable Lessons Learned from the Pittsburgh G-20 SummitCatherine M. DeLoughry  As April begins, we're roughly at the halfway point-between the conclusion of the 2009 Pittsburgh Summit of the G-20 leaders last September and the November 11-12, 2010 G-20 Summit in Seoul. I had the honor of serving as the executive director of The Pittsburgh G-20 Partnership, the local host committee for the Pittsburgh Summit. As the summit in Seoul approaches, I thought I might share three lessons we learned in Pittsburgh from hosting this high profile international event. Building an agile host committee organization-in our case, a partnership of public and private sector organizations including NGOs-was critical to making the most of this international opportunity. We created a host committee with four primary partners: the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, VisitPittsburgh, our convention and visitor's bureau, and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, our region's top civic organization for business leaders. As the summit approached, many more organizations joined in with clear commitments to deliver - including organizing volunteers, hosting/sponsoring a variety of events, carrying out clean-up and beautification activities, and providing welcome center, hotel and media relations liaisons. The primary partner organizations provided staff to coordinate daily activities and execute a detailed communications and media relations strategy. The Partnership set three goals that we believe were successfully met: (1) to leverage the summit opportunity to raise the awareness of the positive realities of today's Pittsburgh; (2) to generate leads for business investment and future conventions and conferences; and (3) to let talented people the world over know about the jobs and career opportunities available in Pittsburgh. Creating and delivering a consistent message about our region's economic transformation and place in the world economy was important in raising our international profile. When the Pittsburgh Summit was announced, we found that many people were asking "Why Pittsburgh?" While the White House had clearly chosen Pittsburgh as an example of regional economic recovery and transformation, not everyone had heard about the dramatic change in Pittsburgh over the last several decades. The Pittsburgh G-20 Partnership quickly developed and circulated a "Three Reasons" document to answer "Why Pittsburgh?" It said that Pittsburgh made a perfect setting for the summit because: 1. Pittsburgh has built upon its historic strengths as a hub for manufacturing, finance, business services and energy. 2. Pittsburgh has leveraged human capital to create new industries based on research, innovation and entrepreneurship. 3. Having learned from a smoky, industrial past, Pittsburgh has invested in its natural and cultural assets, infrastructure and facilities to improve quality of life. We made the simple but ambitious request of all our members to use the "Three Reasons" as a framework for telling their own stories about Pittsburgh. We had an enthusiastic response and the strategy worked as shown in the media reports issued about the summit. Realizing that the media opportunity to build our region's international profile was in the months leading up to the summit-and less so during the summit itself-was a vital part of our communications strategy. As we planned for the summit, we quickly realized that most of the media and international delegation members would be focused on the story of Pittsburgh in the months before the summit when they made advance visits to our city. By the time the summit started, their attention would have shifted to the agenda and topics related to the meeting itself. With that timeframe in mind, we held media events in Washington, DC and New York City for the international press before they came to Pittsburgh for advance visits. We also launched a comprehensive on-line press room to meet media needs 24/7, established a street-level media center near the summit venue and created a corps of media relations professionals who volunteered their time to help. In closing, I would also note that we learned that major international leadership meetings, like the G-20, do disrupt daily routines in the host community for a short period of time. As soon as the event is announced, everyone wants to know how their usual commuting plans and routine will change. Due to the nature of the event and the security concerns, it's just not possible to know all of these details far in advance and even when the details are known they are subject to last-minute change. So, even though it is difficult, it is important for everyone to have some patience and remember that the disruptions to daily routines won't last long. Congratulations and best of luck as you prepare for a successful summit meeting in November! |
