Global Washington 2011 conference gets underway

This year’s Global Washington conference, which celebrates Washington State’s global development sector, has got underway this morning. The conference, which runs today and tomorrow, has a packed agenda that will focus on the challenges facing global development work in the midst of rapid innovation, political instability and shifting global, regional and local priorities.

The event was kicked off this morning by Bookda Gheisa, executive director of Global Washington; Lori Harnick, general manager of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Microsoft; and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn.

You can follow the event on Twitter with the hashtag: #globalwa .

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During her opening comments Lori observed: “The Global Washington conference is a unique opportunity to gather Washington State’s global development sector together to both celebrate our efforts while challenging ourselves to find ways to continuously work with our resources and realities to bring about a better, fairer, and safer world. It’s about a wonderfully diverse sector including individuals, businesses, nonprofits, and academic institutions; sharing ideas, combining your expertise, and often working together in partnership to support the achievement of core development objectives such as disaster response, improved health, environmental sustainability, better education and youth empowerment, economic growth, and improved governance.“

The annual conference is an important milestone in Global Washington’s work to convene, strengthen, and advocate on behalf of the global development sector in the state. It combines high-caliber speakers who will provide valuable insight and the latest knowledge with an opportunity for people to meet and talk. Keynote speakers will include national experts on development’s role in the current geo-political climate and visionaries with innovative approaches to its most pressing challenges. The conference will also give select local organizations the opportunity to showcase their work and will provide all attendees with time to connect and collectively brainstorm solutions to problems.

You can find the conference agenda here and you can watch a live stream of the event here.

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Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn addressing the Global Washington conference this morning. You can watch a live stream of the event at: https://www.ustream.tv/channel/globalwa