Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Atlanta competitiveness forum closes; Chile tapped for 2009

The 2008 America's Competitiveness Forum closed out last week, and plans are already underway to hold the 2009 forum in Santiago, Chile.

The forum, which has grown exponentially in size and cache since its inauguration in 2007, has so far only been hosted in Atlanta.

From
Global Atlanta: "'The Chileans get it. They understand the value of trade and how important it is to their economy,' said Walter Bastian, a deputy assistant secretary of commerce and one of the forum’s main organizers."

English press coverage lacking

I may be more attuned to press coverage issues than normal lately, but I think it's notable that the forum has received remarkably little press coverage in the United States (try googling "competitiveness forum Atlanta" in google news, then try "foro competitividad atlanta" and note the difference). Moreover, the most-read English-language online coverage of the event is from the local (Atlanta) media.

Perhaps this is natural given the regional theme of the event, but given that it was in Atlanta and run by the US ITA, when else do we get nearly half a dozen presidents and some of the richest people in the world together and get less coverage of it? I suspect this lack of coverage reflects a general indifference to the region.

See earlier post on the Atlanta forum.

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