The Global Inclusive Growth Summit is an annual event hosted by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, where influential voices come together to reframe challenges and unlock new approaches to inclusive economic growth. It’s about bringing together the smartest thinkers and action-oriented leaders shaping the future of financial health, small businesses, philanthropy and technology innovation, moving these ideas into action that fosters economic growth and opportunity for all.
In its fifth year, the 2025 Global Inclusive Growth Summit convened cross-sector leaders from around the world to explore how digital transformation, meaningful partnerships, and purposeful leadership can drive sustainable and inclusive economic growth through dynamic programming and targeted side events. Our goals were to:
Build awareness of the Center’s unique model of insights, impact and influence to create and deepen partnerships and promote replication and transformation at scale
Foster opportunity for connection, conversation and partnership among inclusive growth leaders and changemakers
Encourage new ways of thinking about pathways to economic growth and opportunity
Showcase small businesses and entrepreneurs through our Small Business Studio Marketplace
Use the Summit as a platform for the Center and others to announce partnerships and research
Our integrated team was able to successfully bring the Global Inclusive Growth Summit to life through a robust event production and integrated marketing and communications plan, encompassing:
Agenda and session development, with 25 panels focused on innovation, effective philanthropy, digital transformation and trust, cyberthreats and opportunities, growth of the circular economy, and how AI is transforming organizations.
Engaging and coordinating 68 speakers including influential voices such as:
Viola Davis, Award-winning actress, producer, and New York Times bestselling author, JuVee Productions
H.M. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, UN secretary-general's special advocate for financial health, UNSGSA
Matthew Prince, CEO, Cloudflare
Dina Powell McCormick, Vice chair, BDT & MSD Partners
Masato Kanda, President, Asian Development Bank
Joseph Sikela, Commissioner for International Partnerships, European Union
Valdecy Urquiza, Secretary General, Interpol
Andrea Jung, President and CEO, Grameen America
Navrina Singh, CEO and founder, Credo AI
Rich Lesser, Global chair, Boston Consulting Group
Haley Sacks, Founder, Mrs. Dow Jones
James Mwangi, CEO, Equity Group Holdings
Julie Gehrki, President, Walmart Foundation
Mastercard executives, including CEO Michael Miebach
Curated guest experience, including:
Small Business Studio/Marketplace showcasing local vendors and Mastercard Strive grantees
Solutions Hub demo bringing our technology and products to life
Growth Content Corner showcasing content from our EarthShot, Grameen America, and RISE grantees content on screen with a living wall, highlighting their impact.
Grantee Learning Convening to connect grantees across our network
Event app, including:
Agenda
Speaker and attendee directory to facilitate networking
Website content, including:
Speaker announcements
Agenda
Photo gallery
Email marketing
Pre-event: Promoting signups for access to full-length video recordings of panel sessions
Post-event: Sharing video and blog article content
Organic and paid social media (LinkedIn and Instagram), including onsite content capture:
Full-length video recordings of panel sessions
Live clips from panel sessions, optimized for social media formats
Content studio video interviews with speakers and grantees, elevating their impact work
On-the-ground video interviews capturing the excitement of the summit
Media outreach
Curated media invites
Media placements in outlets such as Devex, Harvard Business Review and GZERO podcast
Owned content
Mastercard Newsroom articles
Media partnership with Devex, including promotion in their email marketing, web ads, podcast, blog, social media channels
SEM
Internal employee communications and engagement
In-person watch parties in offices
Summary articles on employee intranet
Our team successfully engaged attendees representing 167 countries, including:
650+ participants
110+ CEO participants
120+ Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth grantees
40+ business customers
80+ public sector and multilateral leaders
Highlights of the Summit included:
Launching Mastercard Strive in the Kingdom of Bahrain
Publishing related financial health thought leadership in the Harvard Business Review
Showcasing six local businesses and six grantee partners at the Small Business Studio/Marketplace
Connecting grantees from 22 countries across 11 dedicated sessions during our Grantee Learning Convening
Through our promotion of the event, we achieved:
5.1M+ paid and organic social media impressions
23K website visits
1K+ new social media followers
720+ global employees watching remotely, including 3 office watch parties
We also received enthusiastically positive feedback from attendees. Testimonials include:
“This year's Summit was truly one of the best events I've ever attended! The content, organization and attendance was beyond spectacular. Not only did I leave inspired and updated with the most recent market trends, insights, technologies and policies, but I was also able to expand my professional network in this space. I can't wait for next year!”
“The Global Inclusive Growth Summit is an incredible ecosystem of people... almost everyone in the audience could be on the stage. You can strike up a conversation with anyone, and they're doing something interesting and important in creating a more inclusive world.”
“In these volatile and often disheartening times, it was so uplifting to meet entrepreneurs helping small businesses thrive and to hear from inspirational finance leaders, policymakers, and changemakers.”
“I'm so happy that Mastercard is doing this, it makes me so proud to work here.”
