We’re now five weeks away from BCLC’s Global Corporate Citizenship Conference, "Public-Private Partnerships for Emerging Market Development." Our staff is getting increasingly excited for this event — we hope you are, too.

New this year is "The Globalization Debate," sure to be a key item of interest. The debate will take place among officials from a development organization, a public-interest group, and a think tank. Immediately following will be a panel of business executives discussing their reaction to the debate. 

Like last year, high-level, expert presenters will focus on globally important topics such as sustainability, health care, disease, poverty reduction, foreign aid and trade, market development, and disaster response, among others.

A wealth of executives from U.S. Chamber member companies, corporate foundations, NGOs, and government/quasi-government agencies will share their insight and experience from the field of corporate citizenship. Such notable figures as Jessica Flannery, co-founder of Kiva.org, and Ambassador John Danilovich, president of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, also are part of the line up.

Keynote speaker Richard Holbrooke, head of the Global Business Coalition
of HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria, at last year’s conference.

Our ultimate goal is to focus on the ever-increasing interconnectedness of the world — rich countries and poor, Eastern Hemisphere and Western, global trade and foreign aid — and how the business community is a valuable partner in alleviating some of today’s toughest challenges.

Over the next five weeks, we’ll blog regularly about the key topics at the 2008 conference, so come back often. If you’d like to attend, but haven’t already registered, you can do so now.

For questions, you can contact us at 202-463-3133. Otherwise, any feedback you want to leave here is valuable.