The Italian Trade Commission Chicago Office will be present at the World Business Forum 2007 through its promotional campaign Machines Italia, conducted in conjunction with 14 leading Italian capital goods industrial machinery manufacturers associations.

The World Business Forum is the leading international symposium for the business community. Over two days, discover the latest trends that will define the business landscape and network with the most distinguished business executives from around the world. The Italian Trade Commission chose the Forum as it embodies one of the most important elements of the campaign’s message - Network Innovation.

A “Who’s Who” list of speakers will address the following topics:

TONY BLAIR, former British Prime Minister - Challenge of Change
JIM COLLINS, author of the bestseller “From Good to Great” - Good to Great
COLIN POWELL, former Secretary of State - Dialogue: U.S. & the World
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, former Secretary of State - Dialogue: U.S. & the World
JACK WELCH, former CEO of General Electric - Leading Successful Organizations
MICHAEL PORTER, internationally renowned strategist - Strategy
RUDY GIULIANI, former Mayor of New York City - US 2008: Politics & Business in Context
MARCUS BUCKINGHAM, author of bestseller “First Break All the Rules - High Performance
MUHAMMAD YUNUS, 2006 Nobel Prize Winner - Global Development
JOHN CHAMBERS, chairman & CEO of Cisco Systems - Innovation, Vision, & Growth
DAVID RUBENSTEIN, founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group - Private Equity & Value Creation
BILL GEORGE, former CEO of Medtronic - Leadership
TERRY LEAHY, CEO of Tesco - Driving Customer Value
JEFF KINDLER, CEO of Pfizer - Leading Change

Machines Italia will sponsor an exclusive C-Level luncheon on the first day of the Forum (September 23^rd) at New York’s prestigious 21 Club entitled "Manufacturing Strategies for Global Competition: Turning Innovation into Productivity".

The speaker for the luncheon is Dr. Alberto Sacchi, President of FEDERMACCHINE, Italian National Federation of Associations of Manufacturers of Capital Goods. He will part of a moderated session with leading journalists and attendees comprised of top-C level international executives from all areas of manufacturing; on the directions and strategies manufacturing is taking to maintain their competitiveness in ever-changing global markets. The President of the Italian Trade Commission, Honorable Umberto Vattani, and Mr. Michael Porter, noted international strategist, will also address the luncheon.

Machines Italia will be present at the Forum with an exhibition booth promoting all 14 sectors of the campaign and their respective associations. Representatives from partner Italian machinery manufacturers associations, Invest in Italy, Italian Bio-Technologies and Machines Italia North American offices will be on hand to provide information to the 5,000 plus attendees – all Top C-Level executives.

As a sponsor of the World Business Forum New York 2008, Machines Italia has published the latest edition of its magazine, Machines Italia. The magazine already distributed to over 20,000 North American companies illustrates how Italian solution providers and U.S. companies are taking "Network Innovation" to new levels of productivity and success.

The U.S. Department of Commerce in 2007 ranked Italy as one of its top ten solution providers of Industrial Machinery (Code 84) with over $ 7 Billion USD ($ 7,041,640,000) reported.

More information on the World Business Forum is available at www.wbfny.com

The Machines Italia 2008 edition – distributed to all attendees will be available for download at the Machines Italia U.S. Section’s Media Center prior to the Forum.

Contact the Italian Trade Commission Chicago Office at 888-ITALTRADE or if outside the U.S. and Canada at 001.312.670.4360 or e-mail info@italtradeusa.com for more information on this and other upcoming Machines Italia initiatives.