"In search of the common sense - Leadership beyond the conflicts of interest" is the theme for the Tällberg Conversation in New York on April 11, 2008.

Conversations at Tällberg have for nearly three decades pointed towards the current systems crises: the confrontation between how we have chosen to construct and develop our political, economic, technological and social systems and the dynamics of the natural system. They are not in sync.

“Do we know what to do? Probably yes. Will we do it? Probably not.”

These were the sobering closing remarks of the Tällberg Forum 2007 last June, after several days of intense discussion on the theme “How on earth can we live together?” and the great transitions necessary to preserve and/or restore a sustainable balance between human activities and nature. The risk landscape has changed. This is, indeed, a practical challenge to all actors and all leaders. No one will go untouched. People, nations, investors and business alike will be affected.

Leaders will have to exercise a tough results-oriented humanistic leadership in order to forestall and minimize the coming clashes between local/national/sectorial interests and the long-term systems solutions to challenges such as equity, poverty, climate change, water, forests. There needs to be a new kind of leadership, a “nationless leadership”, based on reason and principles that can take us beyond the conflicts of interest.

We warmly invite you to join this Tällberg Conversation which offers you an opportunity to explore what new responsibilities leadership will have to assume and how the new insights can be applied when acting in the interests of the whole. This is not a meeting to discuss any prepared theories, but an explorative conversation in search of new insights.

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(download in pdf format)

Part I. Tällberg Conversation
In search of the common sense - Leadership beyond the conflicts of interest

Location:
Scandinavia House, Volvo Hall, 58 Park Avenue (between 37th and 38th Streets)
New York, NY 10016

2.30 - 2.45 p.m.
Arrivals and check-in

3:00 p.m.
Welcome

• Welcome by Edward P. Gallagher, President, American-Scandinavian Foundation, New York
• Ulf Hjertonsson, Ambassador, Consul General of Sweden in New York

In search of the common sense

• Bo Ekman, Chairman, Tällberg Foundation
  
• Jim Wine, Tällberg Foundation 
  

3:30 p.m.    
To foresee and to forestall - responsibilities that leadership must assume

• James Hansen, Director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
• Nayan Chanda, Author and Editor of Yale Global Online, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
• Sharon Hom, Executive Director, Human Rights in China 
  
• Franziska Seel, Executive Director, Global Youth Action Network   
  

4.30 p.m.    
Moderated roundtable discussions

• Introduced by Carl Mossfeldt, Project Director, Tällberg Forum

    
5.30 p.m.    
Concluding reflections

• Anders Wijkman, Member of the European Parliament and Vice Chairman of the Tällberg Foundation
• Michael Maccoby, President, The Maccoby Group
• Closing by Bo Ekman     
  

6.00 p.m.     
Session concludes, bus departs for Consul General's Residence

Part II. Reception

Location:
Consul General’s Residence, Park Avenue (separate invitations will be sent following your registration)

6.30 p.m. - 8.30 p.m.
Reception hosted by Ambassador Ulf Hjertonsson, Consul General of Sweden in New York

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This Tällberg Conversation in New York is part of the preparations for the Tällberg Forum 2008, entitled “How on Earth can we live together? In search of the Common Sense.” Leaders and thinkers from seventy nations will gather in Sweden for four days of conversations and workshops related to the opportunities and challenges of global interdependence. Tällberg conversations have increasingly focused on the systems problems emerging from the growing imbalance between nature and human activity. Can we design, govern and manage the sustainable interaction between natural systems and the systems of human activity? The Forum aims to generate concrete ideas and proposals for policy, strategy and institutional development that work in the interests of the whole.