Video: The former head of commitments at CGI on efforts to replace it

NEW YORK — How do you get from the talking to the doing?

This is something every event organizer asks themselves, particularly when it comes to events aimed at generating impact on issues as complex as the Sustainable Development Goals.

Devex caught up with Marilia Bezerra, ‎managing partner at CARE Enterprises, during the World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Development Impact Summit this week. This is the first year since 2006 that she has not spent September in the halls of the Sheraton Hotel in New York City, where the Clinton Global Initiative set the tradition of U.N. General Assembly side events in motion. Bezerra was formerly the commitments director at CGI, which announced last year they would not be continuing — leading to movement from the World Economic Forum, Concordia, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others to fill the void.

She offered some advice on how to convene for impact, including moving from an event-oriented model to a community-oriented model, facilitating partnerships between meetings. Additionally, Bezerra said, panelists should talk about challenges and failures, in order to have honest conversations about the systemic changes needed to achieve the SDGs.

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