Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce About Us

Competing in a Flat World

A sold-out crowd of 300 business, goverment and community leaders gathered October 5-7, 2005 for the Chamber's annual Regional Leadership Conference.

For the conference report, including a summary of presentations and key themes, click here

View Speaker Presentations

Breakout Session Reports

The conference focused on the thesis of Thomas Friedman's new book, The World is Flat, examining how we as a region can successfully meet the challenges of the new environment for global business. In a nutshell, Friedman's book concludes that we will need wake up to the fact that there is a fundamental shift happening in the way we do business. Everyone will need to improve themselves and be able to compete in the "flat world" and one global market. This is especially true for companies in the Puget Sound region and throughout Washington state.

The conference brought together some of the foremost experts on the forces flattening the world, and the emergence of significant competitors like China and India. Participants learned how other regions have successfully adapted to this convergence of technological and political forces with new business practices. And by linking the conference agenda to the workplans of the Prosperity Partnership and the Governor's Global Competitiveness Council, we gained insight into improving our own organizations, and a commitment to a regional competitiveness agenda and specific action plans.

View conference agenda

Thank you to our generous event sponsors:

Business benefits in a tight economy

2009 Chamber Profile