You don't want to miss out on this year's magnificent meeting - so please take a moment to register as soon as possible to ensure a spot in Washington DC from October 26-29! Remember, registration closes this Friday, September 2nd. To register, please refer to the original invitation email sent in early July ("Join your G50 friends in Washington, DC: Registration for the XXIII Annual Meeting is now open"). Registration for our concurrent sessions will be opening soon! Stay tuned!

From the first man to simultaneously hold an executive and residential position at the White House to a world-renowned futurist, here are some of the new additions to this year's agenda. Don't miss out on the amazing opportunity to learn from them at our XXIII Annual Meeting. 

A year and a half after he stepped down as the defacto Obama administration food czar — Sam Kass joined senior food and agriculture reporter Helena Bottemiller Evich for a wide-ranging discussion on food policy at a breakfast hosted by POLITICO Pro in Washington, D.C. Kass, who has been busy working with the private sector, took questions covering everything from FDA’s recently released salt reduction targets to GMO labeling and what the first lady plans to do after the White House. Read the interview.

Nicholas Carr, the world's most acclaimed writer on technology and culture explains how social media is turning out to be more encompassing and controlling, and more totalizing, than earlier media ever was. Read More...

Last month, Alan Murray was named Time Inc.'s Chief Content Officer after being Fortune Magazine's Editor in Chief for two years. USA Today talks to him about his new job and how his first month has come along. Read the whole interview. 

In a recent announcement, PepsiCo elected Darren Walker into their board of directors as an independent member. "Darren's unique understanding of business and social issues has made him a respected leader across sectors for more than two decades," said PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. "His insight into the role of business in society will be particularly valuable as we continue to drive our Performance with Purpose agenda and pursue strategies to drive sustainable long-term growth." Read the announcement. 

"Many of us are in a state of shock as social media enables the rise of political figures who we could never imagine as viable presidential candidates, software eats people’s jobs (according to some), massive data leaks allow loosely organized networks of journalists to uncover stories of global crime and corruption, and surveys consistently point to the loss of trust in most institutions across the globe" Read Marina Gorbis' insight into the future.

During the Democratic National Convention, Jim Messina, Obama's 2012 campaign strategist, sat down with Charlie Rose to give his input on the 2016 presidential elections. The big takeaway: social media matters. "Over 80 per cent of swing voters only get their information from social media." Watch the interview.  

Rosa Brooks' new book "How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything" is out and the reviews are in. Brooks shines in this anecdotal and academic book about her time at the Pentagon and her thoughts on war today. The New York Times believes her to be "psychic" and  expresses admiration as her book "is written in impressive and fascinating detail".  Read the NYT Review.

In a surprise announcement in early August, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said he is stepping down on September 1 to pursue new opportunities in law enforcement. This is his second time around as head of the nation's largest police force. Under his watch, crime rates in New York have come down. But his force, like many others in the country, has also come under scrutiny. Listen to his interview with NPR

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Mexico's richest man, Carlos Slim, advocated for three-day work weeks. Among various reasons, he believes that "the quality of life and having four days a week free would encourage a lot of economic activities—more tourism, entertainment, sports, culture, and education." Read the whole interview. 

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman speaks to Moisés Naím about the global issues that have defined his career. Why is the Middle East so dysfunctional? Is Obama failing? Will robots replace workers, from cab drivers to New York Times columnists? Watch the interview. 

During a podcast in late August, David Rubenstein expressed optimism about the U.S. economy. "Right now I'm excited about the fact that after the great recession, the US came back in a reasonably good shape. It wasn't perfect, but we're now in a situation where the US economy is doing better than any other developed economy in the world." Read More... 
 

The #HOPE social media awareness campaign began soon after Darren Walker heard about the shooting in Baton Rouge and was asked about philanthropy's role in the issue.  "Part of the concern was that there was silence from philanthropy on the issue and that was really unfortunate. We wanted to give voice to a collective concern that we all have in philanthropy about what’s happening in our country." he said.   Read more about the campaign.

As Obama's 2008 campaign guru, David Plouffe knows a thing or two about what it takes to win an election. In a recent "Playbook Interview" with Politico, he mentioned a few reasons as to why Clinton is favored to win. Read the interview.

"Maybe I just missed it. But in all the testimonials at the Democratic convention about what Hillary Clinton has done for other people, I don't recall anyone saying, "I started a business because of Hillary Clinton." Or, "I hired someone because of Hillary Clinton." Read Tom Friedman's latest column. 

Her new book, "How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything" is out and Rosa Brooks is the talk of the town. Brooks talks to Kathy Gilsinan from The Atlantic about her tenure at the Pentagon and the blurred lines in today's concept of war. Read the whole interview. 

David Wessel of the Brookings Institution’s Hutchins Center writes about the new game being played by thousands of people around the country. The Fiscal Ship, the new initiative of the Brookings Institution and the Woodrow Wilson Center, is a free game online at www.fiscalship.org. Players choose their own governing goals, such as “reduce inequality” or “shrink government,” and then pick from a wide variety of options on taxes and spending to achieve their goals and put the federal debt on a sustainable trajectory over the next 25 years. Read more about the game. 

In the short time since Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim launched Aprende.org., the free online educational application aimed at expanding opportunities to anyone with a Smartphone and an internet connection, it has already shown its potential: 506,000 students in 147 countries have enrolled in more than one million online courses. Read More...

As he reaches the end of his tenure, Bill Bratton is fighting one of his career's biggest challenges: the mistrust between police officers and New York City minority communities. Read more about how he is trying to bridge this gap.