PMFORUM Breaking News

North America West Coast Infrastructure Partnerships, a major conference related to Public Private Partnerships (P3) for major infrastructure projects will feature keynote addresses by California state leaders, international finance experts and executives from around the world of international infrastructure development. The conference will be held during 14-15 October 2008 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, California, USA.

The first major speaker announced for the event is David Crane (pictured), Special Advisor for Jobs and Economic Growth in the Office of the Governor of the State of California, will deliver the California Keynote on Tuesday, 14 October. Before joining the Schwarzenegger Administration, Crane was a partner for 25 years with Babcock & Brown, a global investment and advisory firm.

Mr. Crane will discuss "Opportunities for private sector partners in the delivery of public infrastructure in the State of California." His speech is expected to cover the following topics:

• Infrastructure vision – the future picture of California
• Projects, Pipelines, Plans – where we are and where we are going
• Tendering and procurement processes – details of project roll out
• Private sector – the roles of private parties and how to get involved

New public private partnership (P3) models for delivering public funding and private finance for delivering social and hard infrastructure are being developed and applied in the Western United States and in Canada and Mexico. From the Columbia River Crossing to the Oakland Port project, the west coast of North America is being transformed under these partnerships. With the British Columbia projects in Canada and Mexico border projects, West Coast North America is now a region of choice for global project finance. Organizations that want to learn about or participate in these big programs and projects should consider attending.

The North America West Coast Infrastructure Partnership conference in Los Angles will showcase opportunities for private sector organizations to get involved in public infrastructure projects across the Western USA, Canada and Mexico.

The 1.5 day conference will be held at the Los Angeles Four Seasons hotel. Organizers are PFI conferences, a division of Thomson Reuters. The conference will highlight current and ongoing opportunities for funding organizations, sponsors, contractors and project advisors. A major networking opportunity and the only regional conference of its kind this year, the PFI West Coast Infrastructure conference will be an important event for global and regional partnership professionals. For information, visit http://www.pficonferences.com/pfi_west_coast_2008/conference_home.aspx