Investors and economists from around the world will meet this week for the World Indigenous Forum on a custom created virtual platform.
The forum aims to “allow visitors to focus on unleashing the economic power of the world’s indigenous population”, which estimated to be worth around $3.3trn (£2.4trn) to global GDP*.
The World Indigenous Forum will take place from 13-14 January and will be attended by over 15,000 people from both the indigenous business communities and a mixture of personal, ethical and corporate investors. The platform has been created by Engage Works, and on a platform developed through a games engine to ensure more community activity, interaction and dialogue within the forum.
The world’s indigenous economies hold nearly 30% of this planet’s total assets and additionally own, have nurtured and protected, 80% of the world’s biodiversity**. Organisers of the forum believe that these communities, and the businesses and skills within them, could account for nearly $3.3trn (£2.4trn) of economic value as more and more investors look to create links between the indigenous and Western worlds.
Head of virtual events at Engage Works, Rich Ward, said: “We have developed the platform in a games engine, offering all the creative possibilities of a virtual environment while ensuring people, whoever they are and wherever they are, can simply and intuitively find any person, vendor or content and easily connect, interact, transact & view in as close a way as possible as they would at a physical event.”
* Source: Blueprints, blueprints.org; the International Monetary Fund estimated emerging / developing market size is $33.52trn (£24.65trn). Blueprints believes that Indigenous cultures represent 10% of this growth – allowing for, out of the 90 countries with indigenous societies, many sit within mature markets as well as emerging ones.
** Source: World Bank, Indigenous Peoples, 2020
