Major metropolitan regions are now recognized as principal actors in determining international relationships and driving the new global economy. The Tri-State Metropolitan Region is the pre-eminent world center for intellectual value-added services — whether in finance, media, marketing, new product design or internet content.

In today’s highly competitive world, our future success will depend on our ability to maintain and build upon this position of strength. How will the fast moving, twenty-first century world of mobile businesses, footloose people and e-commerce shape the region as we head into a new century? What will it take for us to remain the center of world capital, communication and culture? Join us to find out what some of the most prominent figures in world finance and metropolitan affairs have to say on these important questions.

MAKING THE MOST OF OUR HUMAN RESOURCES
Empowerment Zones 2000, What Next in a Global Era?
The Empowerment Zone program was the public sector's most prominent urban development initiative in the 1990s. How successful has this effort been in linking the region's multi-ethnic, multi-cultural communities to the new global economy? What can we learn from this endeavor to shape a strategy that develops our neighborhood assets and helps all of the region's communities to thrive in a highly competitive environment?
Moderator: Maxine Griffith, Senior Fellow for Community Planning and Development, Regional Plan Association
Panelists: Fernando Ferrer, Bronx Borough President
Mark Willis, Senior Vice President, Chase Development Corp.

CREATING VITALITY THROUGHOUT A METROPOLITAN REGION
Satellite Cities as Emerging Centers
As metropolitan areas continue to expand, larger downtowns within the region are caught in a transitional state. At one level, they remain dependent on the "regional central business district" especially for international development. At another level, they have become magnet cities in their own right-central business districts for their own smaller regions, with their own gravitational pull and with all the problems that attend growth: traffic, transportation, environment and quality of life. This workshop will explore the limitations and the potential of a new dynamic relationship that is evolving between regional world capitals and the satellite cities that surround them.
Moderator: John Shapiro, Partner, Abeles Phillips Preiss and Shapiro
Panelists: David Anderson, President, Stamford Partnership
Andreas Faludi, University of Nijmegan, Holland
Michael Gallis, Principal, Michael Gallis & Associates

PROTECTING OUR NATURAL RESOURCES
Financing Public Improvements on the New York - New Jersey Harbor Waterfront
This region has lagged behind other world cities in developing its harbor waterfronts for public recreation and new commercial uses. In the last few years there has been a surge of public and private interest, but realizing these dreams will take considerable capital investment. Just repairing and protecting our piers from marine borers is estimated to cost more than one billion dollars. Leaders in the efforts to reinvent the waterfront will assess and help quantify the need for public investment to create and improve parks, protect habitat, meet community needs and facilitate mixed-use development along the Harbor's waterfront.
Moderator: Robert J. Pirani, Director of Environmental Programs, Regional Plan Association
Panelists: John Alschuler, President, Hamilton, Rabinowitz & Alschuler, Inc.
Leslie Lowe, Executive Director, Environmental Justice Alliance
Carolyn Summers, Co-Director, NY-NJ Harbor Bight Project, Natural Resources Defense Council

MOBILITY-THE KEY TO A WORLD-CLASS REGION
Transit in the 21st Century
The transit system in our region is one hundred years or older in some places, with even the newest parts of the subway network finished before the Second World War. Even as we think about expanding it to meet growing demand, 21st Century technologies are all around us that can make the experience of riding the existing system more attractive and reliable. Similarly, new ways of doing business are emerging that could make system expansion more likely and more affordable. Simultaneously, labor-management relations will be put to the test as they each will have to adapt to these new realities.
Moderator: Janette Sadik-Khan, Vice President, Parsons Brinckerhoff
Panelists: Michael P. Pracht, Vice President, Marketing & Business Development, Siemens Transportation Systems, Inc.
Other invitees include: Sonny Hall, International President, Transport Workers Union of America; and a representative from New York City Transit

MAKING THE MOST OF OUR HUMAN RESOURCES
Keeping the Region’s Creative People Working & Thriving
The arts and other creative industries are keys to the region's maintaining its economic edge in a global economy. Historically, the region has been a continual magnet for creative talent. How can we maintain our leadership as the center for cutting edge culture and new ideas? What should we be doing to respond to demographic and technological changes and increase dialogue between the profit and non-profit arts sectors? Currently, the region lacks a coherent policy for support of the cultural sector and its talent base. What can we do to change the present policy and investment deficit?
Moderator: Ted Berger, Executive Director, NY Foundation for the Arts
Panelists: Bill Aguado, Executive Director, Bronx Council on the Arts
Claudine Brown, Program Director for the Arts, Nathan Cummings Foundation
Barbara Russo, Assistant Commissioner for Cultural Affairs, State of New Jersey

CREATING VITALITY THROUGHOUT A METROPOLITAN REGION
Urban Manufacturing in the 21st Century World Capital
How should the world's capitals manage this essential part of a diversified urban economy? Rapid changes in the nature of urban manufacturing have raised new issues: the reuse and renewal of underutilized infrastructure; the accommodation of flexible networks of smaller producers who need to be physically and economically integrated into the urban economy; and the redefinition of "manufacturing" itself. This workshop will explore the planning, economic development and urban design dimensions of this issue, comparing experiences in New York City, Milan and other world capitals.
Moderator: Robert Lane, Director, Design Programs, Regional Plan Association
Panelists: Sara Garretson, President, Industrial Technology Assistance Corporation
Saskia Sassen, Professor, Department of Sociology and the College, University of Chicago
Elliott D. Sclar, Professor of Urban Planning, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation

PROTECTING OUR NATURAL RESOURCES
Financing Public Improvements on the New York - New Jersey Harbor Waterfront
Public and private sector experts will be asked to respond to the need for increased waterfront investment by identifying political, institutional and financial options that appear most likely to succeed. What are the potential sources of capital and operating funding? Can we link public access and habitat improvements to mandated capital investments in roads, ports and environmental quality? What is the right balance between private and public sector responsibility? What institutional mechanisms can be used to distribute funds equitably? The proceedings and panel discussion will be used by RPA in drafting a report on the options for New York and New Jersey.
Moderator: Albert Appleton, Senior Fellow, Infrastructure, Regional Plan Association
Panelists: Beth Benson, Executive Director, Waterfront Regeneration Trust (Toronto)
Paul Elston, Chair, Waterfront Parks Coalition and New York State League of Conservation Voters
Chris Ward, Chief of Planning & External Affairs, The Port Authority of NY & NJ

MOBILITY-THE KEY TO A WORLD-CLASS REGION
Road Pricing: Technology Makes it Possible; Road Congestion Makes it Necessary
In the past, the answer to road congestion was to build wider roads-and more of them. This is no longer possible. Traffic needs to be shifted to less popular times if we are to have any hope of relieving congestion. The region is the most heavily tolled in the nation, but to date we have not used this as an opportunity to manage traffic with market pricing. But EZ Pass makes it easy. Our society is filled with examples of services that vary prices by time. This panel will explore the possibilities for our region.
Moderator: Jeffrey Zupan, Senior Fellow, Transportation, Regional Plan Association
Panelists: Peter Samuel, Editor, Tollroads Newsletter
Patrick DeCorla-Souza, Team Leader for Highway Revenue & Pricing, Federal Highway Administration
Edward Gross, Executive Director, New Jersey Turnpike Authority
John R. Platt, Executive Director, New York State Thruway Association