Mr. Bastian visited Atlanta last week to begin preparations for the conference that is to focus on best practices for innovation, education and workforce development, small business development and successful supply chain management for cities throughout the Americas.

“We want participation by the private sector, we want their ideas,” Mr. Bastian told GlobalAtlanta in an interview at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce on Jan. 31.

He added that the conference would provide a forum for companies to network with potential Latin American business partners.

Attendees are to include CEOs of companies from around the hemisphere, foreign government officials who have the authority to create new public policy programs and business executives interested in trade and collaboration opportunities. Ministers of commerce and education from countries in the Americas are also to be invited.

“We want to come out of Atlanta with plans for the next conference and ‘homework assignments’ for cities to work on to improve their innovation and future success,” Mr. Bastian said.

Cities will assess their level of academic achievement, the ease of registering trademarks and patents, the ease of moving products in and out of the city and other indicators of business innovation.

Companies are to present success stories of efficient and innovative business practices, and cities will share their ideas on how public and private support of education can lead to economic and social gains.

“The U.S. and Canada are not the only ones to know how [to cultivate innovative businesses], and we’re not saying we have all the answers because each country is different. We want to begin to get people in the hemisphere talking about new ways to capture the imagination and say ‘You can do it’,” Mr. Bastian said of the conference.

Speakers at the event are to include Internet co-inventor Vinton Cerf, Miami Herald columnist and Latin America expert Andres Oppenheimer and educator Ron Clark.

Atlanta was selected from among five cities, including Miami, to host the conference. Atlanta’s application, submitted in November, showed the commerce department the efficacy of the city’s public-private partnerships in fostering innovation, Mr. Bastian said.

“It is evident in Atlanta that a lot of innovation is driven by relationships between universities, the private sector and government support,” he said, referring to the commercialization of research coming out of local universities such as the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University.

Atlanta also ranks high in entrepreneurship and its number of Fortune 500 companies that have operations in Latin America. Plus, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has a large number of flights to Latin America, and the city has the logistical infrastructure to support large events, Mr. Bastian added.

The concept of holding a conference to improve the Western Hemisphere’s competitiveness vis-à-vis other world regions was sparked by recent World Bank and World Economic Forum reports suggesting that the Americas region is not economically advancing as quickly as other regions, due, in part, to barriers in starting and maintaining businesses.

President Bush suggested holding a hemisphere-wide conference to address these issues following the November 2005 Summit of the Americas held in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

For more information about the conference, visit www.trade.gov or write to acf@mail.doc.gov. Registration will be available online Feb. 15.