About the Symposium
This unique event will bring together 100 to 150 invited ‘green’ experts, including real estate developers, operators, investors, and other business executives committed to (or considering) new sustainable models of marine, coastal, and island tourism and vacation home development. These are the thought leaders who are breaking the mold of cookie-cutter resort development and mass-market cruise ships. In addition to business leaders, a select group of participants will be invited from key government agencies, NGOs, academia, community organizations, and international development organizations.
The Symposium opens in Grenada on Wednesday evening, July 9 and runs through Friday, Jul 11. On July 8 – 9, prior to the Symposium, participants will have an opportunity to visit tourism attractions in Grenada and attend Grenada’s first Sustainability Expo featuring local tourism and agricultural innovators.
This Innovators Symposium – like the previous Symposiums at Stanford University, CA and Los Cabos, Mexico organized by CREST — will be an intimate event with high quality participants and ample time for informal networking. The Symposium will have a geographic focus on coastal areas in the Americas, with a strong emphasis on the Caribbean.
This Symposium will bring together not only those innovators currently involved in designing, financing, constructing and operating socially and environmentally sustainable coastal tourism developments, but also potential adopters – those who are or should be interested in learning about innovative models of coastal tourism. Sustainable tourism is no longer simply a development choice; it is an imperative especially in rapidly growing, environmentally and socially fragile coastal areas. By joining CREST, Stanford University, and the Caribbean Tourism Organization in Grenada for this collaborative effort, participants can play an important role in moving sustainable innovations into the mainstream of tourism development.
Like CREST’s first two Innovators Symposium, the Grenada Symposium is modeled on executive seminars held at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and will feature a business-to-business emphasis with CEO and top management level participation. This unique gathering includes a diversified range of events and formats, including keynote talks, round-table discussions, knowledge-exchange workshops, formal and informal networking opportunities, documentary film presentations, an expo of sustainable tourism and agricultural projects and products, and more. It will be an intimate event with high quality participants and ample time for informal interchanges.
Who will attend?
The Symposium’s primary participants will be executives involved in ‘green’ innovations in coastal and marine tourism development, including developers, designers, operators, investors, financiers, consultants, and other business executives committed to (or considering) new ‘green’ models of marine, coastal, and island development. Gathered for the first time in the Caribbean, the executives at this symposium are the ‘thought-leaders’ and pioneers who are breaking the mold of the old approach to building hotels and vacation homes, and forging new, sustainable techniques that are the wave of the future. Participants will also include officials from Grenada and other Caribbean governments and international development organizations, as well as NGO experts and academics. The Symposium will have a geographic focus on coastal areas in North and Central America with a strong focus on the Caribbean.
