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Sir Terry Leahy has spoken of Liverpool's dramatic turnaround from an isolated city in the 1980s to a major tourist destination and place to do business ahead of the GEC opening this Friday.
The former Tesco chief will be one of the big name speakers at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, which takes place at the ECHO Arena and BT Convention Centre for a week.
Sir Terry, 56, will deliver a speech a week today called - The Winner Within: The Mindset of Success.
Speaking about the GEC he said: "This congress is particularly important because if you look at cities that have hosted it before (Kansas City, Dubai and Shanghai) we are in very good company.
"It heralds a bright future for international conferences and is a large part of Liverpool's journey to re-connect with the outside world.
"At one point it was like Liverpool got cut off – maybe in the 1970s or 80s – from the rest of the world; people just didn’t come here any more, trade didn’t take place and the hotels didn’t use to be filled like they are today, even with the football. It’s been a slow and steady turnaround.
"And you can’t overstate the importance of people coming here for the first time. I have never bumped into anyone and heard them say ‘I don’t think much of Liverpool’.
"It’s the city associating itself with entrepreneurship, setting out its stall and saying ‘We are going to be a city of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship’.
"The key to economic success in a city is about two things: having the best climate to attract inward investment and an entrepreneurial climate that encourages entrepreneurs to do business in that place."
