In October 2017, the tiny country of Montenegro was abuzz. Nestled in the mountains along the Adriatic coast and with a population of merely 620,000, it’s a place that has been overlooked by many. Formerly a part of Yugoslavia, it remained an appendage of Serbia until it gained full independence in 2006.

Given the country’s size, it didn’t take much to create a lot of hype for the Global Citizen Forum. In the capital city of Podgorica, billboards projected mammoth images of the event’s headline speakers, a glitterati lineup including actor Robert De Niro, musician Wyclef Jean, and General Wesley Clark.

Along the coastline, black-and-gold forum banners lined the highway, challenging drivers to “inspire change” and “provoke innovation.” At the airport, posters greeted new arrivals by proclaiming, “The future starts now: keep the conversation going.” Over two days, nearly four hundred participants would gather in the small Balkan country to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world today. Millionaires milled around the samovars and chatted with DJs and supermodels. Prime ministers and politicians dropped in by helicopter. Filling the spaces in between was a hodgepodge of philanthropists, NGO workers, bankers, creatives, and a few royals.