VII General Assembly and Annual Conference (2008): Global Forum on Leadership for Shared Societies
The Global Forum in Rotterdam was a platform to bring the Shared Societies Project and its ideas to the attention of leaders and the wider public and a springboard to take the project to a new stage. The Club de Madrid’s 2008 Annual Conference was the setting for the two-day Forum. It was organised jointly with the City of Rotterdam (with additional funding from Madrid’s regional government - the Comunidad de Madrid).
As a city, Rotterdam is very diverse and faces many of the challenges of creating shared societies. It is a dynamic city and its government has demonstrated through many examples of policies and practices that it is possible to meet those challenges.
Rotterdam was also an ideal partner because as a city government it drew attention to the importance of local leadership in dealing with social divisions. Also, it had already hosted an important conference in 2006, “Integrating Cities,” in partnership with the European Commission and Eurocities. The additional fact that Rotterdam was at the time preparing to be the European City of Youth in 2009, and also was hosting the European Youth Forum at the same time as the Global Forum, made it possible to link the two. Social diversity is not only an issue for the older generation and as was noted during the Forum the younger generation is often the most ready to embrace diversity - but some of the younger generation are also the most openly hostile to people who are different.
The Forum and the Shared Societies Project highlighted what may be “the most important conversation of our time”—that of how to manage ethnic, cultural, religious and other identity differences while protecting and preserving human dignity.
The Forum sought to identify and share the motives, incentives and benefits that drive leaders to act for social cohesion and celebrate the commitment of leaders and communities working towards that goal. It also hoped to inspire other leaders and, to do so, identified policies and practices that reduce identity-based conflict and build shared futures where diversity is celebrated and is a resource towards achieving the economic and social betterment of all.