Tour to the Conference on Competitiveness, Atlanta, Georgia

June 10-13, 2007, Atlanta, Georgia
Contact: Washington Foreign Press Center Program Office Christopher Teal
Telephone: 202-504-6354; Email: tealcl@state.gov

The Washington Foreign Press Center led journalists from Honduras, Argentina, Nicaragua, Brazil and China on a tour to Atlanta, Georgia during the week of June 10th to cover the Department of Commerce hosted Competitiveness Conference.  The Forum, an outgrowth of the 2005 Summit of the Americas, provided a venue for government ministers from the Western Hemisphere to come together with leaders from the private sector, academia, and non-governmental organizations, to explore cutting edge ideas and best practices in several key areas of business competitiveness.

In addition to their covering the sessions over two days, the reports held press conferences with Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, exclusive roundtables with economist Hernando de Sote, Alex Mejia of CIFAL (co-sponsor of the event), and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.  They also met with officials from Delta Airlines, CNN en Espanol, and faculty and students at Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business.