Looking at last week’s Vancouver Cities Summit, it is apparent that Surrey could use a few tips in planning an economic summit for next year that attracts more, er, positive attention.

Last September, the Surrey Regional Economic Summit just about dominated national news headlines—but for all the wrong reasons.

George W. Bush’s appearance in Surrey was scheduled to make the six o’clock news across Canada until it broke that Gaddafi had died that day.

The Surrey group, headed by Mayor Dianne Watts and Coun. Linda Hepner, decided to focus on making headlines instead of having an issue-based debate about Surrey’s economic potential when they invited former U.S. presidents Bush and Bill Clinton to deliver the keynote address.

People were outraged. Bush’s record as a war-monger who condoned torture predictably irked many. But others questioned whether Surrey should seek economic advice from Bush, given his role in the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, financial deregulation, and the subsequent economic collapse.

Last week’s Vancouver summit, on the other hand, had a specific focus. There, experts discussed strategies for city-building and green economic development.

Surrey, as one of the fastest growing cities in Canada, could put on a summit that focuses on transforming a former suburb into a city. Such a summit could draw on the existing expertise of renowned urbanists and economic development experts like Richard Florida and Ellen Dunham-Jones.

For their summit, Vancouver chose its own renowned author and artist Douglas Coupland as keynote speaker.

Coupland is as qualified as anyone to talk about how cities can survive—and thrive—in the increasingly dominant digital and creative economy, having written on the subject for years.

He spoke at a special event for UBC arts graduates in the year I graduated and he was both funny and poignant.

It is still lost on me what relevance Rudy Giuliani, Tony Blair, or former U.S. presidents might have had at a summit in Surrey, other than garnering a quick media hit.

Vancouver’s Cities Summit had a clear goal: to catalyze investment in Vancouver. A major criticism of Surrey’s Economic Summit is that it did little to highlight the many economic opportunities in Surrey.

The planners of next September’s Surrey Regional Economic Summit should aim to combine a theme relating to Surrey’s place in the region, together with a fitting speaker and the objective of highlighting the city’s strength as a place for investment.

Anything less will simply generate media for the purpose of generating media.

Stephanie Ryan was a 2011 candidate for city council with the Surrey Civic Coalition.