Bringing Our Global Tour to a Close

A quick trip to Dubai for COP28 and a stop in Doha, Qatar, has brought the Page global tour ’23 to a close. Peter Debreceny, Page’s VP of international, and I visited a total of 17 cities in 14 countries.

As we found in Europe and Asia, it’s clear that the role of strategic communication also is on the rise in the Middle East. Although the Israel-Hamas war cast a pall over the proceedings, there was significant commitment in both the UAE and Qatar for business to be at the forefront of rebuilding trust in institutions.

As I reported in my blog on COP28 , the business presence at the U.N. conference on climate change was significant and committed, and the role of the chief communication officer was more than evident.

The UAE and Qatar have thriving economies with business playing a key role in building long-term value for citizens and society. We had engaged conversations about how the strategic communication function there is growing and maturing into a senior, strategic business advisor, just as it is at every stop on our journey.

Institutions in the Middle East, like those elsewhere, are responding to profound changes in the global socio-political and economic environment resulting from the global pandemic, rising concerns about climate change, geopolitical destabilization and polarization, and accelerating technology in the form of artificial intelligence.

In the UAE and Qatar, CCOs are grappling with the same issues we found around the world in upgrading their functions’ capabilities to think critically and strategically about the implications of all these socio-political-economic trends for their businesses and to find the resources to take on their expanding responsibilities.

We are turning now to the task of putting finishing touches on the next major Page research report, which will be published early in 2024. It will lay out in detail the findings on how the role of the CCO is expanding, and how Page can help our members continue to improve.

Stay tuned also for an impending announcement of an update to the Page mission, purpose and vision statements, to be followed early next year with the release of the Page 2024-2026 Strategic Plan, which will lay out plans to provide new help and resources to our members and their teams.

I am grateful to the many Page members around the world who have contributed to our research and to our deliberations on the new strategy.