Today’s world faces challenges of an extraordinary magnitude: the economic crisis, energy shortages and opportunities, global health issues, and the role and power of the digital world. USC’s 2009 Global Conference will bring together leading experts in each of these areas to examine the challenges and explore the potential for change. Formal presentations, panel discussions and multiple networking venues will provide conference participants with a unique opportunity to engage with the leaders in these fields and explore ideas and solutions.

Keynote Presentations and Major Themes

The Changing Economic Climate
Robert Hormats
Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs International

Stanley Shih
Chairman, iD Softcapital Group

Bank closures, financial liquidity, unemployment, business failures, disappearing credit….what do these mean locally and globally? How do businesses survive and prosper in this environment? How will the markets react in the future? What are the impacts on social policy? How do we forecast new business trends? The new economic climate provides a common thread among all the topics to be addressed during the global conference, as speakers explore these questions and more.

Global Health
Jonathan Samet, M.D.
Department Chair, Preventive Medicine
Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California

Conference sessions will examine some of this century’s emerging global challenges: impacts of globalization and health, increased consumption of tobacco, decreased physical activity, increased environmental hazards, the rising incidence of chronic diseases, increasing inequity and poverty, the increasingly rapid spread of emerging diseases and the cost of health care to society.

Energy
Donald Paul, Ph.D.
William M. Keck Chair of Energy Resources and Research Professor of Engineering, Earth Sciences and Policy, Planning and Development, University of Southern California

Today’s energy shortages affect countries around the world. What are the new technologies on the horizon available to satisfy the ever-growing need for energy? What are the impacts of new forms of energy on the environment? How do energy needs affect the worldwide economy? Are there new models of collaboration among universities, private industry and governments to find solutions to today’s challenges? These are among the questions that will be examined during USC’s Global Conference.

The Digital World
Jeffrey Cole, Ph.D.
Director, Center for the Digital Future, USC Annenberg School for Communication

Digital technologies frequently are heralded as solutions to everyday problems. But these same technologies, in turn, can create new and unanticipated challenges of their own. And just keeping up with new uses and future trends in changing applications and consumption of digital technologies are challenges in themselves. Conference speakers will explore the impact of new communication technologies on individuals, communities and societies around the world.

Join USC trustees, alumni, friends and business leaders from around the globe at the USC Global Conference.

For more information, visit the conference Web site.