Inflation. Affordability. A slowing job market.
These issues may rank high for many Americans but they didn’t command much time among most speakers at the American Business Forum, a slickly produced two-day event staged at the Kaseya Center in Miami.
It was the first time the event has been held outside of Uruguay, where the forum was founded by Uruguayan businessman Ignacio González. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez led the effort to bring the event to Miami after attending last year in Punta del Este, Uruguay.
President Donald Trump was the main draw on day one, a day after voters in New Jersey and Virginia elected Democrats as governors, among other results. In his remarks Wednesday, Trump made passing mention of his use of tariffs, which he credited with “bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars” to the federal government.
Brazil is the largest trade partner through Miami International Airport. Trade is up 7% year-to-date, according to data from USTradeNumbers.com. Trump slapped Brazilian imports with a 50% tariff. The Senate voted in late October to end tariffs on Brazil with four Republicans joining Democrats. However, a previous House bill blocks all tariff legislation until the spring.
READ MORE: How can a product be imported tariff-free to Miami without entering the U.S.? Welcome to the FTZ
Speakers on Thursday morning included Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S. It’s the third largest bank in Florida by deposits.
“Miami and Florida compete,” he said. “They compete with taxes. They compete with universities,” he responded to a question about the growth of the financial industry experienced in South Florida, especially since the pandemic.
The upper deck of the Kaseya Center was curtained off. The floor or lower bowl seats were about half full Thursday. Early bird tickets started at $100. VIP tickets went for almost $2,000.
The Kaseya Center is used to hosting high energy events and the America Business Forum hoped to bring some of the NBA’s production sizzle. Speakers entered the stage through a brightly-lit tunnel to a thundering orchestral beat. After walking on stage amid the dynamic lighting, including a dozen people holding light bars parting way for the speakers, the music crescendoed and ended with machines blowing fog encircling the stage.
Dimon called the entry “a little embarrassing, but it's quite a production.”
Several speakers complimented Miami and Florida for a pro-business environment, though there was little mention of specific economic conditions faced by local and regional business owners, such as persistent inflation, housing affordability and insurance costs.
“No one has ever done an America Business Forum at this scale in America,” said former Google CEO Eric Schmidt to Suarez. “I really want you to think about doing this all around America because business is what we do,” he said.
The conversations on stage Thursday morning concentrated on career influences and big picture remarks on topics like workplace culture, leadership and artificial intelligence.
Schmidt opened the Thursday morning event with what he called a Shakespearean sonnet. “Through tempest rage and plagues most grievous tests, he stood as a bulwark against adversity’s tide,” he read. It ended, “So shall his legacy in marble stand, the mayor who raised Miami’s fortune grand.”
After the crowd applauded, Schmidt acknowledged it had been written by AI.
Suarez then shared he recently used AI for a speech. “I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I have the ChatGPT prompt on the phone.”
“I would use Gemini,” Schmidt quickly interrupted.
Gemini is the name of the AI model from Google, the company Schmidt used to lead. ChatGPT is a competitor.
