General McChrystal to Address Leadership at Daily Beast Innovators Summit

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Sep 14, 2010, 10:40 ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Daily Beast editor-in-chief Tina Brown and president Stephen Colvin, together with HP and HBO, today announced their first annual Innovators Summit: Reboot America! to take place from Oct. 21 to 23 in New Orleans. The summit will present new ideas to rekindle the country's sliding job market in the aftermath of the economic crisis as we confront surging global competition.

General Stanley McChrystal will be a featured speaker at the summit, where he will address the importance of leadership, driving change, and revitalizing group participation.

"New Orleans is an inspiring example of America's spirit and resilience," said Brown. "The jobless recovery has become so serious that The Daily Beast has invited the most creative minds from the worlds of business, politics, philanthropy, media, and the arts to offer solutions to how we can nourish innovation, kick-start job growth, and restore this country's competitive edge. It will be an exciting two days of energetic exchange."

"We are thrilled to be a founding partner of this timely event in the great city of New Orleans," said Michael Mendenhall, HP's chief marketing officer. "At HP, we are innovating at every information touch point to change the equation and find a better answer for people, businesses, and the world. Working together, we can create a sustainable economy."

Gen. McChrystal said: "Of all the resources America can and must bring to bear in meeting the challenges of today -- and tomorrow -- leadership is the most important. We must take every opportunity to develop and support leaders who are focused, without ego, and fearless. The Innovators Summit provides us a great opportunity to talk about what we can all do."

The summit will open with a candid update on the progress of New Orleans over the last few years by Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu, followed by a discussion with filmmaker Spike Lee and the acclaimed writer of HBO's The Wire and Treme, David Simon, about the role culture has played in the city's recovery. Music will be contributed by the musicians featured in Treme. The summit will also feature Echoing Green, an organization devoted to supporting social entrepreneurship, who will present bold, new solutions to innovation.

"HBO is proud to join The Daily Beast in presenting Reboot America! to share in this important dialogue," said Richard Plepler, co-president of HBO. "Our programming has a history of exploring many of the key issues facing New Orleans, and David Simon's Treme has powerfully highlighted post-Katrina life in this resilient city. We look forward to participating in the summit's discussion about some of the biggest challenges the nation is facing."

Mayor Landrieu stressed the importance of the Innovators Summit: "Post-Katrina New Orleans has been an incubator for innovation and an effective model for social change. Only with innovation will this country be able to create sustainable solutions to America's most complex and pressing problems, so we are especially pleased to welcome the world's best thinkers, entrepreneurs, and innovators to our city for The Daily Beast Innovators Summit."

Confirmed participants and guests at the summit include: Ken Auletta, Prith Banerjee, Peter Beinart, Jeffrey Bewkes, Sheila Bair, Cory Booker, Marie Brenner, Steven Brill, James Carville, Robin Chase, Barry Diller, Jack Dorsey, Sergio Fajardo, Niall Ferguson, John Fetterman, Harold Ford Jr., Theodore Forstmann, Leslie Gelb, Bianna Golodryga, Robert Hormats, Glenn Hutchins, Joel Hyatt, David Kennedy, Vinod Khosla, Joel Klein, Marc Koska, Spike Lee, Susan Lyne, Ron Meyer, Dambisa Moyo, David Neeleman, Peggy Noonan, Peter Orszag, Maureen Orth, Sam Pitroda, Michael Polsky, Steven Rattner, Michelle Rhee, Connie Rice, Shane Robison, Nouriel Roubini, Neeraj Roy, Bob Schieffer, Lori Senecal, Dan Senor, David Simon, Ralph Simon, Joseph Stiglitz, Tarun Tejpal, Shashi Tharoor, Frances Townsend, Andrea Wong, Jochen Zeitz, and many more.