The National Economic Forum on Early Childhood Investment:
The Annual Conference for the
Partnership for America's Economic Success

July 9, 2008 (dinner and reception)
Capital Hilton
1001 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036

July 10, 2008 (all day)
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
1615 H Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20062

The Partnership for America's Economic Success held its fourth national conference in Washington, DC on July 9 and 10. The conference marked the release of new data on the economic returns of proven investments in young children and showcased business leadership in making children an economic priority.

Speakers

Below is a list of confirmed speakers.

The Honorable Sherrod Brown, United States Senator (D-OH)

Peter G. Peterson, Senior Chairman and Co-founder, The Blackstone Group and Founder and Chairman, The Peter G. Peterson Foundation 

Rebecca Rimel, President and CEO, The Pew Charitable Trusts

Arthur Rothkopf, Senior Vice President, United States Chamber of Commerce

Robert Dugger, Managing Director, Tudor Investment Corporation

J.B. Pritzker, Managing Partner, The Pritzker Group and President, Pritzker Family Foundation

Thomas McDevitt, President and Publisher, The Washington Times

Steven E. Leahy, President and CEO, Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce

Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning Columnist, Cleveland Plain Dealer and Author, "...And His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man"

Robert D. Powers, President, The Eufaula Agency, Inc. and Chairman, Education and Workforce Development Committee, Business Council of Alabama

Dana Connors, President, Maine State Chamber of Commerce

Dave Curry, President, Kiwanis International

Elliot Regenstein, Partner, Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough and Former Director of Education Reform for Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich

David Lawrence, Jr., President, Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and Former Publisher, Miami Herald

Steven W. Lynn, Vice President, UniSource Energy Corporation and Tucson Electric Power Company 

Lawrence McAndrews, President and CEO, National Association of Children's Hospitals

Rob Grunewald, Associate Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Joseph F. Hagan, Jr., MD, FAAP, Co-editor, The Bright Futures Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children and Adolescents, American Academy of Pediatrics

Maya MacGuineas, President, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Director, Fiscal Policy, New America Foundation

Dina Lieser, MD, FAAP, Executive Director, Docs For Tots

Greg Duncan, Edwina S. Tarry Professor, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University

Colleen Chapman, Vice President, Spitfire Strategies

Laura Lee Simon, Chair Emerita, Connecticut Commission on Children and Past Chair and Trustee Emerita, Connecticut Public Broadcasting

Geoffrey Nagle, Director, Institute for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Tulane University School of Medicine

Jesse Leinfelder, Director, Quality Counts, The Children's Trust

Liana Humphrey, Senior Program Manager, Corporation for Enterprise Development

Elaine Zimmerman, Executive Director, Connecticut Commission on Children 

Workshop Sessions

The conference also featured workshops to help local business leaders and advocates learn how to partner to advance the message that children's healthy development is essential to the nation's fiscal future. Workshop topics included:

Working with local affiliates of national business organizations

Effective communication strategies to use the economic message

Supporting governors to use the economic data to champion investments in children

Collaborating with the health care industry

Innovative financing methods to fund early childhood programs

Presentations and Audio Recordings

Welcome: New developments in using the economic message (Audio)
Robert Dugger (Presentation)
Rebecca Rimel
Arthur RothKopf

"America's Future and Some Undeniable, Unsustainable and Untouchable Long Term Threats" (Audio)
David Walker
Peter G. Peterson (Speech notes)

"Business Leadership to Make Children America's Top Priority" (Audio)
Steven E. Leahy
J.B. Pritzker (Presentation)

New evidence (Audio - Fisher and Duncan only)
The Honorable Lee Fisher
Greg Duncan (Presentation)
Joydeep Roy (Presentation)
Maya MacGuineas (Presentation)

"The Business Case for Investing in Early Childhood" (Audio)
William Bentley
Thomas P. McDevitt

Innovative financing methods to fund investments in children (Audio)
Rob Grunewald (Presentation)
Geoffrey Nagle (Presentation)
Jesse Leinfelder (Presentation)
Liana Humphrey (Presentation)

Effective communications strategies to use the economic message (Audio not available)
Colleen Chapman (Presentation)

Governors as economic champions for children (Audio not available)
Elliot Regenstein (Presentation)

Engaging the healthcare industry to advocate for investments in children (Audio not available)
Joseph F. Hagan, Jr. (Presentation)
Dina Lieser (Presentation)

Next steps (Audio not available)
Robert Dugger (Presentation)

If you would like any of the above presentations in PowerPoint format, please contact us at info@readynation.org.

Media Coverage

Press Release: Partnership for America's Economic Success Explores Economic Downturn and Effects of Housing Crisis on Young Children at Annual Conference (July 8, 2008)

Rebecca Rimel and Rob Dugger. "Investing in the Young." THe Washington Times. July 7 2008.