Sixth World Investment Conference ""Summing Up

I. Key figures

25% rise in the number of high–level participants

The sixth La Baule World Investment Conference brought together over 1,000 high–level participants from all parts of the world, including entrepreneurs, investors, academics, researchers and political leaders from 45 countries.

Organizers observed a steep rise in the representation of international business, in particular in new technology and environment–related sectors. Nearly 70% of participants were business people, and for the first time they included representatives of investment and venture–capital funds.

Over 200 speakers contributed, among them Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, Danuta Hübner, EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Naguib Sawiris, founder of Orison Telecom, Ursula Burns, President of Xerox Corporation, and Laurence Parisot, President of the French business confederation Medef, as well as the architect David Fisher and the designer Philippe Starck. They shared their views and ideas with an attentive audience in a full program of plenary sessions, workshops, roundtables and breakfast debates.

Over 50 high–tech, businesses from Silicon Valley and over 30 startups in environmental technologies were on hand to meet businesses using their technologies and innovative European entrepreneurs as part of their moves to build their presence in Europe.

II. Four theme–based conferences with the shared goal of promoting and reinforcing Europe

Organizing four parallel conference was naturally a challenge, but was justified by the common goal of developing concrete recommendations for the upcoming French Presidency and, more broadly, for the next European Commission.

Forceful recommendations:

• The work of the sixth World Investment Conference, which was dedicated to the theme "Brainpower in Europe "” the driver for growth", led to the formulation of some one hundred recommendations, to be presented in a report this September. The main proposal its to shape the agenda of the next European Commission around a strategy based on human capital for value creation, replacing the notion of people at the center of an innovation–driven society that inspired the Lisbon agenda in 2000.
• The Euromed Investment Conference, held in a context marked by President Sarkozy´s proposals for a Union for the Mediterranean, benefited from the mobilization of business and economic circles on both sides of the Mediterranean, with participants including trade ministers from North Africa and representatives of employer federations, among them Laurence Parisot, President of France´s Medef. They share the belief that businesses based in Europe and around the Mediterranean should play the central role in projects for Euro–Mediterranean cooperation and economic development.
• The second Californian Technology Showcase confirmed the success of the first event in the previous year. A select group of 50 startups, chosen from a field of over 800 high–tech businesses based in California, were on hand to take part in 300 one–on–one meetings with European entrepreneurs, invests, and political representatives. Visiting the Showcase´s exhibition area, Governor Perry said "Next year, I want to see innovative Texas businesses here in La Baule winning their places in Europe." Reflecting this success, next year´s event will be remodeled as the Global Technology Showcase, bringing together high–tech businesses from Asia as well as Europe and the US.
• The 1st Transatlantic Green Platform conference beat its initial targets for the level and quality of participation. Investment funds specializing in environmental technologies and renewable energy, among them ALOE, accepted invitations, as did a number of British and Scandinavian investors. The event aims to promote and reinforce transatlantic dialogue between businesses, universities, research centers, investors and political leaders. A highlight was the presentation of awards to the two most promising green–tech firms selected by a 10–member jury. Commissioner Danuta Hübner, Governor Rick Perry and William Becker, an academic and Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project did the honours. The winners were Perpetuum, a UK firm specialized in the conversion of unused mechanical vibrations into electrical energy powering industrial wireless sensors, and Solazyme, a US firm specialized the use of marine microbes to create clean solutions for the renewable energy, industrial chemical and specialty ingredient markets. For Patrice Lefeu, the conference marked the success of a bold venture.

www.labaulewic.org