They are complex, multi-layered and rapidly changing: the world’s megacities. In the 1970s, the United Nations coined the term “megacity“ to describe urban areas with at least 8 million inhabitants. In the 1990s, this threshold was raised to 10 million, and the start of the 21st century saw the beginning of the “urban millennium.”

America still possesses both the military and economic capabilities to remain a superpower. Yet even a superpower such as the United States cannot shape the world according to its own beliefs nor can it control the world’s major actors. How will the world respond to this challenge?

The forum caters to young leaders between the age of 30 and 40 who already hold positions of responsibility and who, in accordance with our mission statement, “in their professional and personal lives, take into consideration the greater common good."

The 14th European Forum will focus on the topic of “Fit for the Future? –Europe’s Economy in a Changing World”. In a constantly changing world, Europe is increasingly coming under pressure. Is Europe’s economy prepared to meet the global competition of the 21st century? Are we ready for the future in the core sectors of energy, industry and finance, and which fields offer opportunities for future development?

There is a claim that the industrial era is coming to an end and that we have entered a new era of globalization – an era of knowledge, new technologies, high-speed communication, innovation and services. At the 13th Transatlantic Forum, which took place on June 26–29, 2008, the BMW Foundation brought together some forty young leaders from the United States, Canada and Germany to discuss and analyze with the conference’s distinguished speakers the implications of the ongoing globalization of the international worlds of work.

In its seventh year, the Munich Economic Summit once again brought together high-ranking representatives of European business, academia, politics and media. Entitled “Europe in the Global Competition for Talents,“ the conference was attended by a total of 140 participants from 21 countries of the EU and beyond. A detailed conference report highlights the Summit’s presentations and discussions.

Almost 30 renowned philosophers, urbanists, architects, sociologists, physicists, geographers, anthropologists and mathematicians from Europe, North- and South America as well as China and India gathered at Lake Tegernsee for the “BMW Foundation Initiative on Changing Behavior and Belief”. The conference was chaired by Richard Sennett, Academic Governor of the London School of Economics.

Upon the initiative of the Federal President, a series of three discussions on “Forms of Modernity – Views of Modernity” is organized in cooperation between the Office of the Federal President, the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, and the Event Forum of the Georg von Holtzbrinck Group.

Entitled “Mapping the Globalized Worlds of Work – The Emergence of a New Economic Landscape,“ this year’s Europe Asia Young Leaders Forum, co-organized with the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai and the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre in Singapore, took place in Seoul. Taking up our annual theme of the “Globalized Worlds of Work,“ the conference was dealing with the rise of Asia and examined the background, drivers and circumstances of this development.