The 2nd Executive Symposium for Innovators in Coastal Tourism Development in Los Cabos is modeled on executive seminars held at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and will retain the same business-to-business emphasis with CEO and top management participation as the 1st Stanford meeting. These will include not only leaders already involved in designing, financing, constructing and operating innovative socially and environmentally sustainable coastal tourism developments, but also potential adopters – those who are considering innovative models of coastal tourism.

This unique, 2.5 day event (with a 3rd day for site visits in the area) will bring together an invitation-only audience of 100+ real estate development executives, architects, hoteliers, investors, and other business executives committed to (or considering) new ‘green’ models of marine, coastal, and island development. 

This symposium marks the first organized effort to bring to Mexico major players in sustainable coastal tourism projects, and new players who want to join them.  Like the first symposium at Stanford in 2010, it will be an intimate event with high quality participants and ample time for informal networking.

The symposium’s primary participants will be executives involved in ‘green’ innovations in coastal resort and second home design, construction, financing and property management, as well as marine tourism. Gathered for the first time in Mexico, the executives at this symposium are the ‘thought-leaders’ and pioneers who are breaking the mold of the old approach to building hotels and vacation homes, and forging new, sustainable techniques that are the wave of the future.  Participants will also include officials from government agencies (including FONATUR and SECTUR), development organizations, NGO experts, and Stanford faculty. The Symposium will have a geographic focus on coastal areas in the Americas, with a strong emphasis on Mexico.   

The symposium will serve as a platform for those on the cutting edge of new coastal tourism models to share what they have accomplished and what they have learned along the way.  Designing and operating in an era of global climate change will be discussed, as will access to ‘green’ financing and progressive investors.  The symposium will explore ways to overcome the barriers that have until-now prevented sustainable design from going mainstream.  Key to this discussion will be access to capital, and reluctance by traditional financiers to move away from the cookie-cutter approach that has little regard to environmental or social footprints.

Why Los Cabos?

 A significant contingent of participants at the 1st Innovators Symposium at Stanford were either from, or working in Mexico, and there was a consensus that the next symposium would be best held ‘south of the border’.  Los Cabos is both an important biological zone and currently Mexico’s most popular tourism destination, giving our upcoming Innovators Symposium an opportunity to showcase sustainable alternatives to conventional mass tourism. We have selected the Sheraton Hacienda del Mar in Los Cabos which is implementing a number of responsible management practices and actively supporting community purchases and projects.

Click Here to read a press release about Hacienda del Mar's Green Meetings initiative & their community project: Casa Hogar.