Calgary Herald – Business Elite Confront World Turned on its Head

9/18/08

Watershed changes and the body count in the U.S. financial industry, slowing -- and in some cases -- retreating economies south of the border and globally, combined with plunging energy prices, will be the themes in Banff as the 2008 Global Business Conference gets underway today.

With Premier Ed Stelmach kicking things off at lunchtime, the outlook for energy in an uncertain world is expected to dominate discussions among an invitation-only audience of senior leaders in business, academia and government from Calgary, other parts of Canada, the United States and around the world.

About 200 top-tier officials will meet for two days of presentations and discussions on energy, the economy, Canadian and U.S. politics, and the struggling U.S. financial system.

"It's almost like our topics were arranged yesterday or last weekend rather than several months ago," said Doug Mitchell, a prominent Calgary lawyer and former chairman of the Alberta Economic Development Authority, a central organizer of the Alberta government-backed event, now in its ninth year.

"We're going to talk a lot about the economy and where it's going. It is unbelievably timely," said Mitchell.

Along with the economic development authority and Mitchell's law firm, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, the event is backstopped by Calgary-based corporate players such as TransAlta Corp., Enbridge Inc., EnCana Corp., TransCanada Corp. and trans-nationals including British Airways PLC, Fujitsu Ltd. and EDS Corp.

"On the agenda is energy supply, and also we're talking about where is the economy, what's the future," notes Mitchell. "One of the questions is, what happened to $200 oil? Things now are nothing like they were even a month ago."

The event features an extensive A-list of speakers from around the world, including World Bank Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency chief operating officer James Bond, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce chief economist and strategist Jeff Rubin and Daniel Yergin, a co-founder of renowned Boston-based energy think-tank Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

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