Concordia Summit

Programming

Throughout the year, Concordia organizes and hosts diverse programming to inspire conversation and spark collaboration. The organization's annual Summit takes place in New York City during the UN General Assembly where the world’s leading business, government and nonprofit leaders convene to examine the world’s most pressing challenges. Participants include President George W. Bush, President Bill Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden, among 40 current and former heads of state, 450 international and Fortune 500 C-suite executives, prominent nonprofit leader, and senior Congressional and Administration officials. Summit programming includes panel discussions, interviews, topic-specific breakout sessions, and intimate meetings known as “office hours”.

The Concordia Summit

With the importance of public-private partnerships as the cornerstone of the event, the inaugural 2011 Summit focused specifically on the issue of extremism and terrorism in light of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The Summit examined the international fight against terrorism and the struggle to combat the breeding of extremist thought. Attendees included keynote speaker President George W. Bush, President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia, President Aleksander Kwaśniewski of Poland, President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia, and Ambassador Luis Alberto Moreno Mejia of the Inter-American Development Bank, among others. The Summit laid the groundwork for the development of formal and strategic partnerships around the issue of extremism.

The 2012 Concordia Summit focused on effective partnerships in the areas of health, education, security, the global economy, and sustainability, featuring keynote speaker President Bill Clinton. The Summit partnered with the U.S. Afghan Women's Council in efforts to promote successful public-private partnerships (P3s)

The 2013 Concordia Summit held September 26–27, 2013, and entitled "Building a Prosperous Future: Investing in our Youth," focused on forging public-private partnerships as a means to solve economic, social, and environmental challenges facing the Millennial Generation. The Summit convened thought leaders to create a framework to reverse unemployment by discussing transforming education, stabilizing global security, creating full participation for youth in the financial sector, and cultivating entrepreneurship. With leaders from the private and public sectors in attendance, Concordia introduced the long-awaited Concordia Partnership Index. The Index is an interactive ranking of countries according to their partnership environment. It takes into account both a country’s readiness and need to engage in P3s and thus helps to countries where social impact can be best absorbed.

The 2014 Concordia Summit, which took place on September 29–30, 2014, and was entitled “Scaling Proven Solutions Through Collaboration,” focused on how collaboration between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors can facilitate large-scale impact by leveraging each sector’s unique expertise. The Summit hosted leaders of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, including speakers such as: T. Boone Pickens, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Dikembe Mutombo, Admiral James A. Winnefeld, Jr., Letty Ashworth, and Shalil Shetty. The closing session of the 2014 Summit featured a keynote speech by President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush at the New York Stock Exchange. President and Mrs. Bush reflected upon current events, their time in the White House, and their extensive experience with various world leaders, highlighting opportunities for new partnerships to have lasting social and economic impact.

The 2015 Concordia Summit, held October 1–2, 2015, celebrated the fifth anniversary of the organization’s mission of promoting cross-sector collaboration. It also introduced the organization’s programming partner model, whereby leading industry and nonprofit organizations partnered with Concordia on Summit programming by collaborating on content and speaker recruitment. The Summit convened over 900 attendees and 143 speakers, including prominent leaders such as: His Excellency Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Chief Executive of Afghanistan; Andrew Liveris, President, Chairman, and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company; Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company; Secretary Margaret Spellings, President of the George W. Bush Presidential Center and Former U.S. Secretary of Education; Bassem Youssef, Former Host of AlBernameg; Viktor Yushchenko, Former President of Ukraine; Shiza Shahid, Co-Founder of the Malala Fund; Hugh Evans, Co-Founder of the Global Poverty Project; and Ambassador Nancy Brinker, Chair of Global Strategy at Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The first day of the Summit concluded with remarks from U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, who spoke on timely policy issues, both foreign and domestic. Throughout his address, the Vice President incorporated both the importance of cross-sector collaboration as a means to combat pressing global issues and the value of public-private partnerships in supporting and sustaining successful models of development, diplomacy, and democracy.

