Kateri Callahan Moderates Panel at Successful World Leadership Conference in Pittsburgh, Penn.

This morning I had the great honor of moderating an international panel at the World Leadership Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, hosted by the International Women’s Forum. Nearly 1,000 women from five continents gathered to share innovative ideas and solutions to the challenges posed by our ever-expanding world population, and the shrinking supply of resources on which it relies.

This morning’s panel, Sustainable Cities & Economies of the Future, featured a video-cast session introduction from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber, CEO of the Masdar Initiative, a ground-breaking new project in the UAE to build the first carbon-free, car-free and zero-waste city in the world. UAE is investing $22 billion to build a city for 40,000 residents, 50,000 workers/daily commuters and 15,000 businesses.

I was joined by on-stage panelists Sahar Attia, Principal of ACEGypt and Professor of Planning and Urban Design at Cairo University, and Gil Friend, President and CEO of Natural Logic. The audience of about 800 included mayors, academicians, NGO and business people, and we took questions from individuals from Cameroon to Connecticut.

I encourage you to discover more about the International Women’s Forum, a global association of women leaders representing diverse professions, geographic regions, cultures, ethnicities, traditions, market places and experiences. For me, the experience of sharing ideas and making connections with other thought-leaders from around the world was invaluable, as was the opportunity to moderate a panel of experts who are driving the movement toward energy-efficient and sustainable future.