2024 Milken Asia Summit Reflections

Amidst a whirlwind summer and busy kick-off to fall, the last place Katherine Fox, Mara Bernstein, and I thought we would find ourselves for a week in September was on the other side of the globe in Singapore. But, there we were: on the ground for the Milken Institute’s 11^th annual Asia Summit, which provides a unique platform where influential leaders can connect with others transforming health, finance, business, technology, philanthropy, and society.

This year’s event, which was aptly themed “Impactful Ideas: Purposeful Action,” was framed around understanding the importance of amplifying the best solutions to humanity’s biggest challenges, and scaling up efforts that will result in meaningful, measurable societal progress.

Perhaps most notably—and despite being across the world from the United States—this year’s event was heavily influenced by the fast-approaching U.S. presidential election. Leaders across a range of industries who touch countless stakeholder groups discussed how ASEAN, and APAC more broadly, will be impacted by its outcome in November.

While on the ground, the Prosek team supported Milken with content development throughout the full event. Listening to the broad variety of panel offerings, and insights from the world and financial leaders who represented them, gave us access to insights shared by government officials and the world’s leading investors and business leaders. In addition to navigating the current geopolitical landscape, key discussing themes of the event included sustainability, technology, and the future of AI. A few high-level takeaways (and some corresponding, memorable soundbites) are as follows:

“The world does not get a vote, but the world is affected by the outcome.”
Matt Kaminski, Editor-at-Large, Politico, on the upcoming US election.

• Geopolitics: Day 1 featured a panel with Ray Dalio, Founder and CIO Mentor of Bridgewater Associates, and Lim Chow Kiat, CEO of GIC, who engaged in a widely covered discussion on navigating today’s world order, investing opportunities in China and ever complex global geopolitical workings. On the final day, a panel featuring SkyBridge’s Anthony Scaramucci also covered experts’ outlooks for the 2024 U.S. election.

“If we freed up one hour of productivity per day for working women in the United States, $1T per year in GDP. That’s two average countries of GDP per year. ”
Sheila Lirio Marcelo, Co-Founder and CEO, Ohai.ai, on the intersection of AI and women’s health.

• Artificial Intelligence: The power and future of AI was, as expected, a dominant theme across panels, with a focus on applications, trust and the importance of data ownership. Lila Ibrahim of Google DeepMind noted that her hope is that AI makes us even more human, while another panel positioned AI as the sixth industrial revolution, during which panelists emphasized that AI is not here to replace humans or their jobs, but about making sure the next generation is learning the right things the right way so they don’t get left behind. AI also dominated discussions ranging from its role in addressing digital mental health strategies and helping to close the women’s health gap.

“Protecting oceans is not about excluding economic development. Oceans are really the frontier for economic development for the world.”
Richard Jeo, Chief Field Officer and Senior Vice President, Asia-Pacific Field Division, Conservation International, on the importance of our global seas.

• Sustainability: Sustainability and ESG were also prominent themes across panels, with discussions ranging from environmental preservation to an emphasis on the absence of evidence that factoring ESG/sustainability into investment decisions will result in poor performance.

Finally, I would be remiss to not mention the fireside chat that closed out the conference with Former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who seamlessly brought the week’s conversations to a close with a discussion touching all three of these themes.

More broadly speaking, with the conference landscape continuing to grow, our clients continue to look to us for guidance on what events will have the most impact based on their individual business priorities. If building brand awareness and relationships with decision makers in Asia is a priority, the Milken Asia Summit should be on your list.

If you are interested in learning more about the Asian conference circuit, contact Prosek’s Conference Concierge team at Pro-ConferenceConcierge@prosek.com.