How a celebrity-fueled world event ended up in Miami and lured Trump and Messi
At the 2024 America Business Forum in the resort town of Punta del Este, Uruguay, a host interviewing Miami Mayor Francis Suarez on stage mentioned that the Magic City lacked a similar event.
The mayor said he agreed, but then used the question to make a broader point about his country.
“The U.S. has not given our hemisphere the attention it deserves,” he said in Spanish. “We’ve devalued collaboration with South America.”
That concerned him because North America and South America “have values in common” and “have scale to compete against China” as a two-continent team.
The emcee, former CNN en Español anchor Ismael Cala, who lives in South Florida, then teasingly said: “I feel like Miami would be a beautiful location to hold the 10th anniversary” of an event that brings together leaders in business, sports, culture and politics.
“We’ll see,” Mayor Suarez responded without promising anything.
That conversation was the start of something.
The 2025 America Business Forum will debut in downtown Miami’s Kaseya Center in November.
Nobel laureate and a soccer icon
Who will be at the America Business Forum in Miami?
Two of the biggest draws at the Nov. 5-6 gathering will be South Americans.
Venezuelan Maria Corina Machado just won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for years of fighting to restore democracy in her country. In hiding due to threats from Venezuela strongman Nicolás Maduro’s regime, she’ll speak virtually.
Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi, who plays for Inter Miami, rarely speaks at such public events. But he made an exception for this one.
Argentina President Javier Milei will also attend, the Uruguayan founder Ignacio Gonzalez said in an interview with the Miami Herald.
The conference organizers “decided that they wanted to bring it to America,” Mayor Suarez said in an Oct, 20 interview with the Miami Herald. Gonzalez said he’d like to have it in the city for the next three years.
The meeting will have an added global dimension. President Donald Trump will attend. He’ll be the only participant who gives a traditional speech. Others who will appear with a microphone will field questions from a moderator in one-on-one “fireside chats.”
Suarez invited the president during a visit to the White House in September.
“I personally asked Trump,” the mayor said.
Speakers also come from the world of sports, business, politics and culture. They include tennis player Rafael Nadal, Formula One chief Stefano Domenicali and actor Will Smith. They all will be asked to discuss what they’re working on and how they view the country and the world in the future, Suarez said. He is slated to interview several of the guests.
South Florida residents FIFA President Gianni Infantino and WeWork founder Adam Neumann will also appear. The Magic City is a host site for the 2026 World Cup and home to a FIFA office. Neumann’s current venture, Flow, took a majority stake this year in a 54-story, $525 million mixed-used development in Brickell on the Miami River.
Finance titans Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase; Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel; and Eric Schmidt, former chairman and CEO of Google, also are on the speaker list. Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier will serve as host.
Suarez said he asked Griffin to participate. “I was actively involved in attracting all the speakers.”
Said Gonzalez, the founder: Suarez “played a major role” in drawing the main participants.
One exception is Lionel Messi, who Gonzalez said was influenced by his Inter Miami teammate Luis Suarez, a Uruguayan who had previously made an appearance at the America Business Forum.
Uruguay origins
The conference dates back to 2016 and is usually held in Punta del Este in the North American fall. Gonzalez said the original purpose was to build a leadership platform, bringing together people in business, politics and other fields.
The focus has typically been on South America. Past participants include the Argentine founders of software company Globant, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, and financial technology firm Ualá, whose investors include Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Silicon Valley’s Ribbit Capital.
The forum also has drawn executives from U.S. tech companies. The Latin American division heads of Google, Amazon and Disney have attended past meetings.
But it’s not all business.
The 2024 edition featured the two leading candidates in Uruguay’s presidential elections that year, representing the left and the right.
And at the conference’s 2021 edition, Martin Baron, who stepped down that year after a long run as editor of the Washington Post, attended virtually to discuss the state of the media. “It’s more important to listen than to speak,” he said in Spanish when asked about competition coming from 24-7 television news and the internet. “That’s a very important principle in journalism.”
The conference’s “caliber is second to none,” said Suarez, who attended last year for the first time. He was also impressed by the meeting’s “very good production quality.”
For Argentina’s President Milei, the event could also be a respite. Back at home, he faces tough mid-term elections on Oct. 26 even though he’s credited with opening up the country’s economy and reducing sky-high inflation.
In Miami, the libertarian will likely find lots of fans. He’s become hugely popular among many Trump supporters. That’s even with the two having different economic policies, according to economists. He’s respected by some Trump critics, too.
President Trump is likely to shower love on Argentina’s president — even as he acts more like Milei’s predecessors and rivals, analysts say.
“Trump’s second term has begun to follow the Peronist playbook of import substitution, emergency declarations, personal dealmaking, fiscal and monetary recklessness, and unprecedented government control over private enterprise,” Scott Lincicome, international trade expert and vice president, general economics and trade at the libertarian CATO Institute in Washington, D.C., wrote in The Atlantic in September in “America’s Peron.”
More speakers in Miami
None of the speakers are being paid to appear at the America Business Forum, said Gonzalez, and the entire event “is privately funded, with no taxpayer dollars from the city, county or state involved.”
The Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and among the world’s largest, is listed on the organization’s website as a “presenting partner,” suggesting a Saudi official may also participate. FIU’s Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom is a “founding partner.”
Jamie Dimon, the JPMorgan Chase chief, will speak on Nov. 6 and discuss the firm’s recently announced $1.5 trillion initiative to boost critical industries in the U.S. for which a lack of mastery would result in national security risks, a company spokesperson told the Miami Herald. That includes a 10-year plan to support and make investments of up to $10 billion in companies in areas including defense and aerospace.
Dimon, who has been a regular visitor to South Florida, also will share management lessons. His firm has also backed tech equity initiatives in the region for underserved communities in recent years.
Ken Griffin, the Citadel chief and a prolific South Florida philanthropist, told the Herald through a spokesperson that his reason for attending: “In a world defined by rapid change and growing complexity, progress depends on the free exchange of ideas and the courage to act on them.”
He said “the America Business Forum in Miami embodies that spirit.”
If you go
What: 2025 America Business Forum
When: Nov. 5 and Nov. 6
Where: Kaseya Center, 601 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
Tickets: Start at $100 and go up to $1,990. They can be purchased www.americabusiness.com
This story was originally published October 24, 2025 at 5:00 AM.