Research

Concordia launched its first major products, the Concordia Partnership Index and P3 Insights, at the 2013 Concordia Summit. The launch of these products marked an important point in Concordia’s development as it transitioned from an organization focused on convening to one that also provides research-based tools to inform P3s. The Index ranks countries based on their readiness and need to engage in public-private partnerships. The indicator assessing a country’s need is unique to other tools that measure P3 environments and sets the Index apart. While the success of a P3 depends on a country’s political and market structures, the Index recognizes that for a P3 to be truly impactful it must address a large-scale need.

Campaigns

A Concordia Campaign is a topic-driven initiative that combines programmatic, research, and networking efforts. Each campaign consists of a two to five-year commitment within all three silos of Concordia to advance a cause. By establishing a private sector, public sector, nonprofit and academic partner, each campaign employs the Concordia platform to drive focus and attention around a particular issue. Launched in Washington, D.C. in July 2015, the first Concordia Campaign focuses on combating labor trafficking in corporate supply chains.

The Leadership Award Award

Concordia awards those global leaders within the public, private, and nonprofit sectors whose work turns vision into impact. Recipients of the award exhibit a commitment to positive social and economic change while promoting effective public-private collaboration.

P3 Impact Award

The U.S. Department of State Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships (S/GP), Concordia, and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business Institute for Business in Society (IBiS) created the P3 Impact Award to recognize highly effective P3s that have a significant positive social impact. The award is presented every year at the Concordia Summit. In addition to raising awareness about cross-sector collaboration, the award and its accompanying publication help identify leading practices, deliver practical learning, and generate a database of information relevant to P3s.

In 2014, the award was presented to CocoaLink, a partnership between The Hershey Company, the Ghana Cocoa Board, and the World Cocoa Foundation. CocoaLink connects cocoa farmers in Ghana to government agriculture experts and the latest information on modern farming techniques through a two-way mobile phone exchange. In 2015, the award was presented to TV White Space Supported Fisherfolk Registration in the Danajon Reef, a partnership between the Philippines’ Department of Science and Technology’s Information and Communications Technology Office (DOST-ICTO) and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), USAID/ECOFISH, Microsoft, SSG Advisors, and Tetra Tech. TV White Space uses the white space between television channels to provide broadband internet connectivity to rural areas in order to facilitate the registration of fisherfolk in the Bohol region of the Philippines. This project has facilitated the registration of over 16,000 fisherfolk thus far, allowing the government to better manage fisheries, while also providing much-needed internet access to rural communities.

Membership

Membership affords entry to all Concordia programming events and the annual Summit, the benefit of Summit Office Hours (conversations with the Concordia Leadership Council), and partnership forums. Membership “Patrons” are those institutions who apply and receive membership benefits for up to 10 representative individuals.

Founders

Matthew A. Swift and Nicholas M. Logothetis Co-Founded Concordia after their collaboration on a snack foods business at the Salisbury School. They currently serve as Concordia's chairmen.

Concordia Leadership Council

News & Press

Concordia 2013 Attracts World Leaders for Public-Private Partnerships

Concordia Announces Third Annual Concordia Summit to be Held September 26th and 27th

Concordia Summit: A Greek’s Vision to Change the World Through Public-Private Partnerships

The Closing Bell interviews Sen. John McCain live from 2nd Annual Summit

Fox Business Network interview with Ambassador John Negroponte

FBN's Liz Claman Hosts Panel at Concordia Summit

George W. Bush To Keynote Summit On Fighting Extremism

Fox News Bush Speaks at Summit on Fighting Extremism

Heritage Foundation The Importance of Maintaining A Strong Defense

Fox News The Concordia Summit: A Partnership to Combat Extremism

Homeland Security News Wire Concordia Summit: sustaining "at risk" communities

Ambassador Negroponte on MSNBC

Concordia to Host Inaugural Counter-Terrorism Summit in New York City on September 20th