The eG8 Forum in Paris, a “Première” for the G8 meeting.

Today, there are 2 relevant events taking place in Paris and touching interesting Public Policy issues.

The first one is the well-known eG8 Forum, a key event previous to the G8 meeting of the world´s richest 8 countries, leaded by the Presidency of this year, France. The G8 heads of states will meet in Deauville the next 26-27 May.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has settled the eG8 Forum as a way for the Internet and ICT industry to interact with world leaders.

This is the first time an event as such is organised before an economic international summit, but this also gives an idea of the relevance of this sector for the future of the strongest economies worldwide and also for the rest.

Here are the key facts about the event:

• The eG8 Forum is organised and chaired by the private French company Publicis Groupe.
• The meeting will take place at “le Jardin des Tuileries”, at the heart of Paris, during 2 days, the 24-25 May.
• Some 600 relevant actors of the digital economy worldwide are expected, even from outside the G8 countries, like China or India. Amongst them, top CEOs of operators, manufacturers but also content providers will be there such as Facebook, Google, Amazon or Wikipedia
• President Sarkozy will open the forum on May 24, 2011, with a formal address and also take questions from the audience.
• The main issue is “Accelerating Growth” but there will be also other topics raised such as the future of internet business, current and future disruptive technologies, the Internet and human rights and the Internet and privacy challenges.
• The main focus of the event will be the Internet impact on economy and society notably via economic growth, job creation, value creation, and the transformation and modernization of traditional professions and industries through technological shifts. MacKinsey cabinet will also present its study on “Internet impact on the French Economy” already announced and launched in March this year.
• The G8 Heads of State and Government meeting in Deauville will receive the inputs from the e-G8 Forum’s proceedings. Furthermore, a group of Forum participants will attend the G8 to share their thoughts on the subjects related to the Internet and information/communication technologies.

You can access to the whole programme here or get more information about the event here.

It is going to be an amazing event that you could follow through:

• Twitter (Twitter hashtag: #eg8 )
• Or even directly (they announced that sessions will be streamed live, and video highlights from each day will be posted in the website) through: www.eg8forum.com

Do you think this initiative will be useful for the economy recovery worldwide? What do you think the main outcomes of this event will be?