G20 London Summit, 2 April 2009

Brown's Moment of Truth

Did Brown outperform Obama?

Attending yesterday's G20 London Summit was a great experience and an historical occasion for all present. It was also an opportunity to see President Obama in the flesh and hear the first major speech of his first major foreign trip.

However, in my view, despite the media frenzy over Obama, it was Gordon Brown's day.

During his one hour press conference his performance was engaging, full of clarity and purpose. He even prompted more questions from the audience after his press officer had tried to draw the session to a close.

Even though it was always going to be a case of 'all eyes on President Obama', I believe that the true potential of the Summit's communiqué was best illustrated through the UK Prime Minister's words and actions. It was during Brown's performance that one had a sense the G20 Summit could potentially deliver the first signs of the "new world order", and restore confidence to both the banking industry and, albeit a longer-term prospect, to the world's people.

When Brown spoke of a "return to trend growth even faster than predicted" there was both a sense of belief and urgency that was hard to ignore. He may possess some idiosyncratic expressions which are distracting to look at on TV, but in the flesh his oratory is a lot more believable.

Having chatted to some of the people there was speculation that, perhaps, the whole event would end up being an anti-climax and foregone conclusion. As someone commented to me on the supposed Merkel/Sarkozy alliance "they will agree because they have to" for the sake of others.

It is perhaps ironic and a little unfair that President Obama got a standing ovation following his press call, and Brown 'exited stage right' with not even a thank you.

Of course, seeing Obama in the flesh and hearing him speak was a privilege and he repeatedly praised Brown's handling of the Summit. Overall it was a good speech, but his responses to media questions were, at times, a little laboured, which perhaps reflects the huge amount of expectation on his shoulders as he carefully considers answers to each and every question.

Obama was more open about the fact that finding agreement amongst 20 nations was always going to be more difficult – as he put it "people keep referring to Bretton Woods…but that was Churchill, Roosevelt and a glass of brandy!"

He was also extremely careful to high-light the US commitment towards forging better foreign relations, and emphasised the power of collective partnership in order to find a resolution to the current crisis. Obama's real message was about delivery. In his own words "The proof of the pudding is in the eating."

The banter and interaction Obama struck up when talking informally with journalists gave a glimmer of insight into his character, and he was at these times inspiring, funny and extremely sharp. He didn’t quite have the clarity in his responses to questions from the press in comparison to Brown. Perhaps that's unsurprising given the latter is considerably more experienced.

My main question going into the G20 from a hospitality and tourism perspective was any snippet of insight that might appear on the question of restoring consumer confidence. I don't think that the event alone is enough to ensure recovery on this front, and many others have commented that this in itself could take years. However, I was not surprised to see that the stock-markets have bounced overnight, given the real sense of collective support for the communiqué and for the commitment demonstrated by all the Heads of State who held press conferences towards fighting a global recession.

Let's hope it is the first step towards a recovery